Special report As I swept through Kent and Calais on a Eurostar last week, the financial markets again threw some entertainment my way in the shape of the SocGen debacle.

My last Reg piece explained that the credit crunch was partly fuelled by VBA and that is what appears to have happened again.

However, Eurostar trains don’t have Wi-Fi, and my only access to the world was a BlackBerry. So getting Kerviel’s number took hours, by which time he had gone to ground. He has my mobile number if he wants a chat…

Nevertheless, in various Paris bars over the weekend, fragments of the story grew in the telling. There were a few common threads, but the consensus was not surprise that this had happened – just that it happened to SocGen, which has an enviable reputation throughout the market as a “smart” bank.

Absolutely no trader or quant has said to me “couldn’t happen at my bank”. A couple of sharp risk managers correctly speculated that the numbers involved would grow, and that because he had compromised the systems no honest final number would be available soon. Since it appears that it was an external source who complained about the problem, not SG risk management, this seems highly credible.

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It’s coming so we all better get saving. I know it my seem wrong of me but I know when this happens there is going to be people out there that can’t afford their homes and thats where I will become rich.

CHEAP HOUSES – DEMAND FOR RENT

Recent headlines in the financial press have been focusing on an area of the financial world that rarely gets to see the light of day, let alone the front pages – the government bond market.

Although things have stabilised somewhat now, the yield on a 10-year gilt (UK government bond) last week hit a seven-year high of nearly 5.5%, while in the US, the yield on a 10-year Treasury (US government bond) also shot up.

As Henderson Global Investors put it, the drop in gilt prices (prices fall as yields rise), was “a significant correction for these normally stable investments”.

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Perks, are they really?

Accept less pay for perks we then get taxed on. Who winning this one?

So you’re up for a new job. But the salary you’re offered is, somewhat surprisingly, unappealingly low.

Having repeatedly failed to get the company to up their offer one iota, most of us would say “thanks, but no thanks”. After all, if you’re worth more, you should be able to get more, right?

Yes, and this is where the world of perks comes into play. Because salary aside, you could find that the perks you get with this ‘poorly-paid’ job are well worth having.

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