The dastardly Mr Deedes

Joining the Bank of England’s Mark Carney in a game of hockey to mark Canada Day last weekend was Ron Duguay, an ex-ice hockey pro who was on hand to give the governor advice on his stick work. During his early career, Duguay, 59, who once dated well preserved warbler Cher, forswore a helmet as it played havoc with his mullet. Wonder if he and immaculately-coiffed Carney exchanged grooming tips? Are Bloomberg journalists becoming better paid than bankers? JP Morgan analyst and ex-BBC hackette Stephanie Flanders, 48, who is moving there to head up its news economics division, is said to have secured an improvement on her £400,000 JP salary. Bloomberg’s suave, blue- blooded editor- in- chief John Micklethwait’s package is comfortably into seven figures. He inherited a vast estate in Shropshire from an aunt and is described by friends as ‘seriously landed’. Re salaries, Goldman Sachs’s bull-necked ex-president, Gary Cohn, gave up £220m worth of Goldman stock and a £15m annual package to work as an economic advisor to Donald Trump. What’s he earning now? Recently released White House documents put his government salary at a mere $30,000 (£23,000). JP Morgan’s summer reading list includes such deckchair delights as Rethink: The Surprising History Of New Ideas and Women In Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World; as well as works by Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, and Michael Bloomberg. It’s supposedly drawn up by the bank’s boss Jamie Dimon, though if he’s even read the back covers of this turgid selection I’d be mightily impressed. Former DJ Noel Edmonds questions the independence of Professor Russel Griggs, who’s been hired by Lloyds to investigate the HBOS Reading saga. To illustrate his dissatisfaction, Edmonds posts a mugshot of Griggs on his website which he compares to a drooling picture of Jabba the Hutt, the slug-like Star Wars villain. I trust the Prof doesn’t take this disgraceful attack on his good name lying down.