1 The administrators of Woolworths have 8 main banks to deal with. Companies owned by private equity firms have debt owned by hundreds of hedge funds
2 Lawyers are to hold a high-priced conference about post credit crunch legislation early next year.
3 The Futures & Options Association will hold a debate in January: Is this the end of the financial world as we know it?
4 £1.8 trillion - the total liabilities of Royal Bank of Scotland:
.....£1.4 trillion - UK total GDP, 2007
5 Local councils are showing their distrust of banks. In the first 3 weeks of October they deposited £10 billion, compared with a more usual £1 billion a month, in the Treasury’s Debt Management Account Deposit Facility, which offers a below market rate of return
6 The Red Cross, unable to find a corporate sponsor, has cancelled its winter gala. Shelter has had to lay off 30 staff
7 The BBC is considering whether to take over the whole of 2Entertain, a joint venture with Woolworths which sells DVDs. £50 million of the £100 million price tag will go to the pension fund
8 Toyota has lost its AAA credit rating
9 Organic food sales are down
10 On 7 November not one customer even entered one well known luxury fashion shop on Madison Avenue
11 The number of high quality applicants for jobs on the board of UK Financial Investments, the company which will manage the government’s bank shares, has been ‘staggering’
12 Uniqlo, Japanese owners of a chain of clothes shops, are looking to expand in UK & US now that premises are so much cheaper & easier to find
13 Bonuses have been paid out early to the partners in one firm of solicitors. The money is carefully distributed in personal accounts of not more than £50,000 each, so that it is entirely covered by government guarantee if the banks fail. Nobody is going on any spending spree however – the partners have all agreed to repay the money should the firm need it back for cashflow reasons
