The London Tube as a Barometer of the Recession?

[Peter Frampton]

I was on the London Underground with the Michaela Sulke-Trezek, the Head of Accounting Comes Alive Europe. We were on our way from London City Airport to Piccadilly Circus, returning from some meetings in Frankfurt. She suddenly looked over to me and said "Look at this... it's good news". Not sure what she was referring to at first, I realized that it was about 8pm and we were at Canary Wharf in the Docklands. That's the stop where all the investment bankers from Morgan Stanley et al get on. Michaela pointed out that investment bankers working late is a very good sign that things are happening in the market. Much better than the doldrums late 2008 and earlier this year when the bankers where going home at 5pm.
There's a counter argument that they are staying late to impress because they are so scared of losing their jobs.
But then with Goldman Sachs announced a profit of over $3billion yesterday, so things can't be all bad.

[Mark Robilliard]

There's got to be an indicator in there somewhere!