The Ides of March, 10-yrs after Bear Stearns can it happen again? Doh!

The World is a curiously circular place. 10-years ago the collapse of Bear Stearns and its subsequent rescue by JP Morgan ushered in the panic stage of the Global Financial Crisis. The cataclysm came 6 months later when Lehman went down. Yesterday, Donald Trump appointed CNBC Commentator Larry Kudlow to Gary Cohn's job as director of the NEC. Kudlow was chief economist of Bear when I joined the firm in the early 1990s.

I'm kind of bemused at Kudlow's appointment, but it proves what an adaptable crow Bear alumni are. Bear was a fantastic place to work. We lacked the glib polish of Goldman Sachs, the white-shoe smoothness of Morgan Stanley, the mighty balance sheets of Citi or JP Morgan, and the depth and range of Merrill, but we were united as the smart yappy mammals snapping round the ankles of the Wall Street dinosaurs. Over the next 10 years we stole a mighty share of their lunches! We did it with aplomb, style and underlying honesty – we were brutally open with our clients: we would succeed by making their deals successful. It was the best of times, and I'm still in touch with many of my clients from these days.