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Who Runs Britain?
'A compelling portrait of early 21st century casino capitalism ... essential reading.' - The Times
On 13 September 2007, Robert Peston broke the news that Northern Rock had become a victim of the global credit crunch and was seeking an emergency loan from the Bank of England.
It was the latest in a long line of scoops by this award-winning journalist. Over the weeks that followed, the Government found itself exposed to the Rock to the tune of 57 billion, or almost £2000 for every taxpayer.As Robert Peston shows in his fascinating new book, the seeds for the collapse of Northern Rock and the upheavals in the financial markets were sown years before.
Who Runs Britain? is the first time anyone has drawn all the threads together to weave a story that's rich in extraordinary characters and outrageous feats of economic bravado. This book is about the widening gap between the super-rich and the rest of us. It explores and explodes the myth that the financial creativity of those who are amassing these vast fortunes is good for the wider economy and for all of us.
Whether you're a financial expert or just have a bank account, Who Runs Britain? is a book you must read.
On 13 September 2007, Robert Peston broke the news that Northern Rock had become a victim of the global credit crunch and was seeking an emergency loan from the Bank of England.
It was the latest in a long line of scoops by this award-winning journalist. Over the weeks that followed, the Government found itself exposed to the Rock to the tune of 57 billion, or almost £2000 for every taxpayer.As Robert Peston shows in his fascinating new book, the seeds for the collapse of Northern Rock and the upheavals in the financial markets were sown years before.
Who Runs Britain? is the first time anyone has drawn all the threads together to weave a story that's rich in extraordinary characters and outrageous feats of economic bravado. This book is about the widening gap between the super-rich and the rest of us. It explores and explodes the myth that the financial creativity of those who are amassing these vast fortunes is good for the wider economy and for all of us.
Whether you're a financial expert or just have a bank account, Who Runs Britain? is a book you must read.
Perfect Paperback
First published February 7, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
May 20, 2015
I have for years wanted to know more about high finance, but crippled by ignorance and a small brain, have been unable to further my quest. There are several books I have tried to read on the subject, but been defeated. I gave up on them after a chapter or so - bogged down in a morass of meaningless financial terms and transactions.
This book is different. Robert Peston, Economics Editor at the BBC, is an outstanding communicator, and he shines his torch into all sorts of dark places - which up until now - for me - were completely opaque.
I read the first part of the book very, very slowly. There was so much new stuff for me to take on board - but step by step, in an easy chatty style, Peston talks you though the basics of the financial markets. He gives excellent everyday examples of money transactions, which he then uses to explain major financial phenomena. For me the book was full of "ah ha!" moments. He really helps ordinary people get a grip on big money.
After he has described the basics, he then moves on to describe the activities of various major financial players. For me this acted as a reinforcement of what I had learnt in the first part of the book.
And now, it is with some hesitancy I add this spoiler. To those as intellectually limited as me it is going to make the book sound boring. But it ain't boring - honestly, for me it read more like a thriller than anything else. Such mind-boggling shenanigans! Anyway, here goes....things he touches upon include:
Although this book only goes up to 2007, I think much of it is very pertinent to today's issues - especially in our current run up to the British elections. For people in my position, ie very ignorant about financial affairs, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Peston has given me access to all sorts of things that were previously off my radar, and for that I feel enormously grateful.
(PS I didn't read the chapter "Who Stole Our Pensions?" I'd kind of run of steam for such a mammoth issue. I have bought the book though and hope to tackle it another time, when I feel stronger.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And for those interested in the politics and economy of France, Peston recently did a marvellous programme called "Quelle Catastrophe!" for the BBC, which is available via iPlayer until 18/4/15
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...
This book is different. Robert Peston, Economics Editor at the BBC, is an outstanding communicator, and he shines his torch into all sorts of dark places - which up until now - for me - were completely opaque.
I read the first part of the book very, very slowly. There was so much new stuff for me to take on board - but step by step, in an easy chatty style, Peston talks you though the basics of the financial markets. He gives excellent everyday examples of money transactions, which he then uses to explain major financial phenomena. For me the book was full of "ah ha!" moments. He really helps ordinary people get a grip on big money.
After he has described the basics, he then moves on to describe the activities of various major financial players. For me this acted as a reinforcement of what I had learnt in the first part of the book.
And now, it is with some hesitancy I add this spoiler. To those as intellectually limited as me it is going to make the book sound boring. But it ain't boring - honestly, for me it read more like a thriller than anything else. Such mind-boggling shenanigans! Anyway, here goes....things he touches upon include:
Although this book only goes up to 2007, I think much of it is very pertinent to today's issues - especially in our current run up to the British elections. For people in my position, ie very ignorant about financial affairs, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Peston has given me access to all sorts of things that were previously off my radar, and for that I feel enormously grateful.
(PS I didn't read the chapter "Who Stole Our Pensions?" I'd kind of run of steam for such a mammoth issue. I have bought the book though and hope to tackle it another time, when I feel stronger.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And for those interested in the politics and economy of France, Peston recently did a marvellous programme called "Quelle Catastrophe!" for the BBC, which is available via iPlayer until 18/4/15
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...
