In a week that is seeing the Republican Party turn the USA into the largest example of state capitalism in the western world, one might have thought that there could be no more surprises.
How wrong one can be. Last week also witnessed a competing event – the publication by the Grauniad of a slim volume entitled "The Guardian Book of English Language", including advice on common spelling errors.
Another defining moment of post modernist inory?
Monday, 29 September 2008
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Where is James Crosby now?
Yesterday's fools are today's sages.
LloydsTSB were castigated in 2006 for not making their capital work hard enough, and were thought in January of that year to be about to receive a takeover offer from BBVA, Wells Fargo or Bank of America - or possibly all three.
But now staid institutions with robust balance sheets are being courted by world statesmen.
Maybe, to mangle one's aphorisms completely, schadenfreude is a dish best eaten cold.
Should we be reassured that James Crosby has joined Alan Greenspan's panel of car crash investigators? Maybe they should also enlist the help of Hank Greenberg, Richard Fuld and Adam Applegarth.
I suggest a visit to Dr Johnson's House will be in order later in the month - both to straighten out the aphorisms and also to ingest some renewed sagacity.
LloydsTSB were castigated in 2006 for not making their capital work hard enough, and were thought in January of that year to be about to receive a takeover offer from BBVA, Wells Fargo or Bank of America - or possibly all three.
But now staid institutions with robust balance sheets are being courted by world statesmen.
Maybe, to mangle one's aphorisms completely, schadenfreude is a dish best eaten cold.
Should we be reassured that James Crosby has joined Alan Greenspan's panel of car crash investigators? Maybe they should also enlist the help of Hank Greenberg, Richard Fuld and Adam Applegarth.
I suggest a visit to Dr Johnson's House will be in order later in the month - both to straighten out the aphorisms and also to ingest some renewed sagacity.
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Cardboard box time
Despondent financiers have been seen foraging for empty cardboard boxes in the delivery bay behind our local Sainsbury's.
What is inside those boxes they are carrying out of the temples of steel and glass?
Is it just sweaty trainers and photos of loved ones, or is there anything else of real value to be retrieved from our collapsing investment banking industry?
The fall has been coming for some time - at least ten years, in our opinion. What is the legacy?
Difficult to assess just now, but our list would include: outstanding analytical skills; innovative applications of high-order maths; highly available, resilient and powerful IT systems; truly global organisational models; and memories of a highly committed and energised way of working.
The people carrying cardboard boxes are walking out with considerable knowledge, skills and experience. Our bet is that these competencies will get a retread and be back on the road before long. But within a considerably less favourable regulatory, fiscal and macroeconomic environment, we suspect.
What is inside those boxes they are carrying out of the temples of steel and glass?
Is it just sweaty trainers and photos of loved ones, or is there anything else of real value to be retrieved from our collapsing investment banking industry?
The fall has been coming for some time - at least ten years, in our opinion. What is the legacy?
Difficult to assess just now, but our list would include: outstanding analytical skills; innovative applications of high-order maths; highly available, resilient and powerful IT systems; truly global organisational models; and memories of a highly committed and energised way of working.
The people carrying cardboard boxes are walking out with considerable knowledge, skills and experience. Our bet is that these competencies will get a retread and be back on the road before long. But within a considerably less favourable regulatory, fiscal and macroeconomic environment, we suspect.
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