Andy Burnham, the likely new prime minister of the United Kingdom, needs some help. Burnham will inherit an awkward economic situation, but he is not an economist. Burnham is a Cambridge University English graduate who likes football and Philip Larkin and who has read every Shakespeare play. Yes, he was the UK Treasury chief secretary in 2007, but the FT suggests he wasn’t much good at it. Who Burnham chooses to run the economy matters.
💥Follow us on WhatsApp for news alerts.💥
Burnham is understood to be choosing between three people: Wes Streeting, a Cambridge history graduate; Ed Miliband, an Oxford philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) graduate with a Masters in Economics from the London School of Economics; and Yvette Cooper, who has an almost identical educational profile to Ed, but with Harvard as a supplementary experience.
While Miliband has the the “biggest economics brain” and Cooper has also run the Treasury, Streeting is seen as Burnham’s most likely choice. Markets would like this: although he favours equalising capital gains tax with income tax, Streeting has declared himself in favour of progressive capitalism. Most importantly, he has said, “We can’t play fast and loose with the public finances. Not when the risks are so high and faith in politics is so low.” Investors tell Bloomberg that Streeting is seen as a “centrist.”
But Streeting is not an economist either. Nor has he worked in financial services. He was once a consultant for PWC, but he has mostly worked in the voluntary sector. As a politician, he was shadow secretary to the Treasury when Labour was in opposition. That is all.
Deep economic insights in Burnham’s government may therefore come from elsewhere. Bloomberg notes that Burnham has three people lined up. They are: Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs chief economist; Andy Haldane, “the most original mind to come out of the Bank of England in years;” and Richard Hughes, the former head of the Office of Budgetary Responsibility, as economic advisors. Hughes is also an advisor to Taula Capital Management, the macro hedge fund run by star trader Diego Megia, so Burnham should gain a fine understanding of what markets might tolerate. Haldane would reportedly like to issue war bonds; O’Neill would like to flex UK fiscal rules and borrow to invest. O’Neill also likes football, which presumably aligns him with Burnham. Manchester United fans will run the country.
Separately, Bloomberg reports that the man who was in charge of marketing the CFA Institute between 2016 and 2022 has been sentenced to up nine years in prison for stealing $5m from the Institute and $1m from elsewhere.
Michael J Collins reportedly spent his $5m living lavishly and paying for travel, club memberships and a $150k engagement ring. He achieved the money by creating fake marketing companies with fake employees who sent CFA Institute 144 invoices for their marketing services.
Writing on Reddit, people purporting to have worked with Collins at CFA Institute suggest he was “slimy from the beginning.” Speaking in 2017, Collins said CFA Institute employed “passionate” people and that this passion was its “secret sauce.” The Institute was doing “meaningful work”, said Collins. People were “emotionally invested.” “The brand is the cornerstone of the organisation,” he enthused.
Now CFA Institute is arguing this Cornerstone has been damaged. Collins’ crimes have resulted in a “loss of trust,” the Institute told the courts. The CFA exams are about governance and ethics, but neither were in operation in CFA Institute’s own backyard. That’s not a good look. There is loose talk of a governance crisis in the wake of the fraud.
Meanwhile…
RBC Capital Markets has hired 205 people in the US in the past seven months, of whom 23 were MDs. It wants more. It says: “I would say the key sectors are technology, healthcare, industrials and financial institutions.” Traders are welcome too. (Bloomberg)
JPMorgan thinks Goldman Sachs traders are having a great quarter. They say that trading in banks now is about being a “best execution pre/post trade platform business with the key driver being volatility driving activity levels.” (Yahoo)
Beware “career destruction” as an analyst in a pod shop. If your PM hits his stop, your job will be over. “I have seen people’s careers being ruined.” (Substack)
Lloyds Bank wants 300 people to work with AI agents. They will be data & AI scientists, engineers, responsible AI specialists and AI product managers. (Finextra)
Senior bankers don’t like being in the office on Fridays. (Financial News)
Morgan Stanley might open a $1.3bn tower in Texas. (Bloomberg)
Alan Greenspan was a talented saxophonist and clarinet player. He won a place at Juilliard, the renowned New York music conservatory, but left to join the Henry Jerome band, a travelling swing act. (Financial Times)
Follow me on X. Follow me on LinkedIn.
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Signal: sarahbutcher.22 Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: comments are moderated intermittently by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You must take sole responsibility for comments you post on this site. We will take reasonable steps to weed out anything that we consider to be offensive or inappropriate.