Station to Station

In Slate today, there's an excellent article about how banks' capital raisings dilute the stakes of existing shareholders, and to anyone who knows a bit about bank capital and corporate finance none of this is a surprise.

I clicked on it because I like the guy who writes finance for Slate, Dan Gross, and I'm interested in bank capital and I was hoping for some new insight, which is what we often get from Mr Gross. But the first thing I noticed was the title, "The Age of Grand Dilution". So what, I can hear you asking. Settle down, this isn't going to be fun.

It's clearly a reference to "Word on a Wing", a song on Station to Station, which has as a first line, "In this age of grand illusion, you walked into my life out of my dreams". Or maybe it's delusion.

There are very few people in the world, I bet, who are intensely interested in bank capital raisings AND who know all the words to David Bowie's great 70s albums. (Especially this one.. my all-time favorite record). It's not all that often that I get to feel special so I relish it. Thank you Mr Gross!