The Good News: UK Banker Jumps in front of Train

The guy if he was really honorable should have spilled the beans on the Banking system. The Banks are the source of all the wars, mayhem, death and destruction over the last 100 years. They are the reason; we are still using Oil, why we are in Iraq and Afganistan for longer than WWII, why we carpet bomb our bodies with Drugs that don't work, why we vaccinate our kids with Mercury, why there is fluoride in the water. The source of our financial pain, the yolk of a debtor system is the Federal Reserve system. It is the system that is the problem that was signed into statutory law in 1913 by a Congress that was half-filled on the eve of Christmas. So, No I will not mourn for a banker, more like celebrate a possible sign that the end of the evil may be near. The solution? Ron Paul's bill to eliminate the Federal Reserve and bring back the Gold standard.

Christopher Leake

The City was in shock last night after the apparent suicide of a millionaire financier haunted by the pressures of dealing with the credit crunch.

Kirk Stephenson, who was married with an eight-year-old son, died in the path of a 100mph express train at Taplow railway station, Berkshire.

Mr Stephenson is believed to have taken his own life after succumbing to mounting personal pressures as the world’s financial markets went into meltdown.

The death of the respected 47-year-old City figure evokes memories of the 1929 Wall Street crash in America and comes as:

• Bradford & Bingley teeters on the brink of nationalisation after a dramatic share price slump.

• David Cameron faced embarrassment on the eve of the Tory conference after members of a secretive club of Conservative donors were linked to the ‘short-selling’ of Bradford & Bingley.

• Gordon Brown was wrongfooted by Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, who announced plans to set up an independent watchdog to police the Treasury and strip it of key powers if the Conservatives win the next Election.

New Zealand-born Mr Stephenson, who owned a £3.6million, five-storey house in Chelsea and a retreat in the West Country, was chief operating officer of Olivant Advisers.

Last year, the private equity firm tried to buy a 15 per cent stake worth almost £1billion in Northern Rock before the bank was nationalised, bidding against Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson.


More...

* How Cameron's secretive donors bet on the collapse of Bradford & Bingley
* Bradford & Bingley will be nationalised - with Santander swooping in for the savings accounts
* Jewish holiday means U.S. Senate won't vote on $700billion bailout before Wednesday
* McCain savages Obama on Iraq to edge ahead in television debate
* Credit crunch claims another victim as furniture giant MFI struggles to survive
* Tory watchdog 'to strip Treasury of key powers to curb reckless spending'

In June, the company secured a 2.5 per cent stake in Swiss banking giant UBS. There has been persistent speculation in the financial world that UBS has written off billions after being exposed to the US mortgage market.

Since June, the bank has dropped in value by about 20 per cent, which means the value of Olivant’s stake in UBS has fallen from £950million to £770million.

Before his death at 9am on Thursday, Mr Stephenson appeared to have everything to live for.

A glittering 20-year City career had made him a hugely wealthy man and he was said to have been happy in his marriage to Karina Robinson, a successful financial writer.

Sources stressed that neither Mr Stephenson nor his company had financial problems that would have led him to take his own life.

But they said the financier had ‘succumbed’ to the stress and responsibilities of his taxing role, adding that Mr Stephenson had overreacted to the continuing financial turmoil. Source