Scrutineer: Overcoming the napalm

THERE is little the City likes more than a Draconian corporate retrenchment and extensive job losses to ease the pain of plummeting profits.

Perhaps it falls short of a warm glow, but root-and-branch restructuring in such a situation indicates to the market that management has woken up, smelt the coffee and is now going to get a fresh grip on affairs.

It's the business equivalent of th...