Simon Jack

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On 9 August 2007 the French investment bank BNP Paribas announced it was shutting down three investment funds - meaning people who had invested in them couldn't get their money out.

Its press release read as follows:

"The complete evaporation of liquidity in certain market segments of the US securitization market has made it impossible to value certain assets fairly, regardless of their quality or credit rating."

In English what that means is "we couldn't sell this stuff if we tried because no-one knows what it's worth, if anything".

It is seen by most as the beginning of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. The stuff they couldn't value was bundles of US mortgages.

The big squeeze on incomes will get tighter from here and will last longer than previously thought.

At the moment, prices are rising 2.6% while wages are rising just 2%. That gap is expected to widen later this year.

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What exactly is the government's stance on the free movement of people post Brexit? Is it free or not free?

It seems just as Schroedinger's famous cat which could be alive and dead at the same time - so the UK's immigration policy has become a baffling paradox with the movement of people both free and not free at the same time.

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A "significant" Brexit transitional period needs to be agreed as soon as possible, to stop jobs being moved from the UK to Europe, according to the boss of Goldman Sachs International.

Chief executive Richard Gnodde told the BBC he was spending money "every single day" on contingency plans for Brexit.

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The surprise fall in the inflation rate from 2.9% to 2.6% begs the question: has it now peaked? And if so, what does that mean for living standards and borrowing costs?

Inflation has been on a steady climb since the end of 2015 and accelerated after the EU referendum result in June last year, as the sharp fall in the value of the pound pushed up the price of everything we import.

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In capital cities around Europe there is a smell of blood in the water - a sense that the UK's financial services industry has been wounded by Brexit and that presents a chance to take a bite out of its dominant position.

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan - which employs 16,000 people in Britain - has already said he will move hundreds of people out of the UK when it leaves the EU to Dublin and Frankfurt where it already has operations.

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"I am not Obi-Wan Kenobi controlling the Deathstar."

That was Mike Ashley's response to the suggestion that he runs the retailer Sports Direct with absolute power.

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The four defendants made their way through a thick press pack to take their seats - in the dock - at Westminster Magistrates court yesterday. It was a sight many thought they would never see. Senior bank executives inside a criminal court to face charges for their conduct during the great financial crisis.

Former chief executive John Varley and bankers Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris and Richard Boath sat, stony-faced, next to each other behind the glass panel as they gave their names, date of birth and addresses and listened as the charges against them were read by the clerk of the court.

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The Co-op Bank has been limping along for four years since an abortive attempt to buy 632 branches from Lloyds revealed a £1.5bn hole in its finances.

It was saved by a consortium of US hedge funds but has been unable to earn itself back to health since then.

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Former top executives at Barclays will be the first senior managers to face criminal charges over their activities during the financial crisis nearly a decade ago.

A five-year Serious Fraud Office (SFO) inquiry will see charges brought against both Barclays PLC, the holding company of Barclays Bank (an important distinction as I'll try and explain later) as well as four executives, including former chief executive John Varley, and Roger Jenkins, who was head of investment banking and wealth management for Barclays in the Middle East.