The papers have been filled with fascinating stories about banking over the past 24 hours, including a call for balance sheets and core capital ratios to be a minimum 6%; the Eurozone asking for a single seat at the IMF, rather than the current 10; better supervision of the credit rating agencies; and many more.
But three stories really stood out.
First was a small column in the International Herald Tribune that was hidden halfway down a report about Facebook, headlined “Job hunting? Avoid London.”
Apparently, 11,840 people were job hunting in London's financial markets in April, up 20% over March and the highest numbers since the recruitment firm Morgan McKinley created their job hunting database in 2004. Meanwhile, vacancies only went up by 10%, to 8,946, and mostly for back office staff. There are very few spaces for high flying investment bankers.
This reminded me of yesterday’s front pages in London, such as the FT Advisor, stating that more and more middle class folks are being impacted by financial concerns. The number of journalists, teachers and professionals visiting money advice centres has doubled since last year.
Even bankers need help with financial advice.
I guess it’s because they cannot find a job or get a bonus.
And then, the final piece of the puzzle, is a report in today’s London Evening Standard about the Lipstick Index, which reflects how good or bad the economy is doing based upon the sales of lipstick.
As part of this index now however, there is going to be a measure based upon the loyalty of one's female spouse. This is provided by Princess Diana’s and Heather Mill's favourite law firm, Mishcon de Reya. They have discovered that the wives of rich City bankers are increasingly filing for divorce as the recession hits their husband's payouts, and they want their share of the riches before he becomes a loser.
Obviously, Mrs. Banker is afraid that the credit crunch will mean that they may have to stop shopping at Harrods, Harvey Nichs and Selfridges, and think more about Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
What sheer hell for the poor, little, money grabbing things.
As Mischcon de Reya say, “When money looks like flying out of the window, love walks out the door”.
Jeremy Clarkson was right after all.
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