Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Humour

The British Economy for Dummies

A friend sent me this note that explains, in plain English, how we are running our economy: It is the middle of June and raining. The little British beach town is deserted as it’s tough times. Everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit. Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the…

Harry Potter and the Prince of Darkness

As most of you know, J.K. Rowling is a British institution and so I sent her this idea for her next book: Harry Potter and his best mates Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger had managed to live amongst the muggles for many moons without detection. They now realised they had to come out of hiding…

Harry Potter and the Prince of Darkness

As most of you know, J.K. Rowling is a British institution and so I sent her this idea for her next book: Harry Potter and his best mates Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger had managed to live amongst the muggles for many moons without detection. They now realised they had to come out of hiding…

What sort of advert is that?

Walking around the City, one of our bright London cabs drove by and it made me wonder: Is that a commercial for Barclays or a Barclays commercial? Either way, we're not as thick as Barclays think or they wouldn't have to spell it out for us would they?

Barclays Commercial

What sort of advert is that?

Walking around the City, one of our bright London cabs drove by and it made me wonder: Is that a commercial for Barclays or a Barclays commercial? Either way, we're not as thick as Barclays think or they wouldn't have to spell it out for us would they?

Barclays Commercial

This crisis is nothing new

We talk about how the financial market gloom is so bad, and our politicians have now all caught the swine flu too … but it's nothing new. Life has always overwhelmed us with its speed of change and the turbulence such change causes. Take this summary from one of my favourite books: “The pace was…

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And what not to wear for a bank robbery

A great story in today's Metro about a man who robbed a store in America wearing a beer box on his head: They go on to cite other amusing robberies, such as the chap who thought he could disguise himself as a tree: and the wazzock who thought that wrapping his head in duct tape…

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And what not to wear for a bank robbery

A great story in today's Metro about a man who robbed a store in America wearing a beer box on his head: They go on to cite other amusing robberies, such as the chap who thought he could disguise himself as a tree: and the wazzock who thought that wrapping his head in duct tape…

Beerhead_450x250

And what not to wear for a bank robbery

A great story in today's Metro about a man who robbed a store in America wearing a beer box on his head: They go on to cite other amusing robberies, such as the chap who thought he could disguise himself as a tree: and the wazzock who thought that wrapping his head in duct tape…

Beerhead_450x250

Ten Questions and Ten Statements

McKinsey posted a great little conversation starter this week entitled: What next? Ten questions for CFOs and subtitled: "As companies shift their attention from fighting the crisis to getting the most from the recovery, CFOs must keep them focused." It's nice to see that McKinsey are calling this a recovery now, and so here's the…