April 8, 2020
Preston uses research and data to show how the Northern Rock debacle and the financial market troubles of the UK, could be a result of policy, he writes about the ever widening gap between the super-rich and everyone else, but most essentially of all, he debunks the myth that the super-rich are good for the economy. A damning exposure of the new super rich and their net negative impact on the UK and the UK Government's complicity. A must read. 6 out of 12
August 17, 2014
It took a lot of guts for me to read a book by someone who describes themselves as an unabashed capitalist but read it I did. Peston is the BBC Business Editor and he defends things I wouldn’t, as is to be expected, but he is equally perturbed as I am by the growth of the super-rich class who pay little or no tax on their incomes. The imbalance of our society is well presented as the author draws on his experiences and dealings with the 21st Century nouveau riche. For a book almost solely about economics it’s couched very much in layman’s terms and very easy to follow. I now feel I know a bit more about hedge funds, private equity, off-balance sheet transactions and pension liabilities, and at no stage while this was being explained did I feel bored, a testament to the authors natural ability to get his message across succinctly without losing the narrative. At times the book goes of on a bit of a tangent when talking about certain high fliers in the business world. There is a whole chapter devoted to the life of Philip Green which is rather unnecessary and comes across as quite sycophantic despite Green being one of the worst offenders for tax avoidance in the country (he paid himself a tax free sum of £1.2billion in 2005 alone). These people are the celebrities of Robert Peston’s world and you get the impression that he fawns over them a little too much. An enjoyable book though and while it doesn’t quite answer the question asked on the title page, nor does it fully address the problems of increasing private involvement in essential public services, it does give some food for thought and help us to work out our own answers, the correct one being that we are increasingly controlled by a hegemonic financial world that is not so much multi-national any more as extra-national. Democracy is a historic shadow on the world of super-finance that responds neither to public will or elected representatives. This book is a one small chapter of a work in progress on the transformation of our society in to a leviathan of unfairness and inequality.
November 1, 2021
The 2008 financial crisis wasn't a surprise. The writing had been on the wall long enough among many experts, and when it finally blew up it was merely like a child finally pointing at a naked Emperor. The question is, how did we get there?
Untangling it all is certainly not easy! Born out of the highly complex functioning of institutions engaging in obscure gambling and speculations (if not plain scams!) all very abstract for the layman, here was a mess incredibly difficult to get your head around. Robert Peston, though, manages to explain it all in simple terms. It's his strength -as he tackles the topic very accessibly, as if writing the script for an investigative documentary for people otherwise clueless about economics to watch. It's also his weakness -since many readers might find it so easy to read they may not learn anything new nor relevant to them. Personally, here was one of the first works I approached about the topic -having no prior understanding of such financial world- and so I was grateful for its straightforward approach.
The key concepts are simply defined. More, what he also does is to link it all to the political world (more my cup of tea) to show that, if banging on crook financiers is justified, nevertheless, most of the responsibility lies with politicians themselves. After all, they allowed this to happen by letting their own interest colluding with such world, at the expense of the rest of us. Peston being a British journalist, he deals here with Great Britain only; and what an eloquent example that is!
He reminds us indeed that if Britain was so dependent upon the financial sector in the first place, it was mainly due to the strong will of the New Labour to turn the country into an attractive window for such billionaires and businessmen (many made filthy rich by the speculations underpinning that catastrophe), a political will which had led to a near plutocracy dangerous for democracy. In fact, it's not so much the shameless wealth accumulated by a few and thanks to a dubious tax system that he denounces here, but the Cash for Honours scandal whereas such wealthy 'barons' received life peerage in exchange of donations to the New Labour. If this wasn't reflecting a corrupt system, then what does?
Here's a book, then, which is easy and accessible enough to understand the financial chaos which led to the crash, while putting things into a broader perspective. The economic crisis alone was bad enough. The most disturbing aspect of it all, though, was that it was peddled by a corrupt political system whereas democracy was put on hold to serve colluding interest between the political and financial world. It surely bashes hard on New labour while seemingly sparring the Tories (which is unfair -who embraced such looney capitalism in the first place?). Nevertheless, here's a punch for those unfamiliar with such worlds yet wanting to understand a bit better what really happened. A very good read.
Untangling it all is certainly not easy! Born out of the highly complex functioning of institutions engaging in obscure gambling and speculations (if not plain scams!) all very abstract for the layman, here was a mess incredibly difficult to get your head around. Robert Peston, though, manages to explain it all in simple terms. It's his strength -as he tackles the topic very accessibly, as if writing the script for an investigative documentary for people otherwise clueless about economics to watch. It's also his weakness -since many readers might find it so easy to read they may not learn anything new nor relevant to them. Personally, here was one of the first works I approached about the topic -having no prior understanding of such financial world- and so I was grateful for its straightforward approach.
The key concepts are simply defined. More, what he also does is to link it all to the political world (more my cup of tea) to show that, if banging on crook financiers is justified, nevertheless, most of the responsibility lies with politicians themselves. After all, they allowed this to happen by letting their own interest colluding with such world, at the expense of the rest of us. Peston being a British journalist, he deals here with Great Britain only; and what an eloquent example that is!
He reminds us indeed that if Britain was so dependent upon the financial sector in the first place, it was mainly due to the strong will of the New Labour to turn the country into an attractive window for such billionaires and businessmen (many made filthy rich by the speculations underpinning that catastrophe), a political will which had led to a near plutocracy dangerous for democracy. In fact, it's not so much the shameless wealth accumulated by a few and thanks to a dubious tax system that he denounces here, but the Cash for Honours scandal whereas such wealthy 'barons' received life peerage in exchange of donations to the New Labour. If this wasn't reflecting a corrupt system, then what does?
