The motto of the old order in the City of London was, 'My word is my bond,' but the financial crisis revealed a culture quite alien to that heritage. The stewards of people's money were revealed to have been speculators with it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The Great Inflation of the 1970s destroyed faith in paper assets, because if you held a bond, suddenly the bond was worth much less money than it was before.
My whole thing is loyalty. Loyalty over royalty; word is bond.
Cynicism is something which has become symbolic of imperial policy.
Bond is a classic archetype character, a character that's embedded in our heads forever, one of a lone warrior setting out to avenge a nation - and you find that character across cultures.
In my first book, 'Ghosts Of Manhattan,' the setting was Wall Street, and I explored the predictable nature of a bond trader inside the compensation scheme at Bear Stearns and the government regulations of Wall Street. That was about money.
I am a big believer that orderliness begets wealth. A pile of bills and statements - whether paid or not - is a sign that someone is clueless about what's coming in and going out. When you consciously open, read, and file away your bills and statements, you are connecting with your money and taking control of your life.
We lost our way and allowed greed and excess to become the twin pillars of too much of the financial culture. We became a society utterly absorbed in consumption and dismissive of moderation.
There's a lot of tension in London, but then you realize it's always been there, in its history, and that the best thing about London, that there's always been this tension.
What's my motto when it comes to money? Don't put so much emphasis on it!
Your word is your bond.