Rothschild's boardroom credentials have been tarnished by Bumi drama Anyway, back at Bumi, Horn-Smith has his work cut out separating the fortunes of the company from those of the powerful Indonesian Bakrie family while retaining the ability to operate day-to-day in the country. Bumi might well want to call on the diplomatic skills of Lord Green, the trade and investment minister, who will no doubt be taking an interest in the forthcoming state visit of the Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono between October 31 and November 2. Perhaps the minister could do Bumi a favour and have a quiet word with the president while he's staying at Buckingham Palace to ensure the company continues to enjoy the patronage of Indonesia's political establishment, so Bumi's continuing coal mining operations there remain viable. BP's Russian situation is beginning to warm up We been here before. BP on the verge of great things in Russia which are eventually dashed by a combination of bad politics and bad decisions. But there are signs that progress is being made. It all hinges on whether Rosneft, the Kremlin-backed state oil company, can finance the acquisition of some or all of TNK-BP, the UK oil major's existing joint venture with the oligarchs of Alfa-Access-Renova. BP shareholders are still in the dark about what's going on and face considerable uncertainty. One scenario has Rosneft buying TNK-BP in its entirety, presumably paying cash to the oligarchs and offering BP a combination of cash and Rosneft shares for its 50pc. Financing Rosneft's ambitions could yet prove a stumbling block, come what may. However, assuming it can stitch a deal together, there is the real possibility of BP ending up with a large stake in the Russian state-controlled business, which would be one of the biggest oil companies in the world, if not the biggest. This may dismay some BP shareholders who had been hoping to see rather more cash from surrendering the TNK-BP stake. They may also feel that if they wanted to invest in Rosneft they could buy shares in the company directly - there is at least a partial free float of Rosneft shares on the market. After all, they are the portfolio managers, not BP. However, gaining exposure to Russia's oil and gas reserves through a BP holding may offer a more liquid route to such a potentially rich investment. Ultimately, BP looks like it's hopping out of bed with TNK-BP's Russian plutocrats and into bed with the Kremlin's. The distinction between the two sets may end up being lost on BP's shareholders in the uncertain and volatile years to come. Head scratching over improved jobs figures Strong employment figures have once again left economists scratching their heads. How can employment be growing so strongly when GDP figures remain so weak? Clearly companies, particularly smaller ones, are not just hoarding labour but taking more on rather than spending money to invest in capital projects. This makes labour less productive but existing capital more so. Taking on labour is easier to fund and less risky in that it can be shed quickly if things turn sour again. This may be encouraged by the fact that companies are finding it difficult to borrow anyway, so can't fund capital investment even if they wanted to invest more. Tight credit conditions also mean capital isn't being allocated to more efficient and productive sectors, depressing the economy's overall productivity, too. Another reason could be that the official GDP data are understating economic recovery, thus giving a misleading outcome to productivity levels. However, as Capital Economics points out, the data could just as easily be overstating the employment figures, which are calculated from surveys that have a 60pc response rate compared with 80pc a decade ago. The results also have a wide margin of error. The official jobs figures certainly look good, so will help to improve sentiment and confidence generally. But it would be unwise to rely on them too heavily other than to conclude that we may have reached a more stable state with the foundations being laid for an eventual recovery over the next 18 to 24 months.