| The bank is on a cost-cutting drive so myself and JJ Ingersoll, the firm's head of global focus, travel to New York first class for an important routine meeting on whether we should use postage stamps or just fax everything. Alas, our Coststream 2000 jet, recently re-christened "Give us a cut Greenspan", remains in Broadgate. Times are that hard. We are sitting next to a quiet contemplative Swiss, when a British Airstrikes hostess bends over and asks whether he is a fan of Vietnamese cinema, dubbed in French. He replies Ja and is handed a small digital cassette. A miniature television lights up as he inserts the cassette and puts on his headphones. Curious, I lean over. I can just hear a stern militaristic voice if I slip my right leg over JJ's shoulder and lean my cheek on my food tray. "Good morning, Mr Doerag," says the voice. "You have been selected from 600 elite branch managers for a mission on which the fate of the Swiss-German speaking world rests. The mission is delicate and will only be successful should you put into practice all the subtlety and diligence gained in your peerless career opening savings accounts via lawyers in Grand Caveman. |