“You sit on the second floor and there are these great big plateglass windows with stunning views of the river.” And the reason that thrills him, he says, is sheer nostalgia.In the late Sixties, Mr Dyson, now a multimillionaire and chairman of Dyson Appliances, designed a high-speed river landing craft, the Sea Truck. For the past two years Mr Dyson has been a trustee of the museum, and its chairman since January .
But this, says Mr Dyson, is not why he nominates Blueprint. Part of the Conran Group, Blueprint is located within London’s Design Museum complex. JAMES DYSON, the man whose bagless vacuum cleaner became a bestseller, names Blueprint Cafe as his favourite eatery – a fitting choice for an entrepreneurial designer. Merrill Lynch stands out for the accessibility of the reports They are easy to read and easy to digest.. If I were to have to pick a team of economists I’d pick either Merrill Lynch’s, led by Paul Turnbull, or DKB’s, led by David Owen.I pick DKB because everything they do, they do well Their clients are immensely pleased with their work. These are the economists who rate consistently and solidly in the surveys.
But getting it right in terms of forecast numbers is not the end of the game. Really it’s barely even the start.For me, the places with the best City economist teams are Merrill Lynch and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. The first is Gerard Lyons who is quite a good economist who has steady judgement Then I’d pick out Avinash Persaud from JP Morgan. He is a very fine communicator, which is essential for the economist.A particularly valuable attribute is the ability to pick out key trends, and Peter Wann of Cazenove certainly has this.Adam ColeUK economistHSBCWELL THE only true objective assessment of how competent an economist is would be the surveys of the client base, such as the Extel and Reuters ones They tend to be really ruthless measures of performance.
A strong framework to make sense of the world helps.Tim Congdon at Lombard Street Research has been a leader in promoting the importance of the money supply as an indicator.Stephen LewisChief economistMonument DerivativesTHERE ARE three City economists who stand out immediately. I would also cite Gerard Lyons of DKB and James Stewart of Weavering Capital. Some economists can suffer from analysis paralysis and a failure to reach a conclusion The City requires its economists to have a view. Funnily enough, I rarely agree with him and I do not admire him ideologically but, as a City economist, he is worth reading.Marian BellHead of Treasury ResearchRoyal Bank of ScotlandFIRST AND foremost a good City economist must be a good economist. Lehman’s have a good team, with global chief economist John Llewellyn and Russell Jones in Tokyo.
As for Tim, he, too, is a man who engages in the wider picture Equally important, his reports are interesting. Furthermore, he is interesting and useful to the decision makers.David MackieVice-president, Europeaneconomic analysisJP MorganIF I HAD to nominate two economists who stood out from the crowd, I would choose Martin Brookes of Goldman Sachs and Tim Congdon of Lombard Street.I choose Martin because he is bright, insightful and one of the more thoughtful economists I know He likes to look at the bigger issues and long-term picture. He stands out because he is able to apply acade- mic work to economic policy. But he is always worth reading on international financial issues.I also single out Richard Portes of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, who singlehandedly regenerated work on European and UK policy issues. I do not agree with him on some things, though, particularly Europe. There is Brian Reading at Lombard Street whom I admire for his thought-provoking idiosyncratic approach He always comes up with interesting ideas.
