Avoid the corporate jet

I read at the weekend that BP is selling off former chairman Lord Browne’s Gulfstream executive jet, under “new broom sweeps clean” chairman Tony “Hairshirt” Hayward. This reminds me that at last week’s ICIS methanol lunch, trader Dieter told me that he was just back from a business trip in his chairman’s corporate jet. He’d been thrilled to be invited, but was grilled throughout the whole flight on every aspect of his trading so that he couldn’t enjoy one moment of the trip. If there’s no such thing as a free lunch, as they say, you can be sure there’s no such thing as a free trip on a corporate jet.