Category: Business

Sea Interlude

Yesterday I wrote about gallant Pat Jameson. Another Jameson cousin, who did double-duty as my Godfather, served in the Irish Guards in the war.

Goodbye To All That

At the beginning of August 1976 I started working as a  trainee for the august sugar house of Czarnikow. Today, 39 years later, I am leaving the City having been an oil futures broker since 1981. 

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The Price of Fish

Pictures never lie but they can mislead. I am not haggling over the price, just the quantity. I only wanted a couple so as not to stink out the compartment.

Too Big To Fail?

On a wet day last week I was taken by a former colleague for lunch. in a basement restaurant that I picked because it brought back memories

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Serious Money

An American reader puts down his copy of The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham and, after taking  a sip or two from a glass of Riesling, writes to remind me

Bricks, Money and ‘Phones

The reconstructed Berliner Schloss, referred to a couple of days ago in the post headed Athens 1931, is run by an organisation called the Humboldt Forum. Hence the Humboldt Box, that houses the exhibition about the project. It will have our Neil MacGregor as a Gründungsintendantenor or founding director.

Kentucky Calling

I lived in a large house, well really a castle, in Ireland as a child. It had one telephone placed under the stairs, made of Bakelite, with a circular label like a now defunct tax disc that read DUNLEER 5. This was useful if you forgot your number.

Oblast

Not O blast, try saying ob-last, preferrably with a Russian accent. Oblasts are provinces or administrative districts in Russia; there are 46 of them. This is a fairly useless bit of information, even for playing Scrabble, as who would want to squander two S tiles.

Friday

When I went to work in the City, nearly 40 years ago, there was a dispensation on Fridays; staff could wear tweed suits and brown shoes to segue to the weekend. My office was only a few years old and had air conditioning; unusual those days. Unless someone actually fell to the floor with a… Continue reading Friday

The Cradle of Democracy

It’s all perfectly simple. The Greek government needs to borrow loads more Euros, mostly to re-pay previous loans. They were offered this on onerous terms at the end of June. They rejected these terms, and this rejection was then endorsed by the Greek people in a referendum.