Its strange, in a day of credit woes, Trumpo bumps into a guy who has access to $9 trillion.

Following the last few weeks of the credit crunch, it was time to have lunch with the sharpest financial journalists in the game and to get their angle on the current challenges ahead. It was very liquid in more ways than one!

I think it’s widely acknowledged that this year we are going to have a substantive downturn not only in new mortgage transactions, new net lending and property valuations, and these events will unfortunately directly result in less income for the majority of those that operate within the industry. The resulting pain of the downturn is sharp, lasting and being felt accross the land.

The financial services industry is experiencing an unprecedented number of job losses, and their is no short term fix. A lot of good people are looking for a career change, and because the industry has historically paid extremely well, a lot of people are having to cut their cloth and aspirations accordingly.

Its actually not all doom and gloom though - the rich are getting richer! - Trumpo is feeling that he should have worked harder at school, the big hitters are laughing all the way to the bank at the moment, the “cash rich” are picking up bargains left right and centre. Trumpo is speaking to a number of “super rich” i.e. those who have links to Soverign Wealth Money and they are picking up assets at bargain basement prices. Companies and properties, specifically commercial properties are being traded at huge discounts, up to 30% discounts, as people just want out. Trumpo does however think that the demise of the UK and US Banks share prices are overdone, and are still offering great dividend policies, but I dont think we have hit the bottom yet. Rich pickings for the super rich.

The Soverign Wealth Funds appear to be the current saviour for the economies of the world, and thank goodness the funds run into the trillions, because they’re desperately needed. It is however interesting to note that the wealth funds are unregulated, and can trade around the world freely, I just hope that we dont become solely reliant and we can get the UK and USA back on its feet without having to go cap in hand.

It will be interesting to see at the end of this year how many of UK and US banks largest shareholders are linked to the soverign wealth funds, Trumpo predicts most of them!

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