Not too long ago, with a Top 5-10 MBA in tow, you could write your own ticket. Guys and gals going through the MBA pipeline in the late 90′s/early 00′s had six-figure offers in the multiples by the end of their first-year summer.

But now, according to Business Week , 16.5% of Top 30 MBA program grads in 2009 did not get a single offer by the time their schools published placement statistics 3 months post-graduation. More and more schools are listing “N/A” in the “% hired” column of their program catalogs. Many recent grads are joining support groups . Heads up to all you GMAT 99-percenters.

In Harvard, 11% moved to private equity (compared to 18% in 2008) and a measly 6% looked towards investment banking as a career path. At Insead, just 2.3% entered private equity, while 36% of LBS’s MBA grads entered finance this year – the lowest level since 2003.

As applications decrease across the board, Executive MBA programs are thriving, recording a 59% increase in apps. This may be a telling tale of the future value (at least in the near term) of the MBA diploma.

As to what the future holds for this often debated degree, it is likely to be strongly correlated with the overall economy. Meanwhile, with job scarcity and higher demand for specific areas of expertise, bespoke suits such as Masters of Finance and Masters of Management programs (up 24% and 20% in recent applications, respectively) are worn far more than ever before. We may even see a return to the double-breasted suit and belt buckle loafer.

In July last year David Cameron promised to abolish the main City regulator, the FSA, and today his chancellor did just that.

George Osborne said the FSA will lose its name and powers, which will be split among several new regulators, chiefly the Bank of England.

The FSA will continue until 2012, by which time many of its staff will have transferred to one of two new Bank of England supervision units, with the remainder decamping to a consumer protection and markets agency and a financial education body.

Supervision will be split between the Bank of England and the consumer protection agency.

Within the Bank, Britain’s banks, building societies, insurers and other financial companies will be regulated, with a second body given overall charge of watching for trends in the industry that could trigger another financial crisis.

Hector Sants, the current boss of the FSA, will take on the role of chief executive of the first overseeing agency, which will be called the Prudential Regulatory Authority. It be separately constituted as a subsidiary of the Bank of England.

The second, more overarching, body, the Financial Policy Committee, will be firmly within Threadneedle Street. Sants will be a key figure on the body along with his new deputy, Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s chief cashier.

However, the governor of the Bank, Mervyn King, will chair both the committee and the prudential authority, and is expected to exercise ultimate control over all areas of supervision.

In effect, the FSA will be subsumed within the Bank of England and its senior staff will report to committees under the ultimate control of the governor.

Even the FSA’s offices in Canary Wharf are under threat. The Bank has about 500 staff working behind its austere high walls, sandwiched between the Royal Exchange and the old NatWest headquarters on Lothbury. It is understood that King is uncomfortable that the majority of his new staff will be several miles away on the Isle of Dogs and will be seeking ways to bring them into the City, if not to Threadneedle Street.

King said he was delighted Sants had agreed to tear up his resignation notice, which he offered earlier this year, and agreed to join him at the Bank. “In the new regime, regulation will reflect two different, though complementary, perspectives,” he said.

“The first, as now, is a bottom-up perspective, focused on setting institution-specific capital requirements. Those would be fixed requirements that banks could not breach.

“The second is an overall perspective, with a set of system-wide capital requirements that vary over the economic cycle. Judgments on the level of these capital buffers will be part of the remit of the new Financial Policy Committee.

“The prudential regulator, with its micro-prudential responsibilities, and the Financial Policy Committee, with its macro-prudential responsibilities, will need to work closely together, and that is one reason why it is sensible that they are both in the central bank,” King said.

Only weeks before the election, the City minister, Mark Hoban, was telling bankers that a new Conservative government would spend at least six months listening to their views before making a decision on whether to scrap the FSA.

But the chancellor, George Osborne, said further debate on the overall structure was unnecessary and he was ready to push ahead with radical reform.

Behind the revamp are several key figures, including Sir James Sassoon, the Eton and Oxford-educated former SG Warburg banker, who was an adviser to Labour until 2008 when he quit to join the Tories. He wrote a document last year calling for the FSA to be abolished. Sassoon, who became a Treasury minister in the new government, is expected to play a key role in pushing through the reforms.

Cameron said last year that the decisions that led to the financial crisis represent “a policy crisis of historic proportions” and “in the United States, they have called on the Federal Reserve, and it is time to call on the Bank of England”.

Spain +385 (So bet $100 to win $385)
Brazil +400
England +565
Argentina +585
Germany +1100
Netherlands +1000
Italy +1000
France +1500
Portugal +2500

And for all of you that will be slaving non stop in some bank, this is the Excel spreadsheet that will allow you to make world cup predictions while pretending to be working. Simply write in the scores in the white boxes and the rest is taken care of.

World Cup Prediction Spreadsheet

In the first quarter of 2010, Goldman made money on each and every single trading day. That’s right, the firm did not record a loss of even a cent on even one day in the last quarter. That’s 63 days profitable out of 63 trading days. Goldman is now the market – or, more in line with modern market reality, Goldman is the house, it controls the casino, and always wins. Congratulations America: you now have far, far better odds in Las Vegas that you have making money with an E-Trade account.

Adding to the “Alice in Wonderland” insanity of this announcement, the firm made over $100 million daily on 35 different days. Of Goldman’s $9.7 billion in total Q1 revenue, 76% came from trading. So forget investment banking, forget underwriting, forget advisory: over three quarters of the firm’s value is based on being the house to the biggest and most corrupt casino in existence.

Middle Eastern companies have received a lot of international attention in recent months, spurring investor demand for transparent and accurate information about regional market activities. Rasmala and RBS will be responding to this demand.

“RBS is actively expanding its Equities product offering in the region. This strategic partnership will complement our existing strengths in Corporate Advisory, Capital Markets, Treasury and Trade Finance. Joining forces with Rasmala demonstrates RBS’s continued focus and commitment to the Middle East & Africa business” commented Simon Penney (Head of RBS’s Global Banking & Markets Division for Middle East & Africa).

Commenting on the signing, Tamer Bazzari, CEO of Rasmala said “The alliance with RBS will ensure that our clients receive high quality research on companies listed in the Middle East combining Rasmala’s deep regional knowledge with RBS’s international experience.

With the development of Middle East capital markets, international institutions will become steadily more active in the region, and this alliance will enable both of us to serve them better”.

Zafar Alam, Head of Equities and Structured Retail, Middle East & Africa at RBS said RBS’s partnership with Rasmala will provide a compelling research and execution offering for our clients. “We are confident that Rasmala’s regional footprint and expertise in equity research and brokerage will provide comprehensive insight into Middle East listed companies to benefit international investors and institutions,” he added.

Rasmala’s brokerage business, headed by Khaled Masri, provides a full range of regional brokerage services in 14 markets. The joint venture with RBS is expected to considerably increase their client base and flows.