helena frith powell

  • Lifestyle
  • Women
  • Beauty
  • France
  • Contact

Nice work if you can get it boys

4th November 2007 by Helena 4 Comments  

I see today that yet another “top” banker is about to resign or be pushed following record losses for the bank he runs. Citigroup chairman Chuck Prince has earned £27 million during his last four years at the bank, where he has presided over losses of £3.3 billion and a 57% slide in profits.

He joins former Merrill Lynch boss, Stan O’Neal, who last week was asked to leave but given a £181 million golden goodbye. In common with Prince, O’Neal was responsible for record losses at his bank. A staggering $2.3 billion during just one quarter, and a total of $8.4 billion. For working so hard, O’Neal earned $48 million in 2006. Yet when he announced he was leaving the bank’s share price actually went up.

So let’s imagine you’re working at a nursery and you lose 57% of the children in your care. Do you think you would be sent home, told you have been very silly and given some more children to take home with you? Or you sell cars for a living but decide to give away half the cars in your forecourt to random passers-by?

These men are over-paid failures who have lost millions for their banks. But no one blames them for it. Why is this?

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Life, Work, blog -->

4 thoughts on Nice work if you can get it boys

  • Jonathan Miller says:
    4th November 2007 at 1:03 pm

    You ask a serious question. I am not equipped to offer a serious answer. But I can provide further questions: How can the chief of a police force found guilty of 19 system failures resulting in the death of an innocent man refuse to even give up his annual bonus? How can a prime minister who committed crimes against humanity by waging aggressive war be making millions on the lecture circuit when he should be in the penitentiary? How can editors print such drivel as the torrent of Maddy stories, each meaning less than the one before, not to speak of drivel from the likes of Jeremy Clarkson? Face it, nobody is responsible for anything anymore.

  • helena says:
    4th November 2007 at 5:20 pm

    All good questions. But more crucially, why is grey back in fashion?
    Hx

  • Graham says:
    4th November 2007 at 7:02 pm

    Grey is always in fashion. I love it. Antracite double breasted suit with a black pocket handkercheif, black shirt and a silver bracelet. Very smooth…. And I’m a bloke.

    G

  • Lloyd says:
    9th November 2007 at 6:27 pm

    It is always the large companies in America that can buy their way out of any ordeal. If fact a Wall Street saying goes that all companies have skeletons in their closets, those that survive are those that can cover them with $$$$$$. If the performance of these men was in a low tier company, they would both be facing life in prison, because of the Federal sentencing guidelines, which you don’t want to get me started on!!!!!!!!!!! HA, HA, HA

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

© 2023 Helena Frith Powell
Website by Web Inclusion
/* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: content-template-for-layout-for-header-and-footer-layout - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .helenaHero .mainTitle h1{ font-size:3em; -webkit-transition: all 0.8s; -moz-transition: all 0.8s; -ms-transition: all 0.8s; -o-transition: all 0.8s; transition: all 0.8s; margin-top:-100%; padding-top:100px; padding-bottom:50px; margin:0; } .scrolled .helenaHero .mainTitle h1{ font-size:1.2em; padding-top:30px; padding-bottom:20px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: content-template-for-layout-for-header-and-footer-layout - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17hfp_about - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .HFPA-section{ width:100%; background:#eee; } .HFPA-Image{ background-position:center right; background-repeat:no-repeat; height:276px; width:100%; -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%); /* Safari 6.0 - 9.0 */ filter: grayscale(100%); } .HFPA-Text{ padding:20px 10px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17hfp_about - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17footer - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .footIt{ background:#222; padding:20px 10px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17footer - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */