John Lanchester: If I had to pick a single fact which summed up the cultural gap between the City of London and the rest of the country, it would be that one. I have yet to meet a single person not employed in financial services who was aware of it; I wasn't aware of it myself. I think if I had been, there are two questions I would have wanted answered: how did that happen? And is it a good thing?
This is one of those points of stock-market logic which seems surreal, nonsensical and wholly counter-intuitive to civilians, but which to market participants is as familiar as beans on toast.
Sometimes, when you eat chili-hot food, the first few mouthfuls tell you nothing other than that the food contains chili. It takes a moment or two to detect the presence of other flavors. Bank bail-outs and collapses are a bit like that.
Most of us have had a few drinks at a party and done something embarrassing, usually along the lines of I've-always-fancied-you-isn't-it-time-we-did-something-about-it, but let's take comfort in the following truth: none of us has ever done anything as embarrassing as buying HBOS.
That feeling you get when you've eaten something, and a few minutes later you think, oh-oh, I think that my dinner just said that was a case not of adieu but au revoir? That would be AIG.
Ginia Bellafante: There used to be a time if you didn't have money to buy something, you just didn't buy it.
Nouriel Roubini: Things are going to be awful for everyday people.
It's Finished | 
