Of financial evolution
Police have clashed with hundreds of bankers protesting against the high cost of finance outside the headquarters of the European Union in Brussels.
Several bottles of ‘Bolly’ were broken & protestors burned copies of the Financial Times Companies & Markets section. However the largely peaceful but vocal protests turned nasty when members of Goldman Sach’s M&A department tried to storm the Commission building
Riot police responded by switching off the 3G/GPRS network in the area thereby disabling protestors Blackberries.
The bankers have said they will go out of business unless the EU allows national governments to give them more financial aid and subsidise their dirivative trading activities.
Some investors withdrew from the primary markets several months ago over the current cost of funds & the reluctance of lending institutions to allow extremely high levels of leverage on senior debt positions. LIBOR & EUROBOR rates have risen significantly in recent months.
By late afternoon traffic in the city centre had been all but brought to a standstill by a blockade of major routes by Lehman’s Corporate Advisory Team
In recent days protestors have been joined by structured financiers well as employees of many Mezz houses from the UK, Spain, Portugal and Italy.
This would of course be as absurd as for example a Government saying that it can hold anyone it likes for 42 days without charge. Over the last few months the arbitrage between yields & cost of funds has evaporated & there is no point crying into your Moet about it. We are at the end of a good 10 year run & now the market has changed. Either deal with it & find a different way of making money or go out of business. The market in its widest sense & nature are remarkably similar in that respect: evolve or die.
In exactly the same way, it is patently absurd for European fishermen to be demanding higher fuel subsidies from the taxpayer in response to raising fuel costs. Either charge more for your product because your unit cost has increased, or change your business model because the market has moved on. If you are not prepared to do either of these then you had better start scanning the situations vacant section of the newspaper.
I am never one to habour a grudge, but French fishermen especially deserve all that is coming to them. Part of the danegelt that was demanded for Great Britain as our entry ticket to the then EEC was essentially the simultaneous destruction of our deep sea fishing industry & our fish stocks by continental fleets. If their job description going forward involves asking Voulez-vous des frites avec cela I for one wont be crying into my Moet.
Comments
Please translate, I refuse to learn French
Posted by: LCpl Dan | June 7, 2008 4:54 PM
Dusting off my ancient 9th grade French lessons here, I think it says "Do you want fries with that?"
On another note, "GPMG " is a fine test of humanity, particularly appropriate for 4th of July or Guy Fawkes Day.
Posted by: Paul | June 8, 2008 3:55 PM
Are those Ferraris and Other High Priced High Performance Machines? As well as being red?
Bwahahahahahaha!!!!
Posted by: Cricket | June 11, 2008 4:04 AM