Over the last couple of months, we have published much-read extracts from Ray Perman and Ian Fraser’s books, Hubris and Shredded respectively, to mark the tenth anniversary of the financial crisis that hit western capitalist economies in 2008.Now in the latest Sceptical Scot podcast we ask Scotland’s two top financial commentators to explain what lessons, if any, we have … [Read more...] about Too big to reform? How banks capture the state
HBOS
How Lloyds swallowed HBOS hook, line and sinker
On 19 September 2008, with HBOS heading for the rocks, CEO Andy Hornby shakes hands with Lloyds CEO Eric Daniels. Watched over by his chairman, Sir Victor Blanks, Daniels claims ‘an enormously good deal’. Both men fail to spot warning signs of a looming catastrophe: a staggering £10 billion black hole of debt. Now read on. Scotland has been home to many lost causes, and … [Read more...] about How Lloyds swallowed HBOS hook, line and sinker
Life savings lost in HBOS crash – Apocalypse Now: Part 2
People really watched in disbelief – and I do mean watched, because the share price was on the intranet and they could watch it daily, live, every 15 minutes – as they began to lose their savings. HBOS trade union repHBOS could not survive on its own. After Northern Rock, Brown and Darling were reluctant to nationalise another bank, so a private-sector solution seemed the … [Read more...] about Life savings lost in HBOS crash – Apocalypse Now: Part 2
Apocalypse now and then…ten years after HBOS crash
At the special meeting in Edinburgh to approve the rights issue, chairman Lord Stevenson told shareholders: ‘Armageddon may happen, and we should be prepared for it, and we are.’ Armageddon came three months later and no one was prepared for it.The events leading up to the final collapse took place in New York. On 7 September the US Government announced it was taking the … [Read more...] about Apocalypse now and then…ten years after HBOS crash
How Scotland’s premier banks crashed the economy: ten years on
With hindsight we should have seen it coming a long time before. But it wasn’t until 15 September 2008 that the world woke up to the first shock waves of the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression.Ten years later the ripples are still spreading. Unfinished business is what the Financial Times calls the crisis which broke banks, rocked governments, wrecked … [Read more...] about How Scotland’s premier banks crashed the economy: ten years on