Euroblog

BondBitch It was wonderful to see so many old friends and borrowers at our awards dinner on May 23. Bart van Dooren was welling up with pride at his award and Kari Kukka finally got the recognition he deserved. Anne Leclercq and Maria Cannata flew the flag for the ladies while a senior regulator was overheard exclaiming of Moira Stewart “Fine Woman!” A far better response than Will Self ever got.

pjbye@hsbc.com Who said I wasn’t a man of many talents, because if they did, they can start eating their pins and bowling balls! Me and my team of “chosen ones” won HSBC’s syndicate bowling competition this week and not by a small margin either —250 points we beat the others by! adam.bothamley@hsbc.com And I guess I didn’t get invited to join your team because I was away on honeymoon when it went out...

frank.czichowski@kfw.com Hello? Is that JP Morgan’s syndicate desk?

Bond Bitch Dust off those tuxedos, people! EuroWeek’s second annual bond dinner is just two weeks away. We can’t promise it will be as classy as a night at Chinawhite with the Chelsea football team, but at least there will be food.

Bond Bitch Now, I’m the last person to kick someone when they’re down, ever, but heaven help us, what was EIB up to this week? We had to close the order book on critical comments early as it was so oversubscribed, unlike the actual deal.

Bond Dame I’ve been wiping tears off my computer screen all week — two old friends are leaving the markets and it feels like the end of an era.

Humphreythecat@downingstreet.co.uk Meeoow Meeoow. This is Humphrey the Downing Street Cat back from the dead and ready to report on strange comings and goings in Downing Street.

charles.clarke@hsbc.com As if a new baby on my hands wasn’t enough, there was a bit of a PR disaster to handle this week. Give me dirty nappies any day rather than having to deal with those press calls... Who’s the silly sod who lost all this customer data?

boywonder On Tuesday you hear UBS is expecting massive writedowns and Deutsche is also going to take a hit for the first quarter and what? Their share prices soar! Has the world gone mad?

French Letter It feels like the miracle of spring has repeated itself and the credit markets have come back to life again. We found no rotten bank eggs over the weekend and were able to eat our chocolate happily.

Fix Dinkum Someone, please hit the panic button right now. This is an official red alert. Mark Geller, ‘the bond market’s mine canary’, has just gone away for a few days’ holidays, to try to catch up with some sun. That is always a sign of trouble on the way. You thought Bear Stearns was bad, you wait... this has got to mean the end of the world is upon us... Is Citigroup next?

boywonder What a week in the markets this was! The Fed injecting $436bn of hope into the banking system, and all that goodness being crushed by the news of Carlyle Capital and possibly some banks going down. The list is endless.