Frankfurt am MainMay 3
Michael Gerstner stared at one of the many monitors arranged in a row in front of him. On the Bloomberg economic platform, the numbers were changing fast: chaos to the untrained eye, but for a senior HZ Bank dealer they symbolized the actual real-time yield quotes of government bonds.
Michael should have been paying attention to them. But he wasn’t. His attention was fixed on a disgustingly sour and warm substance that had started trickling over his lips. Instinctively, he bowed his head and a red spot immediately started spreading over his white shirt. And another. Disgusted, he concluded that his nose had started bleeding again. Years of cocaine use gradually destroyed the nasal passages completely.
Although Michael’s neighbor was sitting pretty far away, he was
