From Greece and Natalie Bennett to the banks and London’s skyline: Here’s what got us talking this week
There was a lot of talk about a dress. And quite a bit about the llama drama. But here at City PM Towers, we were obsessing about plenty of other things.
Greece finally managed to break the stalemate over its debt, negotiating a four month extension with Germany, and ending weeks of debate about a possible Grexit. Markets breathed a sigh of relief as the Bundestag approved the bailout deal, just ahead of Saturday's deadline.
And while it was probably down to lot of high level talks, we like to think it was the threat of this rap battle that really greased the diplomatic wheels.
It was a week of bank results, ranging from the good to the bad and the very ugly indeed. Lloyds came out best, with a huge uplift in profits, enabling it to pay out dividends for the first time since the financial crisis (and paying boss Antonio Horta-Osório a handsome sum too).
At the other end of the spectrum, it emerged that Coutts was being investigated by the German authorities for alleged tax evasion at its Swiss arm, slightly taking the sheen off the news that parent company RBS had named its new chairman.
It was not just Howard Davies who we learned was changing jobs this week. Morrisons has finally found a new chief executive in the form of ex-Tesco man David Potts.
Meanwhile former JPMorgan banker Bill Winters is being parachuted in at Standard Chartered in an effort to turn the bank's fortunes around. He's an incredibly popular choice with the City and perhaps, thanks to this video of him singing bare-chested, with the ladies too.
Natalie Bennett was in the news for all the wrong reasons this week after suffering a car-crash interview at the hands of LBC host Nick Ferrari. The Green Party leader struggled on policy areas, basic maths and facts and was struck down by a nasty cough. According to at least one bookie, that single appearance has increased the chances of her being unseated as a leader before we make it to the General Election.
And there was a lot of talk about London architecture. Firstly, a series of designs vying to be selected as the new Nine Elms-Pimlico bridge were revealed, ranging from the brilliant to the bonkers, and then it transpired that the Shard would be getting another building buddy, becoming a “trilogy” by 2018. Our favourite though were the images of the Great Tower of London that never was.
Leisurely reads
Thinking about getting away from it all? Here are 21 of Airbnb's most remote rental locations, including an Alaskan cabin in the woods, a treehouse in Costa Rica and a castle on the Galapogos. This is about as leisurely as it gets.
The thorny issue of when the 2022 Qatar World Cup will take place resurfaced once again, and with it many a gnashing of teeth. This article explores six of the biggest problems with the controversial plans.
This week the Leap 100 series launched, kicking off by asking the select group of the UK's most exciting, high-growth companies about one of the most pressing matters of 2015: politics. Find out who said what here.
From elsewhere
Can you imagine what it's like to wake up with someone else's face? All the talk about head transplants reminded us of this article from GQ about Richard Norris, who had a full face transplant three years ago. This is a long read, but well worth it.
Lastly, it's been a year since Flight MH370 went missing. This New York Magazine article goes through the mystery in fascinating detail.
And by the way
It may be the weekend, but there’s no time off for the biggest names in tech as they head for Barcelona and the biggest event of the year in mobile – Mobile World Congress. Here’s the lowdown on the people (Zuckerberg, telecoms bosses, and digital finance guys) and devices (Samsung, Google, HTC and Kazam) to look out for at next week’s event.
The last word
