Bitten by the crunch

The chairman considers what options are open to him to weather the current economic crisis

Very worrying times indeed, with the chairman of the insignificantly sized investment company SmallBlue Planet instituting a companywide series of cost-cutting measures that includes not entertaining journalists in wittily-named public houses. Oh confound you, credit crunch, is there no end to your debilitating knock-on effects? Ahem. Anyway, that is how I came to find myself in the offices of SmallBlue Planet on the point of tackling a couple of bottles of Amarone Della from the company's impressive cellar - and of course, as any European fund manager will tell you, Amarone Della just ta...