It's somewhat ironic that protesters have arrived to complain about City greed at just the moment much of the City itself is making no money whatsoever. Even Goldman Sachs was due today to report a loss for the third quarter, and if Goldman isn't in the black, it's reasonable to guess that almost no one is.... more
Marcus Agius, chairman of the British Bankers' Association and Barclays, made a telling point this week at a BBA conference when he said: "Any talk of bank investors being prepared to accept utility-type returns is completely unrealistic." But he then drew the wrong conclusion... more
It takes a real provocation to elicit a rebuke to London's Tory Mayor from a Tory assembly member. But Boris's plans to extend the Crossrail development tax has been attacked by a true-blue from the Transport Committee... more
The good news for Labour is that the Coalition is much more threatened by Miliband than it would ever admit in public. The bad news for the Opposition is that the Miliband in question is David, not Ed... more
Football finance: Can John W Henry repeat his success with the Boston Red Sox at Liverpool? Sceptics are already arguing that the financial commitment required is too great... more
People assume that were we not texting, tweeting and Facebooking, we’d all have heartfelt chats. And in a place like London, that’s just fanciful... more
Date for the diary: May 7. It's actually the cut-off date for the Unite union’s ballot of its members about possible further industrial action against British Airways... more
After a survey reveals that this is the most attractive look, Viv Groskop speaks to the Barnes schoolgirl singled out by Vogue and snapped by Baile.... more
Comment: Michael Lewis is annoying. He doesn’t always write about finance, but when he does, the words are so good everyone else may as well pack up
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Ebullio Capital Management admits its commodity fund fell 96% in the first two months of 2010 - the Latin “ebullio” means to produce in abundance... more
A further addition to the plethora of savage anti-Goldman Sachs articles in America — quite possibly the best of the bunch — comes from US writer Michael Lewis on Bloomberg.com
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John Meriwether starred in two of the best books ever written about the financial world: Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker and Roger Lowenstein's When Genius Failed... more
When books are written about Wall Street’s collapse — and boy are they being written, with Liar’s Poker author Michael Lewis the latest to sign up — the Noel family of Greenwich may merit a volume of their own... more
Analysis: One of life's rules is that there's bad in good and good in bad. The total collapse of the US financial system is no exception. Even in the midst of the current financial despair, we can look around and identify many collateral benefits... more
Exclusive: After high-profile allegations this season, Charlton's manager is pleased the issue is now being addressed but says the authorities still have plenty of work to do
Morning:
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