Mrs Moneypenny: We're short of exhilarating plunder

Mrs M reflects on the effects of a bear market on a generation untutored in the violence of capitalism

Descriptions can often be misleading. Recently I saw Standard Chartered Bank defined as an investment bank – and this in a quality national newspaper based in London. What constitutes an investment bank anyway?

Twenty years ago Paul Ferris wrote Gentlemen of Fortune: the World's Merchant and Investment Bankers in which he described investment banking as "capitalism boiled down to its essentials". He wrote: "The trade has a touch of violence. It is a kind of exhilarating plunder."

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Aviva Takeover of Direct Line Gets Green Light From U.K. Antitrust WatchdogExternal link

Aviva Takeover of Direct Line Gets Green Light From U.K. Antitrust Watchdog