UK newspaper The Times asked people in Brighton what they understood by the following terms: hedge fund, derivative, sub-prime market, short selling, fiscal stimulus, arbitrage and quantitative easing. The answers are brilliant, and here are my favourites: Hedge fund "Money collected to keep the hedges going?" Derivative "This sounds like the kind of word that…
I often use this one to open or close a presentation. A boy comes up to his father confused about the daily news always talking about the credit crisis, recession and banking. “Dad”, he says, “how does banking work?” His father thinks about explaining the world’s connections, investment markets, deposits and loans, and so on…
In a post that I’m sure will get a response from some folks (Jeffry?), February’s Banker Magazine (I write a monthly column for them) dropped onto my doorstep this morning with the front page: "The World’s Top 500 Banking Brands". You might be surprised that there are 500 banks around these days but this is…
In a post that I’m sure will get a response from some folks (Jeffry?), February’s Banker Magazine (I write a monthly column for them) dropped onto my doorstep this morning with the front page: "The World’s Top 500 Banking Brands". You might be surprised that there are 500 banks around these days but this is…
In a post that I’m sure will get a response from some folks (Jeffry?), February’s Banker Magazine (I write a monthly column for them) dropped onto my doorstep this morning with the front page: "The World’s Top 500 Banking Brands". You might be surprised that there are 500 banks around these days but this is…
Big trouble down at Park Avenue this week, as the New York Post discovered that Citigroup was about to spend $50 million on a new Corporate Jet. Hundreds blogged, reported, commented and threw rocks at 399 Park Avenue, Citi's Head Office, until 24 hours later they announced the deal had been cancelled. What they didn't…
For the past year, we have watched financial institutions regularly being nationalised, part nationalised or effectively nationalised in all but name. We happily accept that this is right, as banks are ‘too big to fail’. But is it right? Is nationalisation a good or a bad thing? Most folks who grew up under Margaret Thatcher,…
Various banks have made public statements of support over the past few months for Barack Obama. Here's one from HSBC we found earlier:and another one I quite like from the YouTube fraternity for the Bank of Obama: Cool, and over 300 million customers! The latter ad seems appropriate as Hugh McColl Junior, former chairman and…
