Black Monday

Now Monday 21 January this year was not only Black because it was a) commonly held to be the most depressing day of the year in any case; b) the day upon which I returned to the office with major jet lag after a month off having a great time, but also because c) the worst European stock market crash since 2001 took place. It also turns out that it was the day on which a bank had to start unloading a €30bn long position of OTM European equity futures, having discovered a major fraud on the Friday. How unlucky is that! Or are the two events not unconnected…?

Also, am I the only one who thinks that it sits rather ill in the mouths of senior members of a bank in such circumstances to describe the person who had entered the bank into that €30bn position apparently without anyone at the bank noticing in such patronising terms as “he was not one of our stars” and he was “without particular genius”.

Labels: crime, news