Shame really, given that, according to Merryn Somerset Webb of The Financial Times, “81 percent of women are stupid”, even I might have got lucky if I’d hung around for long enough:

Iget a lot of irritating press releases. This week’s worst came from one of the personal finance websites and announced that “women are noticeably more brave than men as house prices drop”. Apparently, 81 per cent of women questioned said that they would “consider buying a house in the current environment” whereas a mere 30 per cent of men would do the same. The irritating bit? The use of the word “brave”.

This is an environment in which the prices of houses sold at auction—the only place where prices are really clear—have fallen 23 per cent in the last year; one in which the number of new mortgage approvals constantly hits new lows; in which mortgage offers to those without a 20 per cent deposit and a proper income have all but dried up; in which real incomes are falling and unemployment is rising; and one in which there is a consensus (among all but those running property investment companies) that prices have a good 10-15 per cent still to fall.

If I had written the press release I would have replaced the word “brave” with “stupid”. And I’d do the same all over the financial press.