‘The ruin of the City of Glasgow Bank was the biggest collapse in British banking history – until 2008. Its story contains salutary lessons for bankers in any age…
Rejoin the Sea League and save the seabed
‘The Our Seas coalition is, once again, a renewed opportunity to protect a precious and fragile environment. But campaigners will need the energy, vision and determination of John Campbell. And that means never letting go.’
Scots pound has a past… but a future?
An independent Scotland could find a new dynamism which would improve its economic performance. But not overnight. A new currency would almost certainly start at a discount to sterling.
Lloyd’s losses paid by ‘mass casualties’
In the final extract from Hubris: How HBOS Wrecked the Best Bank in Britain, Ray Perman counts the costs – born by the mass casualties who were (and still are) the casualties of the world’s worst financial crash. And what happened to those at the top?
How Lloyds swallowed HBOS hook, line and sinker
‘I think the deal stinks’ said one Lloyds shareholder. ‘A lot of people will lose their jobs’, said the former Bank of Scotland CEO. No-one foresaw the full and lasting cost of Lloyds rushed takeover of HBOS in September 2008.
Life savings lost in HBOS crash – Apocalypse Now: Part 2
Who has paid the cost in the HBOS crash? Inside HBOS, staff earning £15,000 -£18,000, who were also shareholders, were watching their savings evaporate. Ray Perman continues the story of a banking disaster unresolved to this day.
Apocalypse now and then…ten years after HBOS crash
The events leading up to the crash began in New York, 7 September 2008. A week later the shock waves engulfed Scotland’s oldest bank in Edinburgh.
Growth commission: an answer to the wrong question?
The SNP hopes its Sustainable Growth Commission report will restart the national debate on independence? Richard Murphy describes it as disastrous, the Fraser of Allander Institute sees much for all parties to discuss (with or without independence in mind). Ray Perman thinks it will be forgotten fairly quickly.
Red Queen policymaking
The Programme for Government is full of detailed initiatives to support and encourage everything from manufacturing in the West Highlands to tourism in Ayrshire. Mostly it is a description of what is already being done, but where’s the evidence for what works, asks a former government adviser.
Goodbye from her…and me
“Truth springs from argument among friends,” is often attributed to Hume, although it doesn’t appear in his writings. As long as it doesn’t count as a slogan or a soundbite, I’m happy to subscribe to it. The former David Hume Institute director says au revoir…as a happy sceptic to the end.