Monkey business in bond sales: Caveat Lector column

Monkey puzzle

Monkey puzzle: Could bond salespeople be replaced with primates?

As the saying goes: if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Many would agree the global credit markets have contrived, in the form of salespeople, to pay significant fortunes and still ended up with monkeys. During the financial crisis, when admitting one worked in the City could rapidly become a threatening experience, one particular bond salesman took to answering the question on what he did for a living with a rapid reply that he “worked in telesales”. Sadly, in many cases, this is not too far