It is known that $ℬ\left({\ell }^p\right)$ is not amenable for p = 1,2,∞, but whether or not $ℬ\left({\ell }^p\right)$ is amenable for p ∈ (1,∞) ∖ 2 is an open problem. We show that, if $ℬ\left({\ell }^p\right)$ is amenable for p ∈ (1,∞), then so are ${\ell }^{\infty }\left(ℬ\left({\ell }^p\right)\right)$ and ${\ell }^{\infty }\left(\left({\ell }^p\right)\right)$. Moreover, if ${\ell }^{\infty }\left(\left({\ell }^p\right)\right)$ is amenable so is ${\ell }^{\infty }(,\left(E\right))$ for any index set and for any infinite-dimensional ${ℒ}^p$-space E; in particular, if ${\ell }^{\infty }\left(\left({\ell }^p\right)\right)$ is amenable for p ∈ (1,∞), then so is ${\ell }^{\infty }\left(\left({\ell }^p\oplus \ell ²\right)\right)$. We show that ${\ell }^{\infty }\left(\left({\ell }^p\oplus \ell ²\right)\right)$ is not amenable for p = 1,∞, but also that our methods fail us if p ∈ (1,∞). Finally, for p ∈ (1,2) and a free ultrafilter over ℕ, we exhibit...

In general, little is known about the lattice of closed ideals in the Banach algebra ℬ(E) of all bounded, linear operators on a Banach space E. We list the (few) Banach spaces for which this lattice is completely understood, and we give a survey of partial results for a number of other Banach spaces. We then investigate the lattice of closed ideals in ℬ(F), where F is one of Figiel's reflexive Banach spaces not isomorphic to their Cartesian squares. Our main result is that this lattice is uncountable....

The notion of a compressible operator on a Banach space, E, derives from automatic continuity arguments. It is related to the notion of a cartesian Banach space. The compressible operators on E form an ideal in ℬ(E) and the automatic continuity proofs depend on showing that this ideal is large. In particular, it is shown that each weakly compact operator on the James' space, J, is compressible, whence it follows that all homomorphisms from ℬ(J) are continuous.