Leading Questions with Robert Peston
A new series of interviews is available through the BBC iPlayer in which Robert Peston, the BBC’s Business Editor talks to global business leaders who run multinational companies - here is the link
Radio discussion - is the credit crunch crisis over?
Robert Peston “called” the end of the credit crunch on Radio 4 last Thursday. The following day, Evan Davis interviewed Graham Turner (GFC Economics) and Jim O’Neill (Goldman Sachs) to discuss whether the crisis is largely over. A fascinating and encouraging 7 minute audio discussion - well worth playing to both AS and A2 students.
Robert Peston Goes in Search of Green Shoots
When will we know when the UK economy is starting to come out of recession? What is a “green shoot” and will we know one when we see it? Robert Peston has taken his first tentative steps in the search for those elusive snippets of good economic news…
Bankers and the Blame Game
The BBC Today programme today covered an interview between Robert Peston and John Varley, CEO of Barclays on the extent to which the banking industry should accept responsibility for the financial crisis and the collapse in lending. This clip includes a section of the interview - the full version will be on Panorama - but the real value is the follow up discussion between Evan Davis and Professor John Kay in which John makes a telling point about the nature of banking risk. The kinds of bank loans that most of us need - to finance a home improvement, or a student loan or an extended overdraft to tide us over unemployment or a period of difficulty were not the types of risk-taking by banks that got us into this trouble in the first place - excessive leverage built on securitisation is the root cause of the crisis.
Evan Davis used to be taught at Oxford by John Kay - it was a delight to hear their conversation on radio this morning as I headed into the final furlong of the Christmas shopping - but the streets of my own home town were strangely quiet even by 11am when I headed home. Was it the same where you live?
John has a new book coming out next month which promises to be timely and enlightening - the title is The Long and the Short of it: A Guide to Finance and Investment for Normally Intelligent People Who Aren’t in the Industry - and it is available for pre-order now on Amazon.
Charles Bean on a drama in 3 Acts
The Financial Times carries an interesting interview with Charles Bean from the Bank of England. He Deputy Governor reveals how on regional visits to businesses in the UK he has been hit by the severity of the likely labour shedding in the jobs market as businesses small and large look to make immediate redundancies to reduce some of their overheads. Robert Peston reinforces this point in a recent blog post in which he argues that many businesses are turning down new orders because they cannot be confident of securing the short-term loan finance needed to buy the raw materials and components needed to fulfill customer orders.
read more...»Anguished of Edinburgh
The BBC’ Business Editor Robert Peston offered a rapid fire tutorial in the credit crunch in his address to the Edinburgh Book Festival today. Some people have perhaps unfairly labelled him as “Pessimistic Peston”, the man who first revealed the state of the liquidity crisis at the Northern Rock in early September 2007. But he delivered an engaging and witty talk to a large group of the well heeled of Edinburgh who clearly have weighty financial issues on their minds.
read more...»Another Northern Rock?
Probably not but the travails of Bradford and Bingley are worth following closely. Britain’s eight biggest bank and the largest player in the increasingly fragile buy-to-let market is under severe pressure following yet another profits warning, the early departure of its CEO and the announcement of the sale of 23% of their equity to a private equity investor Texas Pacific Group. The BBC web site will be carrying plenty on this story over the coming days. Declan Curry has been reporting on this as the news came through and Robert Peston continues to break the stories ahead of the rest of the pack with his superb blog - he writes:
“A regulator also told me that, unlike Northern Rock last September, B&B’s is not suffering from a shortage of liquid funds that would imperil its future. He added that its balance sheet was not particularly weak, even without the injection of new capital.”
Bradford and Bingley’s exposed position in the buy to let market seems to be one of its key weaknesses at the moment. But the regulators will be in there swarming like wasps to make sure that the financial stavbility of the bank is better than when they failed in their regulatory duty with Northern Rock. This is little comfort for B&B shareholders asked to stump up for a rights issue and who have seen the price of B&B shares collapse since the middle of last year.
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