Thedastardly Mr Deedes

General Electric is investigating former boss Jeff Immelt after it emerged that during his 17-year tenure he traversed the globe with a spare private jet in tow. The saga is providing plenty of laughs on Wall Street, if not with shareholders, though is sadly indicative of the once-mighty firm’s rapid decline. It was once ranked as the fourth-largest company in the world. Incidentally, silver fox Immelt, 61, is gracious enough to acknowledge that the two-plane arrangement was ‘a terrible idea’. Businessman Robin Birley, whose Mayfair haunt, 5 Hertford Street, is a mecca for City types, wants to open a members’ club in Manhattan. I hear that Birley is close to signing a deal on a property around Union Square, with plans to spend at least a week a month in New York. Presumably without his beloved whippets, which are habitually splayed across his lap whenever he’s in Hertford. Redoubtable art dealer Louise Blouin has sold her West Village penthouse for $23.7m (£17.6m). Glamourpuss Louise, 59, a flame-haired temptress, has been subject to unflattering press this year over claims that she had failed to reimburse freelancers – not the first time her judgment has been called into question. She once dated Buckingham Palace’s ‘entrepreneur-in-residence’ Prince Andrew. Vogue publisher Conde Nast’s board convenes next week, its first meeting since company patriarch Si Newhouse passed away in October. Chief executive Bob Sauerberg has been tasked with coming up with £74m in savings next year. Rumours of a sale abound. It’s not just this biting wind currently blowing off the Hudson River that is sending icy chills through Vogue HQ. Bitcoin is all anyone’s talking about in the financial district, as the weird crypto- currency looks set to break the $20,000 mark. Overheard on the train to Brooklyn this week: ‘When I sell my apartment, I’m only takin’ bitcoin. Crypto’s where it’s at, baby, where it’s at.’