Uncategorized

Oct 16, 2009

Collective noun for economists? A confusion!

Just stumbled across Yoram Bauman, the Stand Up Economist, who is obviously a chap who believes in the power of economic thinking as he has a Ph.d. in Economics. His ten principles of economic theory are quite fascinating in fact. He bases his principles on Greg Mankiw’s, a professor of economics at Harvard University,who states…

Oct 16, 2009

American Banks: Two Good, Two Bad

This week, it's Q3 results time for US banks and the story appears to be one of two good banks and two bad banks. The good are JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, who have both delivered stonking results. The bad are, you guessed it, Bank of America and Citi who are both struggling with domestic credit…

Oct 15, 2009

Is ‘poor’ acceptable as the industry average?

I wrote yesterday's blog about Mr. Grump versus Mr. Smiley bank because someone recently said to me: "Chris, you seem so angry …" It wasn't a reference to my blog content but to the way my face was purple with steam coming out of my ears because I'm not angry … I'm bloody livid! And…

Oct 15, 2009

Is ‘poor’ acceptable as the industry average?

Oct 13, 2009

Not Powered by NatWest

I blogged in positive terms recently about Royal Bank of Scotland and the 'Powered by NatWest' partnership it had created as a mobile payments processor for O2. Just as this landmark partnership was created, RBS decided to close down their internal mobile payments team. So much for a commitment to the future and the most…

Oct 12, 2009

A little cloud in the sky

It’s Monday, start of the week, smile on my face and sun in the sky. I should be looking up, pushing forward, feeling fine and seeing the future as bright. We should all be. But there’s a little cloud on the horizon called doubt. Why is there doubt? Because there is a feeling that we…