Citi for dinner, a duet and an alphabet of alphas

Citi’s lesson from historyWhy weren’t you invited? In late November, a group of elite bankers slipped away from their desks to join my editor and me for lunch at the Caprice restaurant in London’s fashionable West End. Those present included one of the wealthiest men in England, one of the most powerful men in England, a senior American investment banker running a wealth management business, a Swiss gnome and a gorgeous girl who works for one of the world’s top hedge funds. “Business lunches are supposed to be work. This was fun. What an eclectic and fascinating group of people,” a guest enthused in his thank-you note.The purpose of the lunch was to mirror the purpose of this column: to step back from the demands of the day and review key financial trends, peppered by the odd morsel of market gossip. It is rare that financiers from different disciplines are...