Books by Ray Perman:
Books by Ray Perman:
Have I overplayed the influence of colourful characters – the good, bad and downright ugly – of Scottish banking history?
The ruin of the City of Glasgow Bank in 1878 was the biggest collapse in British banking history – until 2008. Its story contains salutary lessons for bankers in any age. The event was surprisingly full for a cold, wet winter night in Edinburgh. But the Library of Mistakes knows how to sell a good…
A tale beginning and ending with financial disaster – who were the heroes and villains of this story? The Rise and Fall of the City of Money brings them to life.
Revealing two sides of Sir Walter Scott: unscrupulous business dealer and man of honour.
Then he said something which seized my attention: ‘I withdrew £20 million today from Bank of Scotland to put it in a safe place. In the autumn of 2008 I attended a black tie business dinner. I forget the occasion or the organisation responsible, they are all very similar and after a while the memories…
‘Let the jury consider their verdict,’ the King said, for about the twentieth time that day. ‘No, no!’ said the Queen. ‘Sentence first—verdict afterwards.’ (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). Politicians have often followed the Red Queen’s approach: policy first, evidence later.
Four banks — Lloyds, RBS, Barclays and HSBC — have over 70% of the personal current accounts in the UK between them and over 80% of the current accounts of small businesses. This is not a new situation, it was identified 15 years ago in an official inquiry.
Unlike Lloyds, where the Government has been steadily selling shares it acquired when the bank had to be rescued in 2008, RBS remains 80% owned by the public. Despite a drastic pruning of its balance sheet and the sale of non-core businesses, its stock price is still substantially below the level at which taxpayers, who…
