Yesterdys P&L: GBP228.00
Yestedays Booze: 500ml Danzka Blackcurrent Vodka, 2 x 500ml Stella Artois, 3 x Gordons Gin & light tonic, (New Years resolution), 1ltr Dry Irish Cider.

So back to work, the markets are returning to some level of reasonable activity, (it doesn't last long - soon the traders in Wall Street will be preparing for their Easter break). Maybe lower wages are the answer, might make the bastards work harder! I have heard from a friend that the lay-offs have started at Merril Lynch, (the thundering herd as they used to be known), apparantly a lot of analysts, traders and salespeople are dismayed to find out the standard package is 3 months salary and a maximum bonus of USD25,000. My heart bleeds, it should be remembered that these clowns lost billions of dollars, (USD8billion in last years 3rd quarter), and forced one of the oldest securities companies in America to seek capital from Singapore. The CEO of Bear Stearns is also likely to take the fall today, no doubt with a suitably large pay-off. When Stan O'Neal got the Push from Merrill his package was reported as between USD90-162 million, not bad for letting the company take a dive on your watch.

I still predict hard times ahead and not just because I am Mr.Gloom, it just strikes me that there has been far too much excess in recent years and whenever this happens there needs to be a cleansing period. Of course the severity of this readjustment varies, in my opinion government intervention frequently makes things worse and it seems to me that the US administration is trying too hard to bail out all those rich financiers. The repurcussions of a serious decline in the finance industry will be significant, despite what other people think about bankers, there are a lot of people indirectly employed as a result. All wages are higher on Wall Street and in the City than in other jobs this includes secretaries, clerical workers and receptionists. It explains why there are so many shops selling coffee for GBP3.50 and sandwiches for GBP4.00. As for the higher earners and those that are on corporate accounts, these guys are the reason that you can get special fried rice for USD100.00 in Manhattan, (ok it has lobster instead of shrimp and truffles shavings- but even so) and sandwiches for GBP90.00 in London. I imagine a lot of the strippers that work in London and New York and Chicago are going to find generous tippers harder to come by as well.

My younger brother phoned me today to ask how my birthday was, he has taken to calling me Hilt after the cooler king in the movie The Great Escape. He says that he oen't know anyone who self-imposes so much solitary confinement time as me. He might be on to something I have been sitting in front of all these screens so long I am beginning to feel like somebody who was institutionalised. Still if you are going to be compared with someone it doesn't get much better than Steve McQueen!