RBS and HSBC - one for Peston?

Two banks that have been - in relative terms - out of the headlines in recent days with the turmoil surrounding HBoS and Lloyds-TSB and the collapse of Bradford and Bingley. But perhaps the shock announcement on Friday that the Bank of England was dramatically increasing the scale of its three-month lending to British banks by offering cash against a wider range of collateral was actually the result of another storm brewing in the UK financial markets.

RBS is in big trouble - it paid way over the odds (and using too much cash) for ABN-Amro and has suffered a nasty bout of the winners’ curse. The share price traded on the Dutch stock exchange is barely a third of the market value towards the end of 2007 and the bank has moved sharply away from profit to a stunning loss due to bad debts.

Is HSBC being lined up by the UK Treasury as a White Knight to rescue RBS? One for Robert Peston to investigate in search of another scoop.

Unit 1 Micro: Can the UK Computer Games Industry Grow [24 Jan 2012]
Beyond the Bike - The Importance of Remittances [15 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: UK Bond Yields Reach Record Lows [11 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Factors Driving Business Investment [10 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Quantitative Easing in the UK [8 Jan 2012]
2012 - Carnage on the High Street [28 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Sub Normal Profits - BP Leaves the Solar Industry [21 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Mobile Phones and African Economic Growth [18 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Patent Wars- A Touchy Subject for Apple [16 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Brand Loyalty in Mobile Phones [27 Nov 2011]
Beyond the Bike - The Value of Money [19 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Should the EU introduce a Tobin Tax? [14 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Eurozone crisis - a selection of resources [12 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: UK Executive Pay - All in it Together? [29 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
Why Is Macroeconomics Such A Mess? [11 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Supply [26 Sep 2011]
Greek debt decision tree [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: IMF Flags up Risks of Double Dip [20 Sep 2011]
Another Economics prop - for remembering MC=MR! [15 Sep 2011]
Mixing with the Nobel Economists [4 Sep 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Quiz on Business Costs and Profits [25 Aug 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Cotton Prices and the Retail Price of Clothing [13 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of Volatile Corn Prices [12 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
Where there’s muck there’s brass [6 Jul 2011]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Demand Pull Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Cost Push Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Recession [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Spare Capacity [23 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Competition Policy [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Oligopoly and Collusion [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Oligopoly [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Entry Barriers in Markets [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro:  Monopsony Power in Markets [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: The Importance of Profit [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: High and Low Marginal Cost Products [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Consequences of Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Examples of Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Perfect Competition [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Competition and Efficiency [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Outsourcing [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Business Growth [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation and Economic Policies [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation Efficiency and Welfare [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Moving Away from Profit Max [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Minimum Efficient Scale [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Economies of Scope [18 May 2011]
UK Economy Update: What Mervyn Said [11 May 2011]
AS and A2 Macro Revision: Keynesian Economics [28 Apr 2011]
A2 Micro: EU Aviation - State Aid and State Ownership [28 Apr 2011]
Wiki Revision: A to Z on Monopoly [23 Apr 2011]
A2 Micro: Changes in Costs and Profits [23 Apr 2011]
Rise in investment could kick start recovery [18 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Competition and Monopoly [17 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Costs and Profits [16 Apr 2011]
Smartphones and Creative Destruction [16 Apr 2011]
A2 Macro: Back to Roubini - a Year On! [11 Apr 2011]
OCR F585 June 2011: Euro Area on the Rocks? [11 Apr 2011]
ECB breaks rank and raises interest rates [7 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Expansionary Monetary Policy [4 Apr 2011]
A2 Micro: Updates on Competition Issues [2 Apr 2011]
AS Micro Revision: Banana Prices [1 Apr 2011]
Why is the Yen appreciating? [18 Mar 2011]
AS Macro Revision: Investment Spending [12 Mar 2011]
Ireland - Mass Unemployment and Shrinking GDP [10 Mar 2011]
Tenner Tycoon - enterprise competition [7 Mar 2011]
Economics Q&A: What factors help to explain rising food prices? [14 Feb 2011]
Shared Value and the Limitations of CSR [12 Feb 2011]
David Smith on Shifting Sands in the Global Economy [8 Feb 2011]
Regulation and the banking industry: reflections from Davos [30 Jan 2011]
Shorting the market - the vultures target HMV [23 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: Can economics provide answers to the crisis of collapsing stocks in global fishing? [19 Jan 2011]
Tesco - Time to start a price war! [19 Jan 2011]
Will we have to live with high unemployment? [17 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: How might rising food prices affect food retailers and manufacturers in the UK? [16 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of a period of rising world food prices [4 Jan 2011]
Heinz Means Strikes [29 Dec 2010]
HMV on the brink? [9 Dec 2010]
Growth and Strategy at Domino’s Pizza [27 Nov 2010]
Energy Oligopoly - Price Investigation is Launched [26 Nov 2010]
iLand - Shareholders and Taxpayers feel the Pain [24 Nov 2010]
Using Google Docs - A2 Applied Micro on Collusion [21 Nov 2010]
What You Need to Know About Economics [18 Nov 2010]
Experimenting with Google Docs - the Rise of a Digital Conglomerate [8 Nov 2010]
The Market for Potash [30 Oct 2010]
A2 Micro: Monopoly Price and Output [28 Oct 2010]
The Acid Burns Through - Requiem for Neo Liberalism [28 Oct 2010]
Asia Rising - Thai Car Exports Speeds Up Growth [27 Oct 2010]
The Business Objectives of Mark Zuckerberg [25 Oct 2010]
Departing from pure profit maximisation [14 Oct 2010]
Jerome Kerviel and the Principal Agent Problem [5 Oct 2010]
Student View: Takeovers and Mergers and Shareholder Value [27 Sep 2010]
Housing market and negative equity [31 Aug 2010]
Potash - a battle for grey dust that has become gold dust [26 Aug 2010]
Credit squeeze - businesses rely more on factoring [23 Aug 2010]

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