Siegmund Warburg
Taking the long view
It is easy to be romantic about the greatness of bankers past. But Siegmund Warburg was a man from whom today’s financiers could learn a lot
Jun 24th 2010
Friday December 23rd 2011
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Warburg was a trial-blazer.
Morgan Grenfell and other members of the London's cosy club of high financiers were eventually forced to follow in his footsteps. Many of them, including Morgan Grenfell, became enthusiastic followers when merger-mania and hostile takeovers became the rage after the 'Big Bang' reforms of the City's financial markets in 1975. It took an outsider to shake London up.
Today he would be cut down by the scythes of greed, trampled by the hordes of the ignorant, and swamped by the tides of the mediocre.
Indeed today's He-Men of finance could learn a lot about their business and its place in the world from men like Warburg...
But then, they never learn do they?