It could also be argued that the union campaign might have incidentally benefited the Liberal Democrats, who spent paltry sums compared with the two main parties.
Bank of America, which has already shelled out $40bn in clean-up costs for its acquisition of Countrywide, made a paltry $4.2bn in net income last year: one-fifth of the income of JP Morgan.
Maike Currie, associate investment director at Fidelity Personal Investing, said that while removing the income tax on interest earned on cash "makes for a great headline", it would do little for cash savers who had to contend with paltry rates.
After 30 hours of racing over six days we were separated by a paltry three minutes.
"Coming out here [New Orleans] in 1998, talking to clients and seeing the paltry resources given to their cases was terrible," he said then.
The enormity of the second leg was evident when 19,962 supporters crammed into the two sides of Molineux that were open - the corresponding league fixture in February had seen a paltry 3,357 turn up - yet for the majority of the crowd it would be a night of despair.
Patterson earned more than twice as much as the second-placed author on Forbes's list, Danielle Steel, whose romance novels brought her a comparatively paltry $35m over the period.
The company defended the paltry 1.3% price reduction claiming that the vast majority of gas EDF bought for its customers was purchased well in advance and at higher prices.
Despite a furore at the Venice film festival, Fight Club opened with just a paltry $12m.
Britain's Electro Velvet secured a paltry five points for their song, Still in Love with You, on a night also notable for the first appearance of Australia, a wildcard entry to mark the show's 60th incarnation.
Latino/Hispanic nominees total just 19 since the awards started, while Asian nods come to the paltry total of nine.
