Confessions of an IT Manager_Phil Factor

80 A Chilling Prophecy
Some time ago, when I had an office in the City of London, there was an old
firm of stockbrokers downstairs. The three partners were well past retirement
age, in a dusty, poorly-lit office; all mahogany bureaus, typewriters and manila
files. As they made good money they carried on, cheerfully trading. We'd pop
down to borrow tea-bags and get tips on stocks and shares. When they finally
closed the business we bade them goodbye in the middle of a suddenly-bare
office, clutching classes of sherry. They were adamant that destruction of the
'old boy's network' of brokers and traders, the deregulation of the stock
exchange and banking would lead to a heady boom in trading, leading
eventually to a catastrophic collapse.
The Old boys' network
They saw the introduction of Information Technology as being a mixed
blessing as it made dishonesty easier to conceal, and made it easier to avoid
looking your victim of fraudulent dealing in the eye. We nodded quietly at the
time, but laughed afterwards at their old-fashioned caution. What a silly idea,
the collapse of confidence in the banking and trading system, we thought.