It was Christmas Day and I’d just sat down to some mindless TV having scoffed loads of food.  And there I was transported back to my childhood - all those adverts for summer holidays on the screen - I remember them well. But then there was something new - a bank announcing a sale, and then another, and another.  Banks and sales - I thought, “There’s something funny going on here.” And when you think about it, it really is quite bizzare - how can money be cheap, how can it be worth any less than what it intrinsically is?  Of course the answer is that it isn’t, it’s just that when we don’t have any, the banks lend it to us for more than it’s worth.  So is a sale just the time when they rip us off slightly less than they did before? And you might say well it’s not a rip off because it’s their money and we should pay for the service.  But this is where it all gets dodgy, because it’s not all their money - banks are allowed to lend more than they have - it’s called leverage.  So they lend you something that they haven’t got and charge you for it. Sounds like the Emperors New Clothes to me.