IN launching his putsch on the Financial Services Authority and overhaul of City regulation, George Osborne paid tribute to Sir James Sassoon as the Shadow Chancellor's adviser. This is most odd.

For it was the same Sassoon who, while in charge of financial services at the Treasury, received the results of the “war game” conducted by the Bank of England and FSA into the effectiveness of the banks' regulatory system in 2004-5. They reported glaring gaps — notably that no method was in place for taking out a failing bank, and the depositors' compensation scheme was inadequate. What was done about their findings? Er, precisely nothing.

* GEORGE Osborne trusts the Bank of England to take charge of banking regulation again. Two good reasons, lest we forget, why the Bank was stripped of its powers in 1997: Barings and BCCI.

* AND Osborne hails the Dutch system as one to aspire to. The Dutch? Two names there should also put paid to such nonsense: ABN Amro and Fortis.

* NO wonder criminals love Florida, where even local regulators help facilitate their scams. A row is raging there over the revelation that state banking officials allowed Sir Allen Stanford to funnel huge amounts of money from South American investors via Miami to Antigua with a one-of-a-kind-exemption that required no reporting requirements.

Even in the face of objections from the state's chief banking counsel, who said the 1998 deal broke Florida law, the Office of Financial Regulation waived any requirements for oversight and allowed Stanford to sell hundreds of millions in bank notes without allowing regulators to check for fraud. An investigation into the decision was started after Stanford was indicted last month on fraud charges. Prosecutors say Stanford defrauded customers of nearly $7 billion (£4.2 billion).

How BA staff pay can take off

MEMO to British Airways' check-in staff: instead of striking why not come up with your own offer to Willie Walsh? Why not say you will work for nothing for 11 months of the year (instead of Walsh's suggested one), provided you're paid Walsh's monthly pay in the 12th month? By City Spy's calculation, you could end up more than doubling your annual pay. A check-in assistant gets about £25,000 and Walsh receives more than £600,000.

* CITY redundancies are really biting. Private-school downsizers in Porsches and Range Rovers jammed the roads around the well-regarded state sixth-form college at Esher in Surrey on registration day. But onlookers were then further astonished to see a chauffeur-driven limousine arrive, with the driver forced to run to the secretary's office with little Jocasta's application to register.

* THE survey from Wealth Bulletin of the world's most expensive addresses is, as ever, eye-watering fare. Top of the pile is Avenue Princess Grace in Monaco where the going rate is at least $120,000 (£73,000) per square metre even for a so-so apartment (against London's dearest, Kensington Palace Gardens, of $65,000 per square metre). Currently, a four-bed penthouse is on the market on Avenue Princess Grace for $50 million. However, this is still a come down — last year, properties on the same strip were fetching $190,000 per square metre.

Stephanie's being truthful with the economics

* SELF-flagellation from BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders, who asks on her blog: has this global crisis shown that economics is a load of rubbish? The Economist magazine is reporting this week that the dismal science is accused of helping to cause the crisis, failing to spot it and having no idea how to fix it. “That's a pretty comprehensive charge sheet”, says Flanders. “And none is entirely wrong.” Her colleague and rival Robert Peston would never go in for such self-abuse.

* TORY leader David Cameron asks where we would be if the supermarkets “adopted the idle and outdated logic of Gordon Brown and said that every cost reduction must inevitably lead to a cut in front line services”. He suggests they would have to run these commercials: “Good food costs more at Sainsbury's”. “At Tesco every little bit doesn't so much as help — in fact it would be a 10% cut in the quality of the food”. While Asda wouldn't boast “permanently low prices — but “permanently more and more cuts in quality and service”.

* SOUTHEASTERN Trains boss Charles Horton has been inundated with congratulatory messages following the launch of the new Javelin services over the high-speed rails between St Pancras and Ashford. From the generous depth of the seats carrying commuters in from Kent to the speed of the service — one train left two minutes late and still arrived three minutes early to set a record 32 minutes — punters are so happy they've even set up a Javelin supporters site on Facebook. In fact, some are so pleased with the elitism of the service (which costs £18.90 more a week than the old journey into Charing Cross) they want Horton to jack up prices even further to keep the riff-raff off.

* HAS Shepherd Neame lost its mantle as the most amusingly jingoistic of beer advertisers? Shep has had drinkers chortling for years over adverts for its Spitfire bitter, such as: “Downed all over Kent — just like the Luftwaffe.” Now as Ashes fever grips the country, Marston's is pushing its Pedigree brand. “England has it” suggests the Aussies don't — though its other ads are less subtle: “England has History. Australia has Previous”; “We have beer in our blood. Australians have lemon juice in their hair”; and “We're English, we brew beer. You're Australian, you serve it.”

* CLIVE Cowdery's renewed attempt to buy Friends Provident with his latest Resolution vehicle — he failed with Old Resolution a couple of years back — has led to speculation on what the new company might be called. Friends Reunited?

* THE state we're in, courtesy of Reuters. Snap 1: “UK public finances register worst June on record.” Snap 2: “UK June public finances better than expected.”