As a new decade begins, analysts and strategists at investment banks around the world are making their predictions for 2020 and for the decade ahead. These are sometimes interesting, occasionally amusing – but it is often wiser to pay attention to what these firms are actually doing, rather than what they are saying.

Morgan Stanley is cutting staff.

News broke in December of 1,500 job losses across its businesses, a proportion being in technology and operational support. It doesn’t seem like a big story. It appears that no particular geography or business line has been picked out for retrenchment. It does sound like a lot of people. But then Morgan Stanley has roughly 60,000 employees and it didn’t even bother to make an official comment on reports it might be cutting just under 2% of its workforce.