There’s nothing worse than an “in yer face” approach to business offers and opportunities. Even in America, where a more bullish way of business has been prevalent since the early 20th century, a nuanced style is appreciated, especially if it’s intelligent and intelligible.

In a New York Times article headed, “I Have a Nightmare”, Nicholas D. Kristof lamented the “death of environmentalism” in America. It has passed on, he suggests, because it’s now “empty of nuance”.

Nuance? Do we need it? Hasn’t it all but disappeared from modern culture? Wouldn’t “red in tooth and claw” be a better way to get noticed? Isn’t nuance the last resort of the terminally confused?

On the contrary, I believe the nuance factor defines our writing and thinking much more than how we handle the big slab issues. In many ways it’s the essence of crafted writing, which, at its best, reflects a well-stocked mind and a subtle, receptive soul.

Nuance is the backbone of every powerful statement.The art of creative authorship lies in how we deal with nuances and how we make them interesting. Shades of meaning and complexity show that we can appreciate points of view other than our own.

The great writers manage to make complexity simple. They keep the thread moving on while allowing the loom of their creativity to weave a tapestry along its flanks. Nuance is often the missing link between the truth and political statements.

Nuance is more than ever needed in finance, business and indeed, all life.

Do you have a portfolio of sinking stock and shares? You are not alone. Financial assets have been depressed for the past five years and not only in the Eurozone.

However, financial journalist Matt Krantz of USA Today has an ingenious solution. He recommends selling poorly performing stocks and shares to pay off pressing credit card debts.

For example, if you are paying 15% annual interest rates on credit card debt, the double whammy can seem like a no-win situation.

Matt Krantz suggests that you should “strongly consider liquidating a big piece of your non-retirement portfolios to pay down your credit card debts”.

This translates as a guaranteed 15% annual return.

Moreover, “a 15% guaranteed return by repaying debt is just about the closest thing to a home run you’re going to find in this market”.

Great advice which many of us had probably not thought of.

There’s a lot of chatter about, not least in government circles, that banks are not lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which are the main job creators in the British economy.

Banks are currently in an invidious position. They are being prodded to lend more, while simultaneously adding billions to their capital reserves. Non-expert ministers and MPs, such as Vince Cable, imagine that because a couple of banks received public money as a bailout, they are duty bound to risk yet more in a very uncertain marketplace.

What then are the facts for a bank like HSBC, one of the world’s largest:

So what are the facts? HSBC’s new small business lending was up 38 per cent in the first half; across all top banks and all small firms, the amount of new lending is down on 2009, at £520m per month, just enough to match repayments and defaults. Why? Demand for credit has dropped. Uncertainty means firms are trying to reduce their debt; small firms hold a record £56bn on deposit. HSBC’s corporate overdraft utilisation rate has fallen to 42 per cent, from 44 per cent: facilities are not being used. Rates are neither ultra-cheap nor extortionate: small corporate borrowers are not usually being priced out.

The supply of credit has also diminished. Banks have rightly become more realistic when assessing projects in a low-growth environment. Some lenders have quit the market. The remaining ones have been told to put more money aside (boosting capital), to shrink balance sheets, and to borrow less on the wholesale markets (a problem given that low saving rates have forced many banks to rely on money markets to fund new loans).

It’s not rocket science. Perhaps the Lib Dem contingent in the Coalition Government will have less to say on the matter in future.

Quote: City AM

The UK is fortunate that Tony Blair didn’t get his way on abolishing the pound.

Why? Morgan Kelly, Professor of Economics at University College Dublin, believes that Ireland — which did join the euro — is “no longer a sovereign nation in any meaningful sense of that term.”

Writing in the Irish Times, he says: “By next year Ireland will have run out of cash, and the terms of a formal bailout will have to be agreed. Our bill will be totted up and presented to us, along with terms for repayment. On these terms hangs our future as a nation. … Sovereign nations get to make policy choices, and we are no longer a sovereign nation in any meaningful sense of that term.”

The country is thought to be close to losing its access to international debt markets. Jens Peter Soerensen, Chief Analyst at Danske Bank, a primary dealer in Irish government bonds, has said that “It’s close to a buyers’ strike at this point.”

Open Europe reports that EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn will arrive in Dublin later today to hold meetings with Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan and the opposition parties to discuss the government’s proposed budget cuts for 2011.

Ireland’s already eye-watering austerity measures have seen the loss of 20% of its economy, while its banking sector remains mired in bad debt and inadequate capital resources.

Membership of the euro currency zone is hampering government efforts to deal with the crisis by preventing a devaluation, which would make exports more competitive in international markets.

A classic Irving Fisher debt-deflationary spiral is underway with tragic consequences for the Emerald Isle.

The UK’s Coalition Government has already signed up to a triple EU regulatory regime for the City of London. It would do well to hang onto as much autonomy as it can. If leaving the EU is not on the agenda, a refusal to be bossed about by Brussels is the next best option.

This article first appeared in our sister publication Devon & Cornwall Online.