The 16 per cent fall in Japanese share prices immediately after the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country is severe – but a nation that has seen its stockmarket fall 78 per cent from its peak will cope. Just as it will cope with the natural disasters and the ensuing nuclear power crisis.
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Why is Shell paying nearly £10m to settle claims of human rights abuse in Nigeria if it is not guilty? Because it is cheaper to pay up than fight on – even if it encourages further claims.
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Farming depends on subsidies – even wind farms. The world’s biggest wind farm is to be built in the Thames Estuary - not because it makes economic sense but because taxpayers will pay its losses.
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Companies did not cause the winter’s snowfall, so why must they pay the wages of people who could not get into work – nevermind those who chose not to come in?  Business is the paymaster of first and last resort.
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If the global recession has done one thing it is to puncture the fad for drinking bottled water. Consumers in developed countries have rediscovered the tap.
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With public finances collapsing, the chancellor may think this the last time to give away money. But it is because tax revenues are falling that he can afford to waive the taxes he is not receiving anyway.

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Once companies gave money to the Conservative party as freely as trade unions funded Labour. But whereas workers could opt out of their political donation, investors’ only choice was to vote out the motion at the annual meeting or to sell out of the shares.

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Alistair Darling has been forced to scrap his proposals of taxing foreign profits but the problem has not gone away. The probability now is that the chancellor is so dizzy from performing U-turns he chooses to sit back and do nothing.

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Booms permit excesses and one of the luxuries we adopted when the economy was growing rapidly was to adopt a social agenda that ranged from corporate responsibility to green projects. It may have been fun while it lasted but now that belts are being tightened, these should be the first luxuries to go.

Even if these were genuine good causes, they rely on a sound economic base to pay for them. And if we do not shore up the financial foundations – corporate and national – now, there will nothing on which to resume building these projects in future.

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