Here's a book, then, which is easy and accessible enough to understand the financial chaos which led to the crash, while putting things into a broader perspective. The economic crisis alone was bad enough. The most disturbing aspect of it all, though, was that it was peddled by a corrupt political system whereas democracy was put on hold to serve colluding interest between the political and financial world. It surely bashes hard on New labour while seemingly sparring the Tories (which is unfair -who embraced such looney capitalism in the first place?). Nevertheless, here's a punch for those unfamiliar with such worlds yet wanting to understand a bit better what really happened. A very good read.
July 24, 2011
There are books that can't be put down. Then there are books that you can't wait to put down in order that you can have the opportunity to read something interesting. Disappointingly, this fell firmly into the latter category.
The reasons for this are numerous. Firstly, it provides little in the way of useful information that the ordinary person in the street would not be able to provide. There are exceptions to this but the bulk of the text falls far short of answering the question which forms the title of this book. It includes a chapter on the dominance of Private Equity firms prior to the recession, then a run through on Philip Greens lifetime achievements, followed by a run through of Stuart Roses's lifetime achievements, some barely comprehensible gobbledygook on pensions, followed by some stuff we already know about the 'cash for honours' scandal surrounding Lord Levy, followed by a quick run through of Allan Leighton's lifetime achievements, followed by a conclusion. Oh and there is some stuff in there somewhere about how the economic crisis developed (again half of which we already know, the other half of which is more gobbledygook) and also how hedge funds have little in the way of a moral conscience (which we already know).
Not an enlightening book then. This accompanied with the fact that the title is a complete misnomer, means that I know where to turn the next time toilet paper is in short supply.
The reasons for this are numerous. Firstly, it provides little in the way of useful information that the ordinary person in the street would not be able to provide. There are exceptions to this but the bulk of the text falls far short of answering the question which forms the title of this book. It includes a chapter on the dominance of Private Equity firms prior to the recession, then a run through on Philip Greens lifetime achievements, followed by a run through of Stuart Roses's lifetime achievements, some barely comprehensible gobbledygook on pensions, followed by some stuff we already know about the 'cash for honours' scandal surrounding Lord Levy, followed by a quick run through of Allan Leighton's lifetime achievements, followed by a conclusion. Oh and there is some stuff in there somewhere about how the economic crisis developed (again half of which we already know, the other half of which is more gobbledygook) and also how hedge funds have little in the way of a moral conscience (which we already know).
Not an enlightening book then. This accompanied with the fact that the title is a complete misnomer, means that I know where to turn the next time toilet paper is in short supply.
November 13, 2010
Philip Green maybe? In the first few chapters you'd think so. Peston is clearly a bit besotted with some of the UK captains of industry and dissects their profiles through interviews and analysis. But again, the book lacks vim. Green is undoubtedly colourful, but the book drones on about him in a way that isn't. A few pithy interviews that involve top businessmen saying "c*nt" does not have the impact that maybe Peston thinks it does. I warmed a bit more to Peston when he started having a right go at the super-wealthy in a less personalised way, dissecting the hedge funds (and government) assertion that it is good for them and Britain to be making loads and loads and loads of money. That idea is plainly "For the birds", and he points out why. Next he has a look at Alan Leighton. Why? Does he run Britain? I puzzled over the point of this chapter. Was it in because Peston likes him?
By the end of the book, however, I had felt I'd learned something and had at least read something with attitudes and opinions, even if none of them were particularly startling.
By the end of the book, however, I had felt I'd learned something and had at least read something with attitudes and opinions, even if none of them were particularly startling.
September 1, 2009
Well, now I understand more about the whole hedge fund and private equity thing. And what Philip Green actually does. And where my bloody pension has gone. I like to imagine that the Thinking Woman's Crumpet is reading this to me himself. (However I was a few cocktails down, when I wrote that, truth be told).
December 4, 2009
whew. finally done. Took me forever to get through this. Parts were not particularly gripping and sometimes not particularly fantastically written...but overall, a worthwhile read. I did get a better feel for how Britain runs - and he'd clearly done a lot of research over the years & has gotten to know the inside details of these economic heavy-hitters' lives very well.
August 12, 2011
We are in a financial mess and this is why: we allow our world to be run by selfish monsters. Actually, it's worse than that - most people want to join them. Depressing if you have any anti-capitalist tendencies
January 31, 2019
Why isn't this a 5 star book? Because some of the chapters are over-long and not very interesting. For example, there is a 40 page chapter on pensions which is about as interesting as you would expect a 40 page chapter on pensions to be.
This is also a book of its time, and that time is 2008 and the unfolding of the financial crisis. We now know a lot more about the financial crisis and I imagine that Peston's subsequent books, which I intend to read, are more eloquent and insightful about it. But having decided to read his work, I thought I should start at the beginning.
Other chapters are fascinating, however, especially the first 3. If you wanted to know about how hedge funds work and how they enrich people, this is a great place to start. And you can marvel at the gall of the top capitalists like Sir Philip Green as he borrows £1 bn from a bank so that he can pay it to his wife in Monaco as a dividend. WTF?? Greed is writ large all over this book.
Peston has, for my money, a nicely sardonic turn of phrase and a great, essentially left-wing outlook without being some sort of rabid socialist. Pretty much how I feel about things. He is as entertaining a writer as he is broadcaster - until he's giving you "too much information" about pensions. But there you go, he has an economist's training.
So the book is a little curate's egg and you have to will yourself through some of the stodgier bits to enjoy the more easily digestible and fun parts. Unless you are a pension fund manager, I suppose. I'll be moving on through his oeuvre undeterred, however. If you do want to know who runs Britain, this book will at least tell you who did in the Brown and Blair years, and no doubt still do - the uber-wealthy.
