I read with wry smile firmly fixed in position last week, of an interview given by Bernie Madoff, to the New York Times, presumably from his prison cell.

Madoff is currently serving 150 years in US prison for fraud amounting to around £40bn.

He asserts in the Times article that others “had to have known” what was happening with his Ponzi scheme. (This type of scheme relies on the input of new funds to meet the demand for pay out to existing investors instead of on profits, as in the Madoff case, when a significant number of investors want to withdraw their funds the pot is revealed as empty).

He talks of the alleged “wilful blindness” of banks and hedge funds, of the failure to examine closely discrepancies between his regulatory filings and other information (Click link).

There have been two big announcements relating to banking this week, the first was the surprise announcement by the Chancellor that he will implement the increase in the levy on Banks this year, second was the announcement of the so called Merlin deal. I’ll not embarrass myself by trying to explain all of this, it has been covered extensively in the news: (Click Link) & (Click Link)

The reason I have highlighted these significant announcements is for a rather more cynical reason. On the coattails of these announcements have also been a number of statements about how it is now time to leave the Bankers alone, to stop “Banker bashing”, “let that be an end to it”.

I was really excited today to read about a new venture aimed at providing the British business blogging world with a one stop shop for all business blogs.

British Business Bloggers is the site and I’m thrilled to say that Signal has been accepted onto it as one of the bloggers. A quick look through the site leads me to think that this will be a very useful tool for finding all those interesting business blogs that you miss, because there just isn’t enough time in the day.

If you’re in business and you blog I strongly suggest you sign up.

Now, I just need to work out how to get the logo on the Signal website!

Happy blogging.