“There is not a clear message regarding future wholesale costs movements that can be communicated to customers” E.On's Paul Golby obliquely commented recently on the chances of a cut in retail prices for Britain's households. Yet E.On has just cut prices on its FixOnline 3 product making it, the company claims, the cheapest dual fuel household energy product available. The fix so to speak is that you are fixing your household bills until December 2010. A supply company wishing to lock in customers for more than a year? Surely the strongest sign yet we are in for a bill-cutting price war?

* HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan is busy wooing the Chinese even before he moves office from Canary Wharf to Hong Kong next February. “In my 35 years with HSBC, I have seen nothing in any of the 86 markets in which we operate that matches the remarkable transformation of China,” gushed Geoghegan on the landmark 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. “HSBC was of course made in' Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1865 and we have had a continuous presence in China ever since. I am proud of the small part we have played in supporting China's development through the first 60 years of the People's Republic, and I am enormously excited about the future.” A pre-emptive kowtow, indeed.

Accountants? They're Dragons

THE Big Four accountancy firms have stitched up much of the audit and tax market for years benefiting from the informal cartel arrangement that generally a major bank will not lend to a major company unless one of PwC, KPMG, Deloitte or Ernst & Young signs off the accounts.

Peter Jones, the ubiquitous co-star of Dragons' Den, has a view. “We should be careful not to let accountants run away with their own thoughts about the level of value they provide in the community and the jobs they do,” says Jones, admitting to Accountancy Age that his preferred accountants come from the decidedly not Big Four firm of Grant Thornton. “Why I like Grant Thornton is because it isn't always about them.” Jones adds: “Can accountants be Masters of the Universe? The answer's no. Any accountancy firm that says we can do it all' is only trying to take all your money.”

* Jes Staley, the new chief executive of JPMorgan's investment banking arm, apparently sees his top priority as healing the “long-simmering tensions” between the bank's London and New York egos. No wonder when Bill Winters, the London co-head of the investment bank, abruptly quit last week. On Staley's first day in his new job, he spent a day holed up in talks in New York, before jumping on a red-eye flight and doing the same in London. According to the Wall Street Journal, things started to blow up over the summer, when the firm's Reputation Risk Committee for Europe signed off a deal, but bankers in New York voiced second thoughts...

* Reports have suggested Lord Foster's architecture firm isn't doing too well in the credit crunch — several of his firm's projects have been shelved due to the economy, including the “Russia Tower” in Moscow, which had been planned to be the tallest building in Europe. But the man himself doesn't seem to be suffering. Lord Foster has just bought a second apartment in a Fifth Avenue, New York block, splashing out €6.7 million on an eighth-floor pad only two months after buying another unit in the building for $7.2 million.

Gwyneth's tips on financial success

Is Gwyneth Paltrow the new Adam Smith? The Shakespeare in Love actress has started dispensing, er, financial advice on her lifestyle website Goop. Paltrow, who urges visitors to her site to “nourish the inner aspect”, usually offers such thrills as child-friendly brunch menus and divine detoxes. But now she has given her “thoughts on the topic of investing... illuminating concepts, histories and practical advice for the layman in these uncertain times”. Paltrow is savvy enough to seek the help of various experts. These include Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, the self-styled Money Coach, who offers “Top 10 Tips for Saving Money and Investing Wisely”, and Michael Tiedemann, Chief Investment Officer of Tiedemann Wealth Management, with tips on a balanced portfolio.

Given that Khalfani-Cox's mantra is “even millionaires have budgets”, it's not hard to see why Gwyneth and Coldplay husband Chris Martin, worth an estimated £45 million, would pay attention. Khalfani-Cox's hot tip: “The truth is that you can negotiate nearly everything — from clothes in a department store to medical bills.” And her must-have tips for Gwyneth's yummy-mummy fans before embarking on any shopping trip? “A budget, a buddy, and a stopwatch.”

* Former Lloyds chairman Sir Victor Blank and Cazenove chief executive Naguib Kheraj were among a select crowd to celebrate the Financial Times' Top 50 Women in business global survey at Roast in Borough Market. FT editor Lionel Barber told the assembled guests that in an ideal world “we shouldn't have such rankings” — that is if there were more women in the boardroom and running companies. “But we're not there yet, not by a country mile. There are only three female CEOs in the Footsie and they're all American. We should do better.” Barber's boss Dame Marjorie Scardino, one of those three CEOs, would doubtless have agreed — if she had been there. But Scardino, like all but two of the top 50 globe-trotting women on the list, did not make it to the party as she was too busy with more pressing issues. The perils of being a CEO...

* Lots of networking was going on at the FT party — not surprisingly given the event was sponsored by headhunters Egon Zehnder. The chatter among guests was that the City jobs market has been picking up slowly since the spring and September just might be the best month so far this year. Good news perhaps for Sir Victor Blank. The
66-year-old banker lingered for a good while, hob-nobbing at the party, and is surely in no mood to retire...