Irrational Numbers

A rogue trader has cost France's second biggest bank more than three and a half thousand million pounds. He was acting from "totally irrational" motives, according to the boss of the bank, who does not know him.

As a result of the activities of the trader, whose employers are unable to locate him in order to fire him formally, the bank will be forced into a four-thousand-million-pound capital raising.

An investment banking audit expert stated that "Most banks have cases where traders have been naughty, but in the majority of cases it is managed internally and kept quiet. It is the sheer scale of this which is unusual. ... It suggested that the independent checks just weren't picking up on the trades."

This is one reason why the flotation of public services on the stock market results in greater efficiency and competitiveness.

However, since the French do not always follow the more civilised practices in use here on the mainland, it is not clear as yet whether French taxpayers will have the privilege of paying for the bank's misfortunes.