Boris is Mayor!!!!

What a victory we have to celebrate today. Boris is Mayor of London! If I was not ensconced in beautiful Switzerland I may even consider returning to the 'Old Smoke'.

I used to live in Henley-on-Thames where Boris started his political career. I was at a Conservative party dinner at the famous Leander Rowing club when Boris launched himself into my affections.

Bare in mind this dinner was full of the blue rinse brigade with only a few younger people all sat at one table (and we had been voraciously tucking into the wine) when Boris said "It is odd that I should be making a speech at the famous Leander Club, especially when I spent much of my time at university catching crabs!". Now for those non-rowers 'catching a crab' is when you catch the water on the back swing of a stroke while rowing.

Of course the double entendre went straight over the head of the blue rinsers but made most of our table spit our wine out. I must admit, it got my attention and forever had Boris down as a 'good egg'.

The fact is that this guffawing 'joke' (as the Labour party labelled him) is simply one of the most intelligent people I have ever met and London needs a shot in the arm from someone with brains.

'Red Ken', in my opinion, has been the biggest disaster for the city since the blitz. He put the 'con' in 'congestion charge' by doubling the charge if you happened to be in a meeting after 12 at night, whereas Boris will allow it to be paid the following day.

Systematically recreating the GLC, 'Red Ken' ruled London like his own socialists fiefdom piling more and more misery on the already put-on inhabitants of our great city.

Boris, obviously, will be a controversial character. He is prone to terrible gaffs and does not suffer fools lightly, however, he now has this opportunity to use his massive intellect to do something to make London great again. I doubt he will serve more than one term, but hope that while he is Mayor he will turn London around.

"I do not for one minute believe that this election shows that London has been transformed overnight into a Conservative city but I do hope it does show that the Conservatives have changed into a party that can again be trusted after 30 years with the greatest, most cosmopolitan, multi-racial generous-hearted city on Earth on which there are huge and growing divisions between rich and poor."

Go for it Boris.....

Fotune Favours The Brave?

I recently returned from a trip to Canada. My flight was not going back until the Saturday so I decided to go to the airport via Niagara falls... never been there, thought it would be a box to tick on the 'things to do before you die' list.

While the Falls are indeed, impressive, I didn't realise they were in the middle of an industrial estate and overshadowed by tacky hotels.

There is a vantage point, right at the top of the Falls, where you are no more than a few feet away from water cascading down the escarpment and it gives you an odd falling of wanting to jump in. Obviously I resisted, or you would have heard about my death on CNN, but it did get me to thinking about the latest funds being raised.

Some intrepid investors are moving into the wounded structured credit markets, raising the hope that some stability may return. Dozens of asset managers have created funds since the start of the credit crisis to invest in distressed or mispriced asset-backed securities, collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) and other structured credit instruments.

"Some people have raised considerable amounts of money to invest in structured distressed assets," said Don Brownstein, chief executive and investment officer of U.S. hedge fund firm Structured Portfolio Management. "They believe there is blood on the ground, and they figure they will get to lap some up."

I can't help thinking that these investors are standing in a similar position as I was on the Falls.

OK, at some time there will be time to get into this market but is that now?

Start-ups are coming from groups with a track record in structured credit, such as Solent, Zais, Bluemountain and Structured Portfolio Management, banks such as Citigroup, Lehman and Goldman Sachs, and other big players such as Blackstone, AXA and PIMCO, along with a few hedge fund firms with no experience in structured credit, according to press releases, Web sites and industry sources.

"Some have been up and running since September; they probably started too early. Others have cash that is not deployed, and some are in the formation process," said Markus Kroll, a partner in Palomar.

A number of hedge fund groups now focusing on credit say they plan to give structured credit a miss, regardless of any opportunities. Pulling back from the edge Centaurus Capital Chairman Bernard Oppetit told the Reuters Hedge Fund and Private Equity Summit earlier this month, "Structured credit is not our style. We have always avoided correlation risk; it is a very dangerous market,"

To shield themselves from the consequences of short-term volatility and to be able to invest in illiquid securities, the new funds typically lock up investor money for three to five years, though that makes fund-raising difficult, Kroll said.

It seems to me that some of these funds are looking at this market in the same way thrill seekers have looked at the falls... build a sturdy barrel, take the leap and everything will be OK..15 have tried most died... including some guy on a jet ski in 1995...

Fortune favours the brave?... Good luck with that.