visited the swank people at hsbc today (oooh ushered into international banking office ooh) where there are posh sofas and pictures of rich men escorting their wives out of cars. and free copies of the economist and cups of coffee. oooh sure better than flying over and then being rejected over the counter over there.

but the service was excellent, all smiles (although it was a rather busy day), and I've always been fascinated by banks. maybe because they're all snobbish in the old world kind of way, a, you know, i'll always earn more than you do, i don't know why you even bother kind of attitude. and all the fancy financial instruments and things you play with. and where pr officers seduce the next rich man to put their billion dollars with the bank you can trust. (sorry i didn't say rich woman. old world.)

but they did give me due attention even though i'm only opening a paltry account with them, and then it struck me, if they catch all the uk graduates, each putting maybe 1,000 bucks in the account (low estimate, some people put more at once), that's 1000 x 1000 easily (assuming of course hsbc doesn't get hold of all the uk bound people out there, of which there are few thousands, post and undergrad). a million bucks in cold hard cash, put it through the banking multiplier voodoo money printing machine and you can generate 10 million of loans easy. not to mention when the people have it made after school you seduce them again to leave their money in the bank when they begin working and you see what good service is about. relationships. or relationships are about good service, which sounds a bit dodgier. and there's also a range of deposits, fixed, term, currency that will suit their needs even fine (and yours, in case I didn't mention it.)

teaching today was excellent, because finally got back to bio, and i love teaching bio. as i was presenting, i was thinking, "so why am i not studying biology. oh yes because i'm studying economics." fascinating.