The CDS market, being a form of insurance for bank debt, is supposed to be one of the measures we can use to gauge bank creditworthiness. This is a more timely measure than agency ratings, which tend to be based on historical data and have a history of missing the point.

There was an interesting article in the FT this week about trends in recruiting that are making their way from America to these shores. The objective is to avoid bias in the recruitment process. To assist funky trend this CVs have common information omitted, including the candidate's name and which school and university he or she went to.

The focus is on work experience and educational achievements. This supposedly avoids stereotyping and recruiter bias.

My primary school was called Clintons too. It wasn't very good either. Honestly, is anybody surprised that Clintons have fallen over? This has surely been an inevitably since the recession started. A huge portfolio of tired stores, largely in tired shopping arcades. Décor with a beige flavour. And they are selling printed cardboard.

So the Greeks have spent the last few days trying to form a big gang. Members from various little gangs try to find common ground, whilst ignoring the flashing of switchblades as they jockey for advantageous position as head honcho. Eventually the president banged heads together, which just resulted in sore heads rather than anything useful.

Yesterday evening, a former colleague of mine in New York sent me some clippings about the state of US law firms. Dewey & LeBoeuf have apparently turned up their toes. These guys were ambitious and knocking on the doors of the upper echelon. Got a bit greedy. Leveraged to finance expansion. Top partners paid lots. Junior partners paid little. Associates paid peanuts and encouraged to borrow and to buy into the partnership. Corporate deals dried up in recession. Game over.

So Sarkozy has been given his marching orders. And the Greeks aren’t fans of their austerity coalition. And despite Ed Miliband being about as impressive as a tinned sardine, we head a bit more pinkly left in the UK too, except for Boris.