[Something for the weekend] No Resolution at all, really
It’s hard to see the point of some businesses. This week the particularly pointless Resolution produced an interminable, impenetrable statement. Its bosses have decided that something must be done, and breaking it up is something,
[Something for the weekend] A Dickens of a mess
Ebenezer Draghi sighed. These bank books would never come out right, and it was Christmas Eve already. As he struggled, the numbers began to swim before his eyes. So many hundreds of billions of euros,
[Something for the weekend] Life’s a beach (or not)
Life’s a beach (or not)
Ah, the holiday season. Dreams of surf, sea, sand – and soggy share prices, or so it must seem to the bewildered shareholders in Thomas Cook. The travel agent’s “amendment to bank facilities”
[Something for the weekend] The SGP without stability or growth
Ah, the Stability and Growth Pact. You remember. Joining the SGP, members promised fiscal restraint, and in return were allowed to junk their soggy old currencies for a Deutschemark with a suntan. They all promised to keep the gap between revenue and spending to below 3 per cent of GDP,
[Something for the weekend] Don’t offer this man a Rakoff
Jed Rakoff is quite the hero. A New York District judge, he has done what the rest of us would love to do, and busted a cosy deal between bankers and their regulators. In early 2007, just when everything was starting to slide,
[Something for the weekend] An irrelevant bargain for Branson
When you’re short of money, the odd £747m always comes in useful, but it doesn’t go far these days. It’s enough to finance the UK state spending machine for about nine hours. The government had spent more than the proceeds from the sale of Northern Rock before it could read the reaction to it in Friday’s papers.
[Something for the weekend] Let’s have the FTUK index (and the T-shirt)
Goodhart’s Law, as refined, states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Charles Goodhart coined it (the law, rather than anything else) at the Bank of England. At the time the Bank was targetting M3,
[Something for the weekend] It’s not the banks, it’s the bankers, cont’d
Good news: pay to bankers is falling. Bad news: having wiped out the shareholders, they’re still eating all the pies. Morgan Stanley and Citigroup reported tolerable figures only thanks to FVOOD, a piece of accounting nonsense which turns the bank’s deteriorating credit quality into earnings because the market value of its debt has fallen.
[Something for the weekend] Here comes the Rayne again
– By Neil Collins –
Once upon a time, Max Rayne ran London Merchant Securities much as he wanted to. Many years later, it now seems that his son, Robert, would rather like to do the same with LMS Capital,
[Something for the weekend] Dear Lloyds: nobody wants to buy your bank
– By Neil Collins –
Dear Lloyds: nobody wants to buy your bank
It was going to be a hard-fought auction. The chance to buy a fully-formed network of bank branches, complete (one supposes) with all the trimmings,
[Something for the weekend] Alliance… I’m not sure about this
– By Neil Collins –
I’m a shareholder in Alliance Trust. Its subsidiary, Alliance Trust Savings, is home to my (substantial) SIPP. The service from ATS is simple, cheap and exemplary, and I’d recommend it.
[Something for the weekend] Just what Dr Vickers ordered
Sir John Vickers is laughing all the way to the bank(ing commission). As a movie plot, the publication of his report, immediately followed by a spectacular demonstration of why we needed it, is much too far-fetched.
[Something for the weekend] It’s not the banks, it’s the bankers
By Neil Collins
It’s not the banks, it’s the bankers
No inside information is needed to know what George Osborne is doing this weekend. He’s just taken delivery of the Vickers report, and must at least claim to have read it by the time everyone else sees it on Monday. We’ve a pretty good idea of the contents,
[Something for the weekend] Coming soon to FT AV….
… our first weekly columnist.
From this weekend, Neil Collins, the former City editor of the Daily Telegraph, will be giving AV readers his acerbic take on the markets.
Collins is one of the most experienced financial journalists in the UK.