This is also a book of its time, and that time is 2008 and the unfolding of the financial crisis. We now know a lot more about the financial crisis and I imagine that Peston's subsequent books, which I intend to read, are more eloquent and insightful about it. But having decided to read his work, I thought I should start at the beginning.
Other chapters are fascinating, however, especially the first 3. If you wanted to know about how hedge funds work and how they enrich people, this is a great place to start. And you can marvel at the gall of the top capitalists like Sir Philip Green as he borrows £1 bn from a bank so that he can pay it to his wife in Monaco as a dividend. WTF?? Greed is writ large all over this book.
Peston has, for my money, a nicely sardonic turn of phrase and a great, essentially left-wing outlook without being some sort of rabid socialist. Pretty much how I feel about things. He is as entertaining a writer as he is broadcaster - until he's giving you "too much information" about pensions. But there you go, he has an economist's training.
So the book is a little curate's egg and you have to will yourself through some of the stodgier bits to enjoy the more easily digestible and fun parts. Unless you are a pension fund manager, I suppose. I'll be moving on through his oeuvre undeterred, however. If you do want to know who runs Britain, this book will at least tell you who did in the Brown and Blair years, and no doubt still do - the uber-wealthy.
September 25, 2012
Hagiographic account of the rise of contemporary British capitalists. The author is a financial journalist who can't avoid the appearance of being captured by the "glamour" of big business and the super-wealthy nouveau riches in charge of hedge funds and private equity investment.
The book provides a serviceable explanation of the debt crisis in U.S. sub-prime mortgages and the knock on effects for world financial liquidity.
The book provides a serviceable explanation of the debt crisis in U.S. sub-prime mortgages and the knock on effects for world financial liquidity.
November 7, 2017
Who Runs Britain – Robert Peston (2008)
10 years on from when Peston wrote his book, what if anything has changed and what was Peston's conclusion on who runs Britain?
I was pleasantly surprised by Peston's book which is a combination of economic data and business anecdotes from well known entrepreneurs operating in the UK. It turned out to be quite an interesting read. I was also surprised to learn that Peston had humble beginnings and had a hankering for fairness and equality.
He exposes the big money players operating from hedge funds, private equity firms, and investment banks and shows how companies are bought and sold whilst the buyers make enormous profits and show little regard for the stakeholders in the companies they deal in. He also exposes how little tax they pay relative to the amount they earn by hiding money and also using low rates of CGT.
He covers a lot of the dealings of Philip Green in respect of Arcadia, BHS, and his failed takeover of M&S, and shows a begrudging respect which is not so for some of the other private equity and hedge fund managers he has come into contact with as a journalist. Ironic how things have turned out for Green with respect to the BHS pension fund. I wonder how Peston feels now?
Anyway, what was Peston's conclusion? Well the billionaire capitalist class may not be running the country but it looks like Peston believes the country is being run for them. With low rates of tax these super rich entrepreneurs are getting massively richer whilst the rest of us have stagnating incomes. They threaten to leave the UK if business conditions change unfavourably and are largely stateless living in expensive mansions wherever they fancy.
With the rise of the Labour Party under Corbyn, is the neo-liberal era coming to an end?
Well, respect to Peston, the last 2 paragraphs of the his book says it all....
“Failing that, here is a possible United Kingdom in ten years, on current trends. Public services would be creaking for lack of resources, as the burden of tax fell on a dwindling number of private-sector employees whose skills weren't quite rare enough or valuable enough to take them into the top league of globally mobile earners. And year after year, the real disposable income of the majority would be squeezed ever so slightly, because that would be the only way that they could keep their jobs in the climate of intense international competition endured by their respective employers. Meanwhile, the plutocrats who own these businesses would shuttle from London to Monaco to Moscow to Mumbai to Shanghai to Rio and back again, refusing to pay the subscription price to belong in any meaningful sense to any nation or community, except the global community of the super-wealthy. In that world, elected politicians would seem less and less relevant to the daily lives of the majority. The potentates would be the stateless plutocrats.
These are the conditions in which millions of citizens could ultimately feel dispossessed, alienated, powerless — especially if there were a global recession. The fracturing of our society is no
less dangerous simply because it is occurring at a time of prosperity. We ignore the seemingly unstoppable rise of the super-rich at our peril. “
10 years on from when Peston wrote his book, what if anything has changed and what was Peston's conclusion on who runs Britain?
I was pleasantly surprised by Peston's book which is a combination of economic data and business anecdotes from well known entrepreneurs operating in the UK. It turned out to be quite an interesting read. I was also surprised to learn that Peston had humble beginnings and had a hankering for fairness and equality.
He exposes the big money players operating from hedge funds, private equity firms, and investment banks and shows how companies are bought and sold whilst the buyers make enormous profits and show little regard for the stakeholders in the companies they deal in. He also exposes how little tax they pay relative to the amount they earn by hiding money and also using low rates of CGT.
He covers a lot of the dealings of Philip Green in respect of Arcadia, BHS, and his failed takeover of M&S, and shows a begrudging respect which is not so for some of the other private equity and hedge fund managers he has come into contact with as a journalist. Ironic how things have turned out for Green with respect to the BHS pension fund. I wonder how Peston feels now?
Anyway, what was Peston's conclusion? Well the billionaire capitalist class may not be running the country but it looks like Peston believes the country is being run for them. With low rates of tax these super rich entrepreneurs are getting massively richer whilst the rest of us have stagnating incomes. They threaten to leave the UK if business conditions change unfavourably and are largely stateless living in expensive mansions wherever they fancy.
