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There are lots of jokes about banking going around this week, but the one that made me laugh out loud was this cartoon in the Sunday Times by Nick Newman:

Reading the paper’s over the weekend, a few stories catch my eye, especially the story of new MBA graduate Chuck Casano, the man who nearly worked in banking. Lucky old Chuck has almost had six jobs this year. Read more …

I was going to hold back and post these tomorrow, but they are too priceless.  Last night’s Saturday NIght Live on NBC USA has two great sketches.  The first is about the bailout vote: The second is a mickey-take on the Palin v Biden presidential debate. It restores my faith in America that they still…

This is my last rant for the week, I promise.  After all, it seems strange to be blogging to a readership of bankers and then be horrible about y’all, but I thought I had to share with you the customer’s view, and their view is that banks are shooting themselves in the foot. It’s a…

We are almost a month away from the US elections.  You may wonder why I’m interested in that, but it is because it will affect all of us.  A lot.  As demonstrated by the dialogue going on right now about the banking system. So, in the interests of the election, I received some very funny…

We are almost a month away from the US elections.  You may wonder why I’m interested in that, but it is because it will affect all of us.  A lot.  As demonstrated by the dialogue going on right now about the banking system. So, in the interests of the election, I received some very funny…

We are almost a month away from the US elections.  You may wonder why I’m interested in that, but it is because it will affect all of us.  A lot.  As demonstrated by the dialogue going on right now about the banking system. So, in the interests of the election, I received some very funny…

We are almost a month away from the US elections.  You may wonder why I’m interested in that, but it is because it will affect all of us.  A lot.  As demonstrated by the dialogue going on right now about the banking system. So, in the interests of the election, I received some very funny…

I wake up this morning to hear of a $16 billion bailout for Fortis, an asset stripping sale of Bradford & Bingley (B&B) to Santander with their mortgage book taken over by the government, and confirmation of  $700 billion bailout of banks in the USA and firesale of Washington Mutual (WaMu). Add these names to…

Speaking of Bradford & Bingley (B&B), I got into trouble this week.  You see, they're a bank that's heavily exposed to the mortgage market in Britain and, as mentioned in my last post, they have a £40 billion mortgage book with most of it in buy-to-let (landlords) and self-certification markets.   But they also have…