Well, I seem to have upset one reader last week, when I described how I was off skiing for the weekend and some of the efforts Euromoney Poll head honcho Andrew Newby has to go to protect its sanctity. The reader, who calls himself Robin Prinz, added a comment to the site. “Break a leg!” he exhorted. “In fact, break both of them.”
Bit harsh, I thought, but everyone’s entitled to an opinion. After all, it’s opinions which make markets. So ‘Robin’, who commented behind a Yahoo e-mail address, will no doubt be disappointed that we all returned safely after a fantastic trip. Le mot du jour, so to speak, for the entire jaunt was “Combien?”
Most of you will have seen the supposed picture of the response of Soc Gen’s chief executive when he heard that Jerome Kerviel, had blown a near €5 billion hole in the bank’s balance sheet. I was very impressed by Simon Meadows, global head of FX sales at Credit Suisse, who spotted straight away that the picture is of the late French actor and singer Fernandel. “Shows I have a bit of culture, non?” he asked me.