With the rise of the Labour Party under Corbyn, is the neo-liberal era coming to an end?
Well, respect to Peston, the last 2 paragraphs of the his book says it all....
“Failing that, here is a possible United Kingdom in ten years, on current trends. Public services would be creaking for lack of resources, as the burden of tax fell on a dwindling number of private-sector employees whose skills weren't quite rare enough or valuable enough to take them into the top league of globally mobile earners. And year after year, the real disposable income of the majority would be squeezed ever so slightly, because that would be the only way that they could keep their jobs in the climate of intense international competition endured by their respective employers. Meanwhile, the plutocrats who own these businesses would shuttle from London to Monaco to Moscow to Mumbai to Shanghai to Rio and back again, refusing to pay the subscription price to belong in any meaningful sense to any nation or community, except the global community of the super-wealthy. In that world, elected politicians would seem less and less relevant to the daily lives of the majority. The potentates would be the stateless plutocrats.
These are the conditions in which millions of citizens could ultimately feel dispossessed, alienated, powerless — especially if there were a global recession. The fracturing of our society is no
less dangerous simply because it is occurring at a time of prosperity. We ignore the seemingly unstoppable rise of the super-rich at our peril. “
April 5, 2009
This is a disappointing book, largely because it falls into a peculiar genre - that of the journalistic pot-boiler from a celebrity journalist who has been given carte blanche by a publisher, while the sun of public notice shines upon him, to rehash 'stories what I wrote'.
The disappointment is particularly intense because Peston was the journalist who broke the Northern Rock story. He was the boy who cried out 'but the Emperor has no clothes'. The Government and the City have been trying to cobble together some robes for finance capitalism ever since.
I always thought that he was a rather unwitting hero. This book shows just how much. His writing since the Northern Rock imbroglio, on his BBC Blog, has been informative but it has increasingly shown the extent to which PR Departments and spinners have been determined to tie down this perhaps naive loose cannon whose words almost broke the Bank. The book is merely a demonstration that the author is a man of his time - a believer in an ideal version of the 'middle way' and still sentimental towards the sharks who built empires on debt, a man who suddenly found himself at the centre of the bubble-pricking that wiser heads knew was coming but left him surprised and shocked.
The best bit of the book is the first Chapter where his confused but fairly typical middle class analysis lies. It is an analysis you will hear as a standard from those in Middle England who like Thatcher's reforms but who thought they went too far in terms of social cohesion, who rather liked the social democrat impulse behind Blairism, who thought debt-fuelled and loud-mouthed near-hysterical one-dimensional services sector bosses represented 'leadership' and who thought growth could be sustained forever. These are people who want a 'nice' capitalism and who will accept a bit of green puffery and corporate social responsibility to ensure that they never have to see how the sausages are made.
If he is shocked that it was not so, there are times when he sees why - only to draw back from the brink because it raises too many questions about a world that he was part of as a commentator for the past decade. There is an excuse for any journalist that he only reports the news and does not make it, but it really is remarkable how few financial and business journalists investigated very deeply what was happening under their noises. Now that the crisis has happened, very few of them want to say things that will admit that they were wrong - they avoid, displace and obfuscate.
As for Peston, there seems to be a decent man here who just cannot see outside his box any more than can the bulk of the London professional classes whose entire wealth resided on a bit of economic legerdemain and a determined refusal to ask too many questions beyond the 'story'. For serious analysis, go to Larry Elliott and others of his ilk.
The nub of his argument should be taken as his own last sentences in that first chapter - "The accumulation of vast wealth by a growing class of super-rich - who owe no allegiance to any state - is a regressive trend for the distribution of power. It will taint governance and distort democracy."
He states this and then he moves on ... what should be a considered analysis, about how what he knows leads to his analysis, becomes little more than a series of disconnected case studies - of Sir Phillip Green whom he clearly inordinately admires and who is currently gambling his retail all on Topshop in New York, a blow-by-blow account of the struggle for Marks & Spencers which seems to fascinate financial journalists but is intensely dull to the rest of us, gossip about the hedge fund superstars (yawn!), the very serious matter of the disarray in national pensions arrangements, the scandal surrounding wealthy donations to the Labour Party and a rather strange and uninformative account of Sir Allan Leighton's Chairmanship of the Post Office which merely indicates that our great national institutions seem to operate in a permanent state of near-policy chaos.
The point about inordinate political influence is to be found in throw-away remarks that should have been the basis for a better book. He writes, for example, of Paul Marshall who set up Marshall Wace, a hedge fund, in 1997, which is now one of the biggest ten in Europe (or was in 2008). This man a) gave £30,000 to the LibDems, b) £1m to set up the LibDem-leaning think tank CentreForum and c) was co-Editor of the 2004 Orange Book which was instrumental in building a political clientele for liberal economics within the Liberal Democrats and pushing it back towards the economic centre-right. This is interesting especially when you add the fact that the first Director of CentreForum was a retired Goldman Sachs banker.
In short, there is a nexus here of ideological influence with, on the surface, wealthy finance capital actively engaged in a process of political management directed at the one remaining centre-left party then-resistant to the government/finance capital complex. The arrival of Nick Clegg, a relatively uninspiring but safe political nonentity, at least next to the lively Vince Cable, as Party Leader and the shift of the Party's political centre from the left to the right cannot fail to be seen in this context. Yet Peston does not investigate the matter further - he states the fact like a good reporter and then simply moves on to worry about the decline of Warburg and Cazenove.
