Business Diary: 18/07/2009

Lame bets on Recession Proof

An appropriate result in the 5.40 at Newmarket yesterday. The 5-1 favourite, Recession Proof, was due to square off against 8-1 second favourite, Venture Capitalist, right. The result? Both horses were withdrawn with the money going to 8-1 shot Iceman George, which could just about describe the economic chill that continues to make Britain shiver.

Error: Hank@treasury.gov.us

For someone that once ran Goldman Sachs, one of the most complex organs on Wall Street, Hank Paulson turns out to be something of a technophobe. And we are not talking about Twitter – "guess what? Just let Lehman Brothers collapse!" or Facebook – "Hank Paulson is looking forward to retirement on his Caribbean retreat once those pesky questions on The Hill end." No, we are talking about the basics. Hank, right, it turns out, was never given an email account when Treasury Secretary. At least he won't get all those emailed jokes that tell of the incompetency of the last US administration under George Bush.

WHA 7 a pointless WAS7E of cash

And at least Hank and his buddies that got out of the finance industry at just the right time still have enough wonga left to take part in the latest series of auctions of new car registrations held by the DLVA. But most of the likely lads in the City that have found themselves a little credit crunched in recent months may feel that a few hundred quid on gems like BOW 71E and CRA 7E just isn't worth it nowadays.

Bishopsgate is boring people senseless

Today's award for the completely banal goes to the PR firm Bishopsgate Communications, a group that specialises in small-cap clients, and which yesterday launched a Twitter account. The firm promises to update those silly enough, or perhaps drunk enough, to sign up to "posting news, views and anything industry related". We can't imagine why anyone would want to actively sign up to what the firm sends as an email anyway, but on a slow news day, we were tempted to have a look and were told to WATCH THIS SPACE on the first entry. We ultimately decided against it.

Number of the day: 6.6%

The weekly rise of the FTSE 100 since Monday, the index's best five-day performance this year.