Big banks, bigger pay

The unmistakable smell of defeat is starting to rise from some of the great old beasts of Europe's financial markets: through a combination of fear, resignation and exhaustion, many historic names in capitalism are getting ready to summon the priests to administer last rites. The City of London's last remaining privately held firms, Cazenove, has announced that it was planning to go public, dumping its long-held belief that it should remain a partnership. There was always something sanctimonious about Cazenove's insistence on remaining a partnership: after all, if you don't believe compan...