In fact, this book isn't about 'Who Runs Britain?' at all. It does not have anything like the value of Anthony Sampson's efforts from an earlier generation. It tells us little of the actual as opposed to possible influence by which finance capital effectively ran the UK with the connivance of Government for over a decade. It tells us nothing of why New Labour politicians are so deeply ignorant of the system they serve.
There are a few things to be learned from this book - that the current Government is not a fit custodian of our country and that there is no reason to believe that any Government from either of the other main parties would do any better. There seems to be no political party of either the Right or the Left which is in a position to challenge large scale globalised finance capital (not the free market, as such, I note) or has an alternative strategy that would allow democratic Government to reassert its authority over surprisingly small numbers of people.
Some of these people (on the evidence of this book) are not a little psychologically disturbed. Many of them unidimensional with an anal obsession with money that must have something to do with inappropriate potty-training or dark moments in childhood history. We may smile but this collusion between the political class and the unaccountable wealthy has become a very serious matter.
In the last moments of the book, Peston returns to the theme of stateless, unaccountable plutocrats undermining democracy but it is too late. He has seen the problem but he has not engaged with it. He has given us a bit of gossip and scandal from some over-excitable entrepreneurs. He has shown us the incompetence of our governing classes but we knew of that already. What he has not done us is tell us who precisely runs Britain, who precisely is to blame for the mess (despite the jacket promise) and certainly not what should happen next.
The disappointment is particularly intense because Peston was the journalist who broke the Northern Rock story. He was the boy who cried out 'but the Emperor has no clothes'. The Government and the City have been trying to cobble together some robes for finance capitalism ever since.
I always thought that he was a rather unwitting hero. This book shows just how much. His writing since the Northern Rock imbroglio, on his BBC Blog, has been informative but it has increasingly shown the extent to which PR Departments and spinners have been determined to tie down this perhaps naive loose cannon whose words almost broke the Bank. The book is merely a demonstration that the author is a man of his time - a believer in an ideal version of the 'middle way' and still sentimental towards the sharks who built empires on debt, a man who suddenly found himself at the centre of the bubble-pricking that wiser heads knew was coming but left him surprised and shocked.
The best bit of the book is the first Chapter where his confused but fairly typical middle class analysis lies. It is an analysis you will hear as a standard from those in Middle England who like Thatcher's reforms but who thought they went too far in terms of social cohesion, who rather liked the social democrat impulse behind Blairism, who thought debt-fuelled and loud-mouthed near-hysterical one-dimensional services sector bosses represented 'leadership' and who thought growth could be sustained forever. These are people who want a 'nice' capitalism and who will accept a bit of green puffery and corporate social responsibility to ensure that they never have to see how the sausages are made.
If he is shocked that it was not so, there are times when he sees why - only to draw back from the brink because it raises too many questions about a world that he was part of as a commentator for the past decade. There is an excuse for any journalist that he only reports the news and does not make it, but it really is remarkable how few financial and business journalists investigated very deeply what was happening under their noises. Now that the crisis has happened, very few of them want to say things that will admit that they were wrong - they avoid, displace and obfuscate.
As for Peston, there seems to be a decent man here who just cannot see outside his box any more than can the bulk of the London professional classes whose entire wealth resided on a bit of economic legerdemain and a determined refusal to ask too many questions beyond the 'story'. For serious analysis, go to Larry Elliott and others of his ilk.
The nub of his argument should be taken as his own last sentences in that first chapter - "The accumulation of vast wealth by a growing class of super-rich - who owe no allegiance to any state - is a regressive trend for the distribution of power. It will taint governance and distort democracy."
He states this and then he moves on ... what should be a considered analysis, about how what he knows leads to his analysis, becomes little more than a series of disconnected case studies - of Sir Phillip Green whom he clearly inordinately admires and who is currently gambling his retail all on Topshop in New York, a blow-by-blow account of the struggle for Marks & Spencers which seems to fascinate financial journalists but is intensely dull to the rest of us, gossip about the hedge fund superstars (yawn!), the very serious matter of the disarray in national pensions arrangements, the scandal surrounding wealthy donations to the Labour Party and a rather strange and uninformative account of Sir Allan Leighton's Chairmanship of the Post Office which merely indicates that our great national institutions seem to operate in a permanent state of near-policy chaos.
The point about inordinate political influence is to be found in throw-away remarks that should have been the basis for a better book. He writes, for example, of Paul Marshall who set up Marshall Wace, a hedge fund, in 1997, which is now one of the biggest ten in Europe (or was in 2008). This man a) gave £30,000 to the LibDems, b) £1m to set up the LibDem-leaning think tank CentreForum and c) was co-Editor of the 2004 Orange Book which was instrumental in building a political clientele for liberal economics within the Liberal Democrats and pushing it back towards the economic centre-right. This is interesting especially when you add the fact that the first Director of CentreForum was a retired Goldman Sachs banker.
In short, there is a nexus here of ideological influence with, on the surface, wealthy finance capital actively engaged in a process of political management directed at the one remaining centre-left party then-resistant to the government/finance capital complex. The arrival of Nick Clegg, a relatively uninspiring but safe political nonentity, at least next to the lively Vince Cable, as Party Leader and the shift of the Party's political centre from the left to the right cannot fail to be seen in this context. Yet Peston does not investigate the matter further - he states the fact like a good reporter and then simply moves on to worry about the decline of Warburg and Cazenove.
In fact, this book isn't about 'Who Runs Britain?' at all. It does not have anything like the value of Anthony Sampson's efforts from an earlier generation. It tells us little of the actual as opposed to possible influence by which finance capital effectively ran the UK with the connivance of Government for over a decade. It tells us nothing of why New Labour politicians are so deeply ignorant of the system they serve.
