Non-executive


14
Nov 11

Germany thanks the southerners

Saudi investment opportunities

Angela Merkel today gratefully acknowledged the southern European contribution to the euro. “Without the incorporation of those sunny southerners, the euro would be the deutschmark. It would have reached Swiss franc levels, ruining our exports,” she stated, while munching on sardinas at the opening of the Museum of Greek Siestas & Tax Evasion. “Instead, we have this delightfully devalued deutschmark, which has allowed our trade surplus to reach a three year high.”

As she flicked the tail of her flamenco-inspired suit, she thanked Germany’s fellow members in the EU and the Eurozone for being responsible for nearly two thirds of the country’s foreign trade. “Vielen Dank for being less competitive than us and buying our goods,” said Merkel, as she headed off for a week’s holiday in the newly opened Deutsche Acropolis Hotel in Athens.


14
Sep 11

New era regulators and a passionate conversion

How tinkering may ruin bank boards

Take a look at the Financial Times, where Robinson Hambro authored an editorial on the Financial Services Authority and its excessive interference in the running of the boards of banks.

Or read the article in the text below:

The passion of the convert is a frightening thing. Be it former smokers who cast glances of derision at office staff puffing away on the pavement or, more specifically, the regulatory backlash on the back of the financial crisis, converts allow little room for a nuanced approach.


6
Mar 11

Dilemmas: cocos, Libya and women on boards

BA’s Walsh on the global economy

"They are Black Gold," said the Libyan tour guide, pointing at the Africans nearby.

During a visit to Libya a few years ago, I realised that there were more sources of revenue in the country than just oil and sparse tourism. The latter at least meant that Leptus Magna, Apollonia and Sabrata, the most magnificently preserved Phoenician, Roman and Greek ruins in Northern Africa, were not overrun by the masses.


6
Jan 11

The rise of the entrepreneur

Goodbye to a great man

The Lorunser disease can only be caught in childhood. Those who have holidayed at the Hotel Lorunser in the Austrian ski resort of Zurs are forever fated to believe that skiing involves pain. A day cruising the pistes with stops for schnapps and some sun is a profanation of the word skiing. A day trudging up a mountain with skins pasted onto the underside of one’s skis, dripping with sweat and with the sound of heavy breathing the only accompaniment, is the orthodox way. Even better if it is in a white-out where one can’t even see the plodding fool in front.