Slimming cures

European bank presentations used to be filled with graphs of assets that sloped pleasingly upward. For those at the mercy of the European Commission, they now all lurch sickeningly downward.

Bribing the markets

Uncertainty is different from risk, as Frank Knight, an economist, first pointed out in 1921. A poker player can figure out the odds of success when holding a pair of kings.

Northern Rock was rescued in September 2007, more than a year before the much-bigger Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS. The mortgage bank may also be the first to wriggle out of government hands.

Sticking plasters of the universe

In the half-century since private equity first appeared, the industry has produced stretches of great profitability, culminating in a spectacular run from 2002-07. During that golden age, private equity was charmed.

A joyless recovery

On October 29 the government reported that gross domestic product rose at an annualised rate of 3.5% in the third quarter compared to the second.

Love of Labour

Three years ago, when negotiations with the union representing air-traffic controllers reached an impasse, the administration of George Bush simply imposed a deal that....

Moral outrage

The Treasury could influence matters at RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, two big banks in which it has substantial shareholdings, but is reluctant to micromanage.

Denial or acceptance

In one sense, a weak dollar is good news for the world. Behind the global economy’s current revival is a returning appetite for risky investments, such as equities and corporate bonds.

All at sea

Milton Friedman argued for legalising insider trading on the grounds that it benefited all investors by quickly disseminating new information. These days such leave-it-to-the-market views are unfashionable.

Breaking up

If Iceland is the place that has suffered most from the banking crisis, the Benelux countries can make a justifiable claim to second place. After the calamitous sale of ABN AMRO and the subsequent dismemberment of Fortis, ING, the biggest bank in the Netherlands, announced on Monday October 26 that it was splitting itself up.

Back to the circuit board

This year’s Web 2.0 Summit, an annual technology conference in San Francisco, featured a reception at a swanky hotel dubbed “Web After Dark”. The event was packed with euphoric entrepreneurs toasting their grand plans.

Sizzling away

Barney Frank, head of the financial-services committee in America’s House of Representatives, likes to point out that shaping legislation, like making sausages, can be a stomach-churning spectacle. So it is with the Obama administration’s financial reforms.

Compensation claim

Watching an industry committing political suicide is ugly. That is what investment banks are doing by paying bumper bonuses a year after they were saved by state intervention. Goldman Sachs is set to award staff a near record $20 billion this year.

The diminishing dollar

One of the few calamities that has not befallen the world economy during the past two years is a dollar crash. During the bubble era that preceded it, many fretted that foreigners, tiring of America’s gaping external deficits, would send the greenback slumping and interest rates soaring.

The pyramid principle

Judged by their giant compensation bills, Wall Street’s banks are in fine fettle. But pay is one of the few numbers in their accounts it is easy to make sense of. The investment banks may be booming but they remain black boxes.

Betting on bytes

Every year, many leading lights of the internet world congregate at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The 2009 event, which took place this week, included an evening reception thrown by a venture capital company at a swanky hotel and was dubbed “Web After Dark”.

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