Bad Banks is a gripping account of the problems and scandals that continue to bedevil the world's banking system some eight years after the credit crunch.It follows the fortunes and misfortunes of individual banks, from RBS to Lloyds. It exposes instances of mis-selling, money laundering, interest rate fixing and incompetence. And it considers the bigger picture: how the failings of the world's banking system are threatening to undermine our future economi...

‘Buy British!’ we often hear, and many foreign companies have done just that. US food giant Kraft bought Cadbury in 2010, Dutch group AkzoNobel acquired ICI in 2007, Deutsche Bahn now own Arriva, and that’s just the beginning.The truth is that hundreds of billions of pounds’ worth of British businesses have been sold off abroad in recent years. But what does this takeover bonanza mean for our future economic health?In Britain for Sale, award-winning financial journ...

An optimistic exploration of how, through radical economic reform, the United Kingdom can prosper and flourish in the new global economyTaking a refreshingly realistic approach, Alex Brummer outlines how our current moment can be reshaped into an unprecedented opportunity for economic prosperity. With a new long-term approach, Britain can capitalize on the ever-changing global market, its brilliant research universities, and new technological developments. Drawing ...

Once upon a time Britain's pension system was admired around the world. Now, it's in tatters and vast numbers of people face the grim choice of enduring a poverty-stricken future or working until they drop. What on earth went wrong?In The Great Pensions Robbery award-winning journalist Alex Brummer ventures into the corridors of power to find out how politicians bent on penny-pinching, a civil service cowed into submission and individuals more interested in their careers t...

Michael Fingleton was an Irish banking legend, the ultimate big money lender. He took Irish Nationwide Building Society from an obscure mortgage provider to a multi-billion euro property-lending casino, leaving the taxpayer to pick up the tab for €5.4 billion when the society eventually went bust. Fingleton earned over €2 million per year and built up a pension fund worth €27 million. But it was his loans to a small group of property developers and the way the society was mismanaged, under...

The definitive account of the tumultuous events that led to Ireland going broke in 2010From the night the Irish government guaranteed the debts of Irish banks in September 2008 Ireland was on a one-way road to ruin.In How Ireland Really Went Bust Matt Cooper, journalist, broadcaster and No 1 bestselling author of Who Really Runs Ireland?, describes the events that climaxed with the arrival of the heavy hitters from the IMF and the ECB in G...

The collapse in January 2018 of the construction giant Carillion, outsourcer of huge Government building contracts, is one of the great financial scandals of modern times. When it folded it had only £29 million in the bank and debts and other liabilities adding up to a staggering £7 billion. When the total losses were counted it was established that the banks were owed £1.3 billion in loans and that there was a hole in the pension fund of £2.6 billion.That left British taxpayers picking up...

**Winner of the Spears Business Book of the Year AwardLonglisted for the Financial Times Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award**In today's financial climate, we are all, naturally, obsessed by debt. In almost every aspect of our life we experience it - on our credit cards, mortgages, bank loans and student loans. But where has this debt come from? How does it work? What is any money really worth? And what promises do we need to believe to keep the whole system afloa...

An award-winning journalist details the near-collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland in the late 2000s.For a few brief months in 2007 and 2009, the Royal Bank of Scotland was the largest bank in the world. Then the Edinburgh-based giant—having rapidly grown its footprint to 55 countries and stretched its assets to £2.4 trillion under its hubristic and delinquent former boss Fred Goodwin—crashed to earth.In Shredded, author Ian Fraser explores the seri...

It was me, I did it!Imagine walking into a police station with a bloodied knife, telling the Inspector you had just murdered someone and offering to bring them to the site of the crime – what reaction would expect?Now alter the above to reflect the equivalent of murder in the financial sector, a capital punishment crime if you'll pardon the poor pun.Just over nine years ago, 2007, a full year before the disastrous blanket bank guarantee, Jonathan Sugarman walked into t...

What are countries famous for making? For Japan, the answer might be electronic goods. For Germany, automobiles. For France, perhaps a Louis Vuitton bag. But what about Britain?Here, Evan Davis sets himself the task of finding out. Offering a fascinating look at our manufacturing industries and revealing the various companies that might not be household names, but are very much world leaders in their fields, he shows how we have learnt to specialise in high end and niche areas that...

Based on unparalleled access to those involved, and told with compelling pace and drama, The Bank that Lived a Little describes three decades of boardroom intrigue at one of Britain's biggest financial institutions. In a tale of feuds, grandiose dreams and a struggle for supremacy between rival strategies and their adherents, Philip Augar gives a riveting account of Barclays' journey from an old Quaker bank to a full-throttle capitalist machine. The disagreement between those ambi...