Man in a grey suit says don't panic!

comments

stephenmoss

Oct 10 08, 12:08pm (48 minutes ago)
Staff Staff writer

Freepoland's suggestion that we forget money and think about poetry was, presumably, a joke, so it's wonderfully synchronous that, in the UBS clip posted above, the bank's basso profundo economics spokesman Paul Donovan does exactly that – with the UBS global economics department's own version of Rudyard Kipling's "If".

Shares in Kipling have soared following the UBS podcast, reaching $12 a simile in Far Eastern markets. Rupert Brooke is looking strong in the light of many likely casualties in foreign fields. Philip Larkin is selling well in the belief that we will all be utterly depressed and living in Mr Bleaney-style bedsits in a month or two. A lot of investors are putting their faith in poetic gold – Shakespeare, Milton, Donne, Marvell – whose values are unlikely to be shaken in these testing times. But Victorian derivatives are doing badly, and stock in Tennyson is now reckoned to be almost worthless. Henry Paulson is expected to make a statement on iambic pentameters later in the day.