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Dec 16, 2009

What do bank failures look like?

With over 130 American banks closing so far this year, have you ever wondered what all of those American bank failures looked like? Well, now you can … Visualizing Bank Failures ( 2008-2009 ) from Michael J Bommarito II on Vimeo.

Dec 15, 2009

A Brand New Bank

I've been blogging for a while about Vernon Hill's new bank. Vernon created Commerce Bank in the USA, which revolutionised retail banking there. He's now got the green light to launch Metro Bank in the UK. The aim is to launch on February 15th, which is why the flagship branch in Holborn has this wrapping:…

Dec 14, 2009

Lunch with Goldman Sachs’ Chief Economist

Each year, the Evening Standard has an auction for charity. This year it's for Kids UK, and the top City prize offer is to have lunch with Goldman Sachs' Chief Economist Jim O'Neill. What a nice picture. Relaxed, smiling, rich … must be with Goldman Sachs (those in the news today!). Sold for £1,440….

Dec 10, 2009

Gordon Brown’s entente cordiale

Much has been made today of the fact that Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy have jointly written an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. Like some new entente cordiale, this is fantastiche to see the coup de grace of global leaders working in partnership. Here are some highlights from their article: “The way global…

Dec 10, 2009

Gordon Brown’s entente cordiale

Dec 10, 2009

The name’s Green … James Green (Update)

Travelling around recently, hotels only seem to have English speaking news channels on the TV. Boring. Endlessly cycled news, regurgitated on the half-hour every half-hour (every fifteen minutes in fact). Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Then there's the adverts. And suddenly Sean Connery – yes, he's still working and alive! – comes on saying, "eesh time fwor green banking"….

Dec 3, 2009

Win a Wattson courtesy of First Direct

Hey you. Yes you, reading this 'ere bloggy thing. Do you have an emission? No, not flattulence. A carbon emission conscience is what we're talking about. If you do, then you need to join in First Direct's poll and webcast about how the climate change agenda is impacting on business and what you can do…

Dec 2, 2009

Things worth reading: 2nd December 2009

Things we're reading today include: First and foremost, the newspapers are off beam when it comes to Dubai. Yesterday, three news reports dellivered distinctly differing news. One said the UK banks had around $50 billion exposure, with HSBC, StanChart and Barclays taking the brunt. In another, the UK banks had no big exposure so no…

Dec 2, 2009

Things worth reading: 2nd December 2009

Dec 1, 2009

Sir Terry Leahy’s Ten Commandments

Sir Terry Leahy, Chief Executive of Tesco, presented his Ten Commandments for Good Management at a conference I attended yesterday. Here they are: Commandment Number 1: Find the truth It is extremely difficult for any institution to confront the truth. When customers say they don’t like your products or service, it’s tough to face up…