'We don't know whether to compare this to the courageous Charge of the Light Brigade or General George Custer's last stand at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.' This was the comment from one of the most respected syndicate managers in the Euromarkets when I asked him about Nomura's latest hiring spree in its international fixed-income division.

Why should he be so sceptical? If our memory for history is not fading, we recall that the Charge of the Light Brigade was gloriously brave but equally foolish and that George Custer's Seventh Cavalry were massacred to the last man. Surely Nomura at least deserves some credit for just a certain amount of chutzpah?