Tag Archives: Lehman

Free theatre tickets for redundant bankers!

If you’ve recently lost the security of employment under an investment bank and your highly lucrative job has turned you into one of the thousands of well-qualified investment bankers looking for another similar position then don’t panic; Andrew Lloyd Webber’s to the rescue!

As a recently unemployed banker you can claim free tickets to The Sound of Music and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat from now to 15th October. And the Telegraph.co.uk reports the Andrew Lloyd Webber’s words: ‘Both The Sound of Music and Joseph are feel-good shows and I thought that free tickets might offer some respite, albeit for a couple of hours, for some of those people who have sadly lost their jobs in the current economic upheaval’.

Interestingly the offer depends on the theatre-goer bringing along the P45 issued from they’re recently folded bank employers, the very piece of paper that embodies their redundancy and the demise of their secure livelihood. Can you imagine all the recently fired bankers brandishing this piece of paper in public amongst their ex-colleagues in the queue for the theatre… we think not. I’m sure the column inches devoted to this offer (such as this blog!) will serve to publicise the shows even more. As such this promotion should clearly be noted for its value as a stunt marking Webber’s unfailing business savvy rather than a legitimate offer for those it is purporting to be targeting.

Inflation and bankruptcy! Don’t panic.

Don’t panic. Even if all todays news is very very bad: don’t panic, business and life keep going on! But let’s have a look at the 4 most read news stories of today from London about London:

  1. The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings has brought several consequences: markets everywhere have never been so down, overnight the cost of borrowing in dollars has more than doubled to the highest since 2001 (from 3.33 percentage points to 6.44 percent today: the biggest jump, according to the British Bankers’ Association), 7000 bankers are now sending out their cv’s and hoping to quickly solve their personal situations.
  2. ‘Inflation surged above forecasts to 4.7 per cent in August to the highest rate since Britain’s last recession, after the price of food and energy rose. – Thetimesonline.co.uk says: – Households are now paying 27.7 per cent more on their gas bills and 18 per cent more for electricity. The cost of banking services also increased as lenders cut their mortgage arrangement fees by less than they did last year. Food prices also rose by 1.3 per cent last month and, in the year to August, by 13 per cent’.
  3. Problems in the City, at home and at City Hall: – David Cairns, Minister of State at the Scotland Office, believes Mr Brown is showing a lack of leadership and direction to the country -, says the Timesonline.co.uk – He is unhappy about the lack of direction and believes the leadership is all over the place and making lots of mistakes. He has been unhappy for some considerable time and could decide to go today.
  4. And in London the crimes are increasing. Spokesman Chris Huhne has set out his vision for tackling crime, calling for better policing rather than tougher sentences. He said people should not be sent to jail for minor offences when other punishments would be more effective. Resources must be directed towards more effective policing and detection rather than more prisons, Mr Huhne added.

But don’t worry life is an up and down of events, the famous destiny’s waves! Londoners (and not just them) have to try to resist, never give up and learn from the brave Lehman’s workers that kept going to work, knowing well what was going on and now are at work to find a new employer. Being up to date and connected is indispensable in order to succeed and to survive: for this reason London Presence continues to provide you with efficient customer service from Monday to Friday (9am – 5,30pm) and with a unique blog!

Lehman Bros & Co: a black monday

It was a tough morning for many going to work in The City today; it’s Monday and it’s a black day for the Market. The fourth-largest U.S. investment bank has gone bust and all the front pages are dedicated to what could be the largest scale bankruptcy in history. Bloomberg.com explains in detail what is happening: “Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. succumbed to the subprime mortgage crisis it helped create in the biggest bankruptcy filing in history. The 158-year-old firm, which survived railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management a decade ago, has filed a Chapter 11 petition with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan today. The collapse of Lehman, which listed more than $613 billion of debt, surpasses WorldCom Inc.’s insolvency in 2002 and Drexel Burnham Lambert’s failure in 1990.”

Unfortunately the crisis is not limited to the Lehman collapse: the Bank of America has brought Merrill Lynch, and Wall Street is in crisis. Thetimesonline.co.uk says: “London woke up to discover that, overnight, two of the biggest pillars of Wall Street had either collapsed or passed into new ownership, the world’s largest insurer was forced into an emergency restructuring, and 10 banks put together an emergency fund to lend to any other ailing banks”. This bad news will probably not come as a surprise to many. But the problem is serious and involves all the Markets and a huge numbers of bankers, who can’t predict anything about their future. “One New York observer (thetimesonline.co.uk goes on to say) estimated that 40 per cent of Merrill’s workforce, or 24,000 people, could be out of a job. The situation at Lehman will inevitably be much worse”.

But, as Douglas Adams would say, Don’t Panic! “This is undoubtedly the worst banking crisis since the 1930s, but traders shouldn’t panic and start to sell shares of other leading banks. It doesn’t make sense. American, British and other global banks  are cooperating to make the transition as smooth as possible”, said Allister Heath, City A.M. editor.