His contempt for his fellow financial journalists was based on something that in his
opinion was as plain as morality. The equation was simple. A bank director who
blows millions on foolhardy speculations should not keep his job. A managing
director who plays shell company games should do time. A slum landlord who
forces young people to pay through the nose and under the table for a one-room
apartment with shared toilet should be hung out to dry.
The job of the financial journalist was to examine the sharks who created interest
crises and speculated away the savings of small investors, to scrutinise company
boards with the same merciless zeal with which political reporters pursue the
tiniest steps out of line of ministers and members of Parliament. He could not for
the life of him understand why so many influential financial reporters treated
mediocre financial whelps like rock stars.
These recalcitrant views had time after time brought him into conflict with his
peers. Borg, for one, was going to be an enemy for life. His taking on a role of social
critic had actually transformed him into a prickly guest on TV sofas—he was always
the one invited to comment whenever any CEO was caught with a golden
parachute worth billions.
Mikael had no trouble imagining that champagne bottles had been uncorked in
some newspapers’ back rooms that evening.
Erika had the same attitude to the journalist’s role as he did. Even when they were
in journalism school they had amused themselves by imagining a magazine with
just such a mission statement.
Erika was the best boss Mikael could imagine. She was an organiser who could
handle employees with warmth and trust but who at the same time wasn’t afraid of
confrontation and could be very tough when necessary. Above all, she had an icy
gut feeling when it came to making decisions about the contents of the upcoming
issue. She and Mikael often had differing views and could have healthy arguments,
but they also had unwavering confidence in each other, and together they made
an unbeatable team. He did the field work of tracking down the story, while she
packaged and marketed it.
Millennium was their mutual creation, but it would never have become reality
without her talent for digging up financing. It was the working-class guy and the
upper-class girl in a beautiful union. Erika came from old money. She had put up