Barclays writes down $2.7 bln

"We had a very strong income month in October and that's enabled us to absorb those writedowns," said John Varley, Barclays chief executive, adding that BarCap's income was a record for any month in the fourth quarter.

"We have been conservative, but we've also been firing** on a lot of our cylinders in the income line and that enables us to report the results we've reported today," he told reporters on a conference call. Link

db: From the sound of it congratulations are in order .... + early retirement .... +£10 million pay-off. If only more companies could lose cash this well .... whilst being 'conservative'.

** Fire the chief exec