There are a few things to be learned from this book - that the current Government is not a fit custodian of our country and that there is no reason to believe that any Government from either of the other main parties would do any better. There seems to be no political party of either the Right or the Left which is in a position to challenge large scale globalised finance capital (not the free market, as such, I note) or has an alternative strategy that would allow democratic Government to reassert its authority over surprisingly small numbers of people.
Some of these people (on the evidence of this book) are not a little psychologically disturbed. Many of them unidimensional with an anal obsession with money that must have something to do with inappropriate potty-training or dark moments in childhood history. We may smile but this collusion between the political class and the unaccountable wealthy has become a very serious matter.
In the last moments of the book, Peston returns to the theme of stateless, unaccountable plutocrats undermining democracy but it is too late. He has seen the problem but he has not engaged with it. He has given us a bit of gossip and scandal from some over-excitable entrepreneurs. He has shown us the incompetence of our governing classes but we knew of that already. What he has not done us is tell us who precisely runs Britain, who precisely is to blame for the mess (despite the jacket promise) and certainly not what should happen next.
March 19, 2023
I read this on a recommendation, and with no idea who Peston was, I got into the book and was put off at first with by the impression he gave that he was interested in slamming the conservative party more than making his point. That was until he moved on to speak about the labour party under Blair and Brown, when it became clear he had just as much to say against this government as well - at which point I settled in very happily to learn about our somewhat pathetic recent history. If you patiently work through the sometimes drawn out examples, you will finish this book with a hugely improved understanding of 21st century Britain, and of the capitalist world in general. Excellent, convincing, educational, eye-opening book.
September 24, 2017
Written whilst Gordon Brown was Prime Minister this nevertheless is a good introduction into the dark world of private equity financing, hedge funds and the ultra-rich. Throw in some examples of New Labour grovelling and it paints an unappetising picture of the UK in the immediate aftermath of the banking crisis (but still before the shit really hits the fan).
A chapter on the destruction of occupational pension provision particularly resonated with me. Apart from not recognising the initial breach by the 2% bribe to take out a personal pension, Peston's analysis is devastatingly spot on.
The drab future suggested in the closing paragraphs feels like it's arrived.
A chapter on the destruction of occupational pension provision particularly resonated with me. Apart from not recognising the initial breach by the 2% bribe to take out a personal pension, Peston's analysis is devastatingly spot on.
The drab future suggested in the closing paragraphs feels like it's arrived.
February 22, 2019
Gets very bogged down in esoteric business acquisitions and some pages are basically lists of people's earnings for the past ten years but overall gives a reasonable insight into the economy and power. Makes the case that most of the economic problems are caused by stupidity rather than malice which rings true. I think what brings it down is a struggle to unite the snapshots he gives into a holistic picture but with a bit of thought you can make out the broad brush strokes and learn a little from it.
May 19, 2018
Tedious. Couldn't wait for it to end. I learned a couple of things here but there were too many quotes and statistics and it was difficult to skip over them without missing things because of how the text is assembled (continuous prose in long chapters). Well written apart from that, though the politics are 10 years old.
January 1, 2018
Excellent history of how we got here
February 26, 2017
The title promises a critical look at who the key players in modern Britain are; and how they are changing our lives. A promise which the book does not quite live up to.
Instead we are treated to an unapologetic celebration of global capitalism, with a deferential treatment of business leaders and corporate interests which is at times sickeningly sycophantic. He reserves all his criticism for the Blair/Brown governments and their relatively moderate reforms.
The book starts with an interesting section on the inner workings of the Private Equity world, with an interesting bio on Sir Phillip Green. I can't stop myself from wandering if he is considering a rewrite after the Bhs pension scandal of recent days. Especially considering that Peston views the impact upon pension funds to be the main negative effect of the growing inequality in Britain.
Towards the end, Peston touches upon the myriad of negative impacts felt by the Staatsvolk, they don't receive much scrutiny however. Instead he prefers to return to the "Greed is good" mantra and the naivety of the eighties and nineties.
This uncritical work has certainly left a lot of questions unanswered but has shed more light upon the incestuous relationship between politics, business and journalism. An effect that I am sure was unintended.
Instead we are treated to an unapologetic celebration of global capitalism, with a deferential treatment of business leaders and corporate interests which is at times sickeningly sycophantic. He reserves all his criticism for the Blair/Brown governments and their relatively moderate reforms.
The book starts with an interesting section on the inner workings of the Private Equity world, with an interesting bio on Sir Phillip Green. I can't stop myself from wandering if he is considering a rewrite after the Bhs pension scandal of recent days. Especially considering that Peston views the impact upon pension funds to be the main negative effect of the growing inequality in Britain.
Towards the end, Peston touches upon the myriad of negative impacts felt by the Staatsvolk, they don't receive much scrutiny however. Instead he prefers to return to the "Greed is good" mantra and the naivety of the eighties and nineties.
This uncritical work has certainly left a lot of questions unanswered but has shed more light upon the incestuous relationship between politics, business and journalism. An effect that I am sure was unintended.
July 31, 2011
I started this book with high hopes for enlightenment, but after a shocking yet convincing analysis of the way private equity companies are a device for sucking money out of the country for the benefit of the super-rich that managed to convince the then Labour government they were in fact wealth-generating businesses deserving breathtaking tax breaks (and our current Tory government's entire policy is to suck money out of the country for the benefit of the super-rich anyway), the pace slowed down drastically and the book became a dreary biography of Sir Philip Green that went on for what seemed like several thousand pages.
