Author Archives: henrypeterson
What has changed?
This website started life in 2010, with the idea that an independent ‘truth commission’ was needed – at which bankers, traders, accountants and lawyers could explain themselves and their actions in creating history’s worst financial disaster to date. The past … Continue reading
Six years on and no end in sight
It is now six years since the start of the banking crisis. This week RBS has announced that the bank’s pre-tax loss for 2013 was £8.2bn, compared with £5.2bn in 2012. Chief Executive Ross McEwan tells us that it … Continue reading
‘In reality the financial sector is not out of control, it is beyond control’
This is a quote from an excellent piece in the Guardian by Juris Luyendijk. His analysis of the financial sector is from an anthropological perspective and looks at the involvement of credit rating agencies and accountancy firms, as well as bankers … Continue reading
The Geithner Doctrine and ‘too big to jail’
Neil Barofsky comments in the FT that the banks are still getting off lightly, and remain ‘too big too jail’. He attributes this to the priority that Tim Geithner gave to preserving global market stability, at the cost of turning … Continue reading
The Archbishop and the Chairman of Barclays
The Parliamentary Committee on Banking Standards is making progress towards the sort of public and vigorous challenge to the banking community that was envisaged when this website first called for a ‘truth commission’. This morning’s session concentrated on Barclays and … Continue reading
Parliamentary Committee on Banking Standards
This committee, set up following the LIBOR scandal, is proving to be the closest thing yet to the sort of Truth Commission which this website suggested back in 2010. The Parliamentary committee, chaired by Andrew Tyrie, has begun to focus … Continue reading
Finally… Andy Haldane’s speech to Occupy
One of the few gleams on the horizon in recent months has been the speech organised by the Occupy movement last month and given by Andy Haldane (a member of the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England). You … Continue reading
Getting closer to the truth – but not close enough
Three hours of Bob Diamond giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee shed only a little light on the events of the past years – other than to confirm the gulf in attitude and perception between him and the ordinary … Continue reading
You could not make it up
Mid 2012 brings us a further series of EU summits, held as part of increasingly desperate efforts to avoid serial sovereign default in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy. Hinde Capital publish a report forecasting equal doom for the UK economy (Eyes … Continue reading
Has 2012 brought good news?
A mixed picture. The crisis in the Euro area remains a constant reminder of the long-term misery created by the excesses and greed of the banks and money markets. Greek citizens continue to pay the price of the deals done … Continue reading