A father and son thing

DAVID CLARKE had a tough time of it last week. But, gosh, after the battering Macquarie Group took last week, could its chairman really be so short of coin that he had to go to court to dispute paying a reno bill?

Why else would Clarke's barrister be in court on Friday arguing he shouldn't have to stump up half a million bucks builders claim he owes for work on an eastern suburbs pile?

Turns out Clarke's barrister, Dauid Sibtain, had a more refined argument for not paying - one involving a loving father, Clarke, pointing the finger at his son, Tim.

The stink stems from Clarke bankrolling the construction of his son's new home in Bellevue Hill.

It ended up in the Supreme Court where Clarke snr had the claim against him for payment by Keystone Project Management dismissed after pointing out the builder had the wrong Clarke. It should have been chasing his son for the money because it was his name on the construction contract.

Still, you can understand why Keystone put up an argument thinking they had the right man.

Papa Clarke bought the property in 2005 for $2.55 million and still owns the property. He secured the loan - from, no surprises, MacBank - to build the home, and he even applied for the building certificate.

What's more, according to Keystone, Clarke snr paid all the invoices. Until now.

Clarke's lawyer told us that daddy "helped out with money" on the house.

Keystone says Clarke snr paid the first $500,000 and a further $500,000 is yet to be paid and they've been arguing about it since July last year.

In court, Clarke's barrister said the construction company wasn't owed a cent.

"Nothing is owed to the builder" and the builder was just "double counting" because Tim Clarke had paid some sub-contractors directly and daddy had paid others.

Rather than dealing with Clarke snr directly, Keystone has been dealing with his right- hand-man, Mike Grehan, who says he is "CEO for the Clarke family office". He also doubles as CEO of Clarke's Pooles Rock wines.

In a letter to Clarke's lawyer Keystone complained that it wasn't until the end of July this year, "almost 11 months after [Keystone] raised the issue of nonpayment with David Clarke, did he inform Keystone . that he was not the contracting party".

Hush and whispers

As the Australian market was battered last week, an unusual tone descended on the financial community's commentary of one of the most powerful organisations in the country, Macquarie Group.

We can only wonder if it had anything to do with the corporate plod's uncharacteristic decision to name Macquarie explicitly in its renewed fight "into alleged false rumours".

Or perhaps Macquarie, fiercely protective of its reputation, quietly reminded market players to think twice about what they said.

JPMorgan's banking analyst Brian Johnson, for one, went out of his way to stress he did not think Macquarie was "irrevocably broken" despite issuing a note saying Macquarie was, in fact, "irrevocably broken".

Richard Coppleson, of Goldman Sachs JBWere's institutional trading desk - known to include pictures of man-eating sharks in his afternoon missives to dress up his reports of market carnage - barely found an adjective to colour his commentary on the story of the week.

And then there was Charlie Aitken, from Southern Cross Equities, who told clients: "I won't be writing any more on Macquarie Group from this point."

Gosh, the most-talked-about story of the week was suddenly a topic for tiptoeing. Aitken declined to tell us why. But he told clients: "This week we have attempted to point out the seriousness of the developments in New York and London. We have also attempted to point out concerns some investors have about Macquarie and their place in the new financial world order. I have consistently written that we are not trying to kick Macquarie at the bottom, we are simply reporting investor concerns, some, but not all, [of] which are valid considering the changed world order we all now operate in."

He said there were darker forces at work attempting something far more sinister in Macquarie. These forces were attempting to harness the power of panic to accelerate the fall in the share price.

"It is one thing for me to question the future profitability of Macquarie and the business model going forward in the new world we find ourselves in, but it's completely different to spreading false rumours about solvency, manipulate credit default swap spreads to create fear, and attempt to start a 'run' on the bank."

Indeed, so why stop responsible questioning?

"Our view on the headwinds they face are well known, the shares have fallen very sharply, but I do not want to be even a peripheral part of a sinister campaign of Chinese whispers and manipulation to bring down a great Australian institution. It's just not right."

It remains unclear why Aitken considers his observations are being taken as part of the rumourtrage. And who convinced him they were.

Armageddon man

Missing in action: the man who's been calling Armageddon for the best part of the last five years, the Morgan Stanley analyst Gerard Minack. No sign of the market's favourite bear through a most dramatic week in world markets.

We checked in, fearing Minack had suddenly found it all rather unnewsworthy given he's written about it non-stop for years.

"Been overseas in New York, so seeing it all real-time," Minack wrote.

Feel vindicated? "Vindicated? Hmmmm. A little. Given Morgan Stanley's wobbles, possibly TOO vindicated."

Psst! Got a tip? Use our online tips box