The Top Class Wednesday Update embraces resistentialism
Have you ever heard of Paul Jennings? You know, the humourist who worked for The Observer throughout the fifties and sixties and who wrote The Great Jelly Of London? I haven’t, but for the purposes of this week’s Update I’ll pretend that I have because it’ll lead nicely into my main topic. Even if you […]
The Top Class Wednesday Update builds back…oh never mind
Some weeks the initial whimsy just defeats you. In a world of government by bantz, where auto-satire is somehow all good, where there are no surprises and where everything everyone said would happen is now happening, where does a humble Updater turn? Probably to the whisky bottle, that’s where – and a bit more on […]
The Top Class Wednesday Update prefers shorter duration bonds
I took no pleasure in that Bond joke. There are some things you just have to grit your teeth and get on with. And when you work in finance and someone releases a Bond film lasting nearly three hours, a bond duration joke is one of them. It’s not glamorous work, but someone has to […]
The Top Class Wednesday Update never runs out of gas
So, so many gas jokes you could make this week – do you go down the industry being full of hot air route, the Mark-Locke-with-a-hangover-after-the-Platform-Awards route, the wasn’t-me-it-was-the-dog route, or simply repeat Marina Hyde’s gag of this morning that if you want a really solid investment you should pop out and buy a Calor Gas […]
The Top Class Wednesday Update will just have a wee slice
It’s our birthday! Happy birthday to us, etc. The lang cat is 11 today; that’s roughly the expected lifespan of one emu and you can’t knock that. I just read the birthday TCWU I did last year about going from working in a windowless basement when I started this thing to…working in a basement with […]
THE TOP CLASS WEDNESDAY UPDATE IS WAY DOWN IN THE HOLE
Back to it, then, and the sound of the industry’s engine grinding back into gear is deafening. We go again, because the game is out there, and it’s either play or get played. We’ll come back to that. It’s our last week of being ten this week – no party last year, no party this […]
THE TOP CLASS WEDNESDAY UPDATE CAPTURES ALL AVAILABLE RETURNS
September comes around again, and to mark the turning of the calendar page there is condensation on the windows this morning. But there’s sunshine too, and a sense of getting back down to it after the interruptions of the summer, not least with the arrival of our newest member of the cat basket yesterday, who […]
THE TOP CLASS WEDNESDAY UPDATE IS JUST A SHOT AWAY
My favourite story about Charlie Watts is that apparently during the recording of one of the Rolling Stones’ less celebrated albums in the mid-1970s, he was, er, exploring the further reaches of pharmaceutical assistance and was sleeping the effects off on the floor of the studio. He was woken up by Keith Richards who told […]
THE TOP CLASS WEDNESDAY UPDATE GETS CURIOUS ABOUT CASH
Eagle-eyed TCWU readers may have spotted that last week we told you normal service would resume today with Mr P firmly back at the helm of the Update. But fear not friends, our dear leader is not MIA, he’s just STILL on holiday. And in the meantime the Update stops for nothing or no one […]
THE TOP CLASS WEDNESDAY UPDATE NEVER REVEALS ITS AGE
Mr P has somehow wangled another holiday, so I’m in charge of the Update again. And luckily for me, not one, but two industry behemoths came good with some news. The kids are alright First up, Hargreaves Lansdown reported record full-year performance backed by soaring demand for its digital services and a large increase in […]
