Intellectual errors at the heart of crisis September 14, 2009 At its heart, the credit crunch was fuelled by a deep intellectual error. It was this error which encouraged banks to take such a naïve and flawed view of the double or triple credit boom of the last 15 years. Rather than being something that regulators knew was wrong but did not have the power [...]
Wanted: real-life, good news hedge fund stories September 9, 2009 ONE consequence of Britain’s membership of the EU is that Brussels gets to govern the way business is done in London. Hedge funds, private equity and venture capital are the main targets of the European Commission’s proposals for an Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD). The Directive has the backing of a coalition of Christian [...]
SUMMER SALES Round-up of the day’s activity September 1, 2009 AS largely expected, Portsmouth boss Paul Hart was the busiest Premier League manager of the day, securing three new faces for the major loss of midfielder Niko Kranjcar to Tottenham. Hart began to day by securing the capture of midfielder Hassan Yebda on a season-long loan deal from Benfica before completing a double swoop by [...]
SUMMER SALES FOOTBALL UPDATE August 31, 2009 Hammers land Da Costa in swapWEST HAM have snapped up defender Manuel Da Costa from Serie A side Fiorentina with forward Savio Nsereko moving in the other direction. Centre back Da Costa, 23, was born in France but qualifies to play for Portugal. Formerly at Nancy in France and PSV in Holland, he joined the [...]
Chelsea claw back to defeat Black Cats August 18, 2009 SUNDERLAND (1) vs CHELSEA (3) THE new Premier League season may be only four days old, but Chelsea, many pundits’ tips for the title, are already sitting pretty at the top of the table after rallying to sweep aside Sunderland. Black Cats summer signing Darren Bent gave the visitors a scare by pouncing to notch [...]
Novartis launches copy-cat case August 16, 2009 Novartis, the Swiss drugs giant, has launched legal action against its larger rival GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), claiming it is infringing one of its patents covering a technique used in the production of a number of its own vaccines. Last year, GSK lawyers attempted to get the Novartis patent revoked, claiming it should never have been granted, [...]
Weepie that fails the test of time August 13, 2009 FilmThe Time Traveler’s wifeCert: 12A BASED on the best-selling and much-loved novel by Audrey Niffenegger, this film has its work cut out from the start. How do you depict a serious love story in which the man has a genetic condition that makes him visibly slide around in time? How do you show the same [...]
Cattermole joins Black Cats August 12, 2009 FOOTBALL: Sunderland last night completed the £6m signing of England Under-21 midfielder Lee Cattermole from Wigan. Cattermole has penned a four-year contract at the Stadium of Light, where he will again work under manager Steve Bruce, who signed him for Wigan from Middlesbrough last summer. The combative 21-year-old is in line to make his Black [...]
BRUNSWICK CAUSES A STIR WITH PUBLIC AFFAIRS ROLE IN BRUSSELS August 6, 2009 A COUP for City PR outfit Brunswick, which is on the cusp of a lucrative new contract to advise HSBC on its public policy over in Brussels. Brunswick boss Alan Parker has long been chummy with HSBC chairman Stephen Green, so the tie-up shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. But though some in [...]
Barclays bracing itself for protests August 5, 2009 BARCLAYS’ staff are set to stage a protest over pensions outside the bank’s annual meeting today. Barclays chief executive John Varley has argued that the bank’s pension fund deficit is worsening and curtailing its final salary pension scheme is best for present and future staff, and its pensioners. But the Unite union, which represents more [...]