Jeremy Clarke Jeremy Clarke

Low Life | 11 April 2009

Take cover

issue 11 April 2009

Another soulless office in a bank: another ebullient robot in a dark suit in the chair opposite. This one wanted me to invest a small inheritance in one or both of two investment funds. With these in mind, he showed me a laminated diagram of an equilateral triangle illustrating the correlation between risk and financial gain. It was the kind of thing researchers show chimps to find out how bright they are. The nearer the apex, the greater the profit, but also the greater the risk. It was a bit rich showing me this, I thought, when they should have been showing it to themselves for the past five years. I kept my thoughts to myself, however, and studied it gravely.

His opinion of the current state of the financial markets, which he gave me with the air of sharing a confidence, was that they aren’t in nearly as bad shape as the media pundits are claiming.

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