I see from other reviews that there were other dreary biographies after that, and some conclusions, but sadly the book defeated me. Normally when I start a book it becomes a point of honour for me to finish it whether I like it or not - I've been reading Thomas Pynchon's "Mason & Dixon" on and off for three months now and I will finish it if it kills me - but this is the only book I have started in perhaps five years that I have actually been unable to finish because it became frankly too dull for me to turn one more page.
I see from other reviews that there were other dreary biographies after that, and some conclusions, but sadly the book defeated me. Normally when I start a book it becomes a point of honour for me to finish it whether I like it or not - I've been reading Thomas Pynchon's "Mason & Dixon" on and off for three months now and I will finish it if it kills me - but this is the only book I have started in perhaps five years that I have actually been unable to finish because it became frankly too dull for me to turn one more page.
February 4, 2015
Of the genre “hastily summarised knowledge written in hindsight”. Yes, I didn’t regret reading this book, and I read it right through, beginning to end. But that didn’t stop this paperback from feeling sadly like a lost opportunity.
Instead of being rushed out in order to cash-in on financial mayhem, Mr Peston would have better preserved his credibility by waiting a couple of years, before adding examples to his text, describing how the scenarios he discusses could have been better structured (from the taxpayers point of view); together with footnotes and a solid bibliography. I don’t know how much of the writing in this book represents his own observation and thinking, and how much is someone else’s. However, I will give him a Brownie point for his using the first chapter of his book to sketch and explain his Leftist (Labour Party) bias.
In the future I shall take note of the strapline on the front cover; and avoid anything which pretentiously says without written justification, “The Number One Business Book of the Year”.
Instead of being rushed out in order to cash-in on financial mayhem, Mr Peston would have better preserved his credibility by waiting a couple of years, before adding examples to his text, describing how the scenarios he discusses could have been better structured (from the taxpayers point of view); together with footnotes and a solid bibliography. I don’t know how much of the writing in this book represents his own observation and thinking, and how much is someone else’s. However, I will give him a Brownie point for his using the first chapter of his book to sketch and explain his Leftist (Labour Party) bias.
In the future I shall take note of the strapline on the front cover; and avoid anything which pretentiously says without written justification, “The Number One Business Book of the Year”.
December 21, 2014
Robert Peston's analysis of the fall-out from the 2008 crash at first makes an interesting read, with first hand accounts from the boardrooms and offices behind the crisis. But, like the author, it then goes on a bit too long, recycling the same themes and ends up in a few dead ends.
Peston's insights into the murky world of venture capital and leveraged buyouts, and the challenges that publicly listed companies (with short term and disinterested shareholders to acquiesce) is the depressing highlight, whilst his hamfisted analysis of political funding and "cash for influence" seemed to drift very far from any meaningful point.
His semi-apologetic championing of the champions of industry and the market as the least bad system feels limp, when we're still living with the consequences 6 years later, and scandal after successive scandal has engulfed the banks since. I wonder whether he's changed his views in light of this, but I'm not curious enough to read another book of his in order to find out.
Peston's insights into the murky world of venture capital and leveraged buyouts, and the challenges that publicly listed companies (with short term and disinterested shareholders to acquiesce) is the depressing highlight, whilst his hamfisted analysis of political funding and "cash for influence" seemed to drift very far from any meaningful point.
His semi-apologetic championing of the champions of industry and the market as the least bad system feels limp, when we're still living with the consequences 6 years later, and scandal after successive scandal has engulfed the banks since. I wonder whether he's changed his views in light of this, but I'm not curious enough to read another book of his in order to find out.
September 29, 2009
Well this book tells us where some of our money has gone ! It also lets you see how some people are able to borrow billions from the banks for their own pet projects then lord it over the rest of us.
Essential reading for everyone. And not really just those in Britain as a lot of what is going on here is going on everywhere else too. We need international regulation of the financial markets.
I would also like to read the Vince Cable book.
Essential reading for everyone. And not really just those in Britain as a lot of what is going on here is going on everywhere else too. We need international regulation of the financial markets.
I would also like to read the Vince Cable book.
April 30, 2015
Interesting book. The first half of it was fairly interesting and kept me engaged. It provided a good explanation of the private equity ie. well financed self-made men making high stakes bets and striking it big. The chapter on hedge funds was a bit less interesting and then my interest fizzled out somewhat. I still rate it highly however because the chapters I liked, I REALLY liked. It certainly changed my view on things and I'm keen to read more of Peston's books.
July 29, 2011
Illuminating account of the role of private equity, hedge funds etc in the current recession - somewhat let down by an unecessarily sycophantic approach to the super rich business elite. An interesting contrast to Malcolm Gladwells Outliers insofar a Peston swallows the 'self-made success' myth that Gladwell so elegantly explodes.
October 13, 2015
Overall a very good read. I think that at the start the book spends a disproportionate amount of time looking at a couple of people/industries and the end seemed a bit rushed. For an understanding of the workings of the city it is well worth reading. At the end of the day I think it doesn't clearly answer the first part of the title but appears to blame the government mainly for the second bit
May 9, 2011
Possibly the best book On the financial crisis from a laymen's perspective. If you don't know much about credit default swaps and bank capital but are interested in the topic - this is the book for you.
January 12, 2009
Includes some very interesting chapters on private equity, hedge funds and pension schemes among others.
September 25, 2009
A little dry at times, but worth ploughing through.
July 7, 2011
Some reservations, but final summary moves rating from 3 to 4.
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