Advice for getting a graduate job in the current climate comes from the head of The Association of Graduate Recruiters, my old friend Carl Gilleard: Good degree grades are important but not the key – flexibility and career management will pay off. Smart employers will not stop recruiting graduates: it leaves a horrible management gap when the markets get back on their feet. Get aware and broaden your options: if private is a bun fight, consider starting your career in the public or civil service. Go small: don’t just bombast the big guns – look to a smaller firm, they are still recruiting and will only do so if they know the post is tenable. Move to the job: you often move away from home to go to University and that worked, so show you are prepared to give the role your priority by moving to where the employer wants you. Keep savvy: stay informed about your chosen industry and competitors and you’ll be one step ahead of the next candidate.

The employees (or cats) at engineering firm Cougar Automation can not only opt out of projects they don’t like the sound of; they can choose their own boss and take as many days holiday a year as they feel is appropriate. As a result 78% of staff are happy with their work/life balance and 86% say their health does not suffer in any way as a result of work (that’s huge). Staff are carefully monitored and supported through monthly employee meetings and career development reviews. The idea: happier staff mean happier customers. Incidentally, “Cougar” is also the name currently applied to a sexually predatory woman of a certain age. Like Sarah Palin or Christopher Biggins. Mention it in your application letter!

Bush’s government wanted $700bn of US tax payer’s money to rescue Wall Street. But because Bush is an idiot and everyone’s lost faith in him, the US House of Representatives (like our House of Lords) said “no.” Well, 205 said “yes” but 228 said “no” so they win. This vote of no-confidence – you got yourselves in this mess, get yourselves out of it – sent stock markets crashing; our own FTSE suffered its eighth biggest fall in history. Ex-Goldman Sachs man and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who dreamt up the rescue plan, said it was vital to get a new deal agreed. Until then, they’ll be no faith in the money markets and finance institutions. In a nutshell, business will grind to a halt. That’s why you don’t eat the nut shell…

Right now, everyone from bankers to politicians will play the waiting game until Congress meets again on Thursday. All this makes a recession all the more likely (trust me, they are no fun at all) and it also means that more and more financial firms are likely to topple. That’s because anyone with savings is taking them out of the risky but rewarding schemes they might have tied them into and moving them to safer options – a high interest bank account where the money doesn’t grow much but it’s more secure. That’s effectively taking the money out of the market, so there’s less out there to invest into growing businesses. Hedge Funds – a kind of City gambler who moves collections of people’s money around the market – are likely to dry up. No huge tears as they are part of the reason we’re in this mess; betting their cash on companies failing as well as succeeding, so encouraging fear as much as faith. But if they fall, it will effect the other financial firms who represent their clients and customers. Everyone hangs on to the cash they’ve got. Banks don’t lend to each other, which is the basis of the world’s sparring financial markets; moving money to where it can make the most. All we need is some sign that the US Congress can mend the banks who’ve lost out to bad debts – their own fault, but if they go under, people lose their homes, jobs and will to tow the line. Fight!

London’s Universities have the most exam cheats, a national survey has found. London Met Uni had the highest number of cheats, with 65 caught in the 2006-07 academic year. There were also 801 entrepreneurs -  er…I mean students – identified as handing in plagiarised work. Westminster came second with 39 exam cheats, closely followed by South Bank Uni with 35 cheats. Well done to all of you. SBU’s logo is “Become what you want to be.” Especially if you want to be a cheat.