August 22nd, 2011 There are eerie parallels between the continuing precipitous falls in the shares of European and UK banks and the stomach-churning gyrations seen in September and October 2008. And it’s kind of ironic that one of the biggest fallers, Barclays, bought Lehman Brothers before superimposing its own investment banking logo on the failed […]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: August 12th, 2011 The temporary short selling bans that have been imposed by Belgium, France, Italy and Spain in the hope of rooting out perceived market abuse and trying to restore a semblance of calm to volatile financial markets have gone down like a lead balloon in the markets. Investors, industry […]
August 11th, 2011 When my ex-boss Roger Neill launched the Centre for Creativity at City University London in winter of 2009, he staged a “Big City Brainstorm” which pulled together a diverse group of people – including several from the City of London. Roger and other people behind the CfC wanted to find ways of addressing […]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: August 11th, 2011 When Standard & Poor’s took the momentous decision to strip the US of its ‘AAA’ credit rating on August 5, it didn’t have quite the apocalyptic consequences some had feared. But it has still shown that, despite being widely discredited over their handling of CDOs in […]
August 4th, 2011 It must have seemed a good idea at the time. The Smurfs were welcomed by the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street last Friday, July 29th, to ring the opening bell. This may have been a good move for Sony Pictures, which has a movie to plug but it has turned […]
August 2nd, 2011 Boris Johnson, eat your heart out! Artūras Zuokas, the 43-year-old mayor of Vilnius, has come up with a novel way of tackling illegal parking in the centre of the Lithuanian capital. In this video the 43-year-old, a former war reporter and former leader of Lithuania’s Liberal and Center Union, crushes a Mercedes-Benz […]
August 1st, 2011 If you’ve been wondering what the hell’s been going on in America in the past few days, you could do worse than watch this satirical take from Taiwan-based Next Media Animation. The tea partiers are portrayed as gun-toting babies, and a “highlight” come when one of these mewling and puking infants reaches […]