All Posts / Bank of England / Banking / FSA / Governance / Regulation —
09
Jun 11

The coming Euro Ministry of Finance

SIF and the Mayr: intrusive interventions

How the mighty are fallen! Not only Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF head who allegedly sexually assaulted a chambermaid, or former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his Tunisian counterpart Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

There are a host of others: one of the world’s foremost Israeli football agents, a household-name UK broadcaster, plus a number of European chairmen. Last week they were all at the infamous Mayr Clinic, whose mission it is to clean out its residents’ guts to restore them to health and energy via a quasi-liquid fasting cure. One would imagine the conversation would range from the FIFA scandal to Greek debt restructuring.  Continue reading...

All Posts / Banking / Financial Services / Governance / Regulation —
15
Apr 11

History’s verdict: Zapatero vs de Gaulle

The de facto eurozone haircuts

It wasn´t just Emperor Nero who fiddled while Rome burned. Two other political figures come to mind.

Post World War II, Charles de Gaulle was preoccupied with "la gloire" for France and, rather less admirably, for himself. At the time, the French were starving. In the summer of 1945, the country had less than two weeks´ supply of grain, while the winter was much worse. Malnutrition was such that the generation raised in this period were to be shorter than the previous one. With some humour and a large degree of exasperation, the governor of the Bank of France, Emmanuel Monick, told a foreign diplomat that Belgium was handling its affairs far better than France.*  Continue reading...

All Posts / Banking / Financial Services / Governance / Non-executive —
06
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.  Continue reading...

Banking / Non-executive —
06
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.  Continue reading...

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