The Barber Diaries Chapter VI

Tender are the Powerful

July 14th 2022

Crouching on the dirt, my Saville Row trousers damp at the knees, I get a call from Masayoshi Son, the flamboyant CEO of Japanese super-player SoftBank. He is bullish on inflation and plays his cards close to his chest Turns out he held the wrong set of cards. A ‘Zainichi Korean’ done good, he’s used to being the outsider’s insider and this is why he turns to the F.T for the story on global markets. Mr. Son’s usually chipper conversation is unusually febrile today, I wonder if rumours of a gold-backed Yuan have this latter day financial Samurai running scared. ‘Where are you?’ Full of questions but who had the answers? We’d soon find out…. Son explains that my absence from the F.T during this time of global crisis is raising questions at the Top Table of global business and politics. I will try to explain. Its difficult, I start and finish several sentences, after several minutes stammering on the phone I cut to the chase: “The Gorillas.” I tell him but it appears that he has hung up.