Lord King of Lothbury, the former Bank of England governor, offered some advice to Jerome Powell, the incoming chairman of the US Federal Reserve, in a mock letter published by Bloomberg yesterday. Mr Powell’s “legacy will depend on whether you succeed in protecting the Fed’s independence”, Lord King wrote. “To that end, it’s crucial to show that the Fed is a source of expertise and integrity, not a political actor.”
Gordon Brown must have thought that a bit rich. As the former prime minister recently recalled, Lord King waded into politics before the 2010 election by “telling us that fiscal activism was completely unacceptable”, having refused to cut interest rates until after the 2008 recession had begun.
Just a bit sleazy?
One unreconstructed boss of a small-cap City stockbroker has been left a little hot under the collar by the Presidents Club furore. In his daily email to personal contacts, he concludes a lengthy rant with the following: “Come on ladies, the Presidents Club may be very 1980s but the guys could be doing something far worse if they really wanted to. At least there you knew it was just a bit sleazy but nothing worse.”
Sunbed battle isn’t over
Thomas Cook’s scheme to allow holidaymakers to pre-book sunbeds before they jet off appeared to have handed victory to the Brits in their battle to claim the best spots. In fact, it turns out that the tour operator is offering a similar facility to German customers. Peter Fankhauser, the Thomas Cook chief executive, confesses to being “slightly bemused” by the whole thing. “As a neutral Swiss, I’m happy to sit it out on the sidelines.”
Goodwill hunting
Under scrutiny by the House of Commons investigation into the collapse of Carillion, Stephen Haddrill, chief executive of Financial Reporting Council, a non-accountant heading the auditing regulator, was left floundering when asked to give a definition of the accounting term “goodwill” — an asset that in Carillion’s case was valued at £1.57 billion. Frank Field, co-chairman of the committee, offered his own version: “Goodwill? It’s an item that disappears when a company is in trouble.”
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Business big shot
Name Duncan Garrood
Age 59
Position Chief executive, Bill’s restaurants
The casual dining sector may be struggling, amid soaring costs and fierce competition, but the new boss of Bill’s Restaurants has already proved he is up for a challenge. When Duncan Garrood joined Punch Taverns as chief executive in 2015, the tenanted pubs group was still in mid-turnaround after years of debt-fuelled over-expansion. He quit Punch in September after overseeing its £1.8 billion sale to Patron Capital and Heineken.
He will take the reins at Bill’s from Mark Fox, who is leaving for “personal reasons” after less than two years in the role. The new Bill’s boss is a former executive of Unilever, BAA, the airports owner, and MH Alshaya, a Kuwait-based retailer. Bill’s has 80 outlets and, unlike some of its peers, is continuing to expand.