A Long Time In Finance
By Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins
The long view of finance, markets and money as seen by two veteran City editors, Neil Collins and Jonathan Ford, presented in partnership with The Library of Mistakes.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Latest episode
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The Turning Point: The Necessary Collapse of Rolls-Royce (Part 1)
When Rolls-Royce went bust in February 1971, it was a national disaster. One commentator likened it to discovering "Westminster Abbey had been turned into a brothel". At the root of the failure was an expensive and risky project to build a large j… -
The Turning Point: How Arnault gobbled up LVMH
How did Bernard Arnault go from running a construction company in Lille to being Europe's richest man? Neil and Jonathan look at the moment that changed everything for Arnault, the man they call "the Wolf in Cashmere": the audacious takeover … -
The Art of the Squeal
When a debt crisis unfolds behind closed doors, who really has the upper hand? Taking in shady characters – from Donald Trump to Philip Green, the Barclay brothers and the private equity firms – this is a potted history of how some of finance's bi… -
The Turning Point: Kodak's Digital Asteroid
Kodak, the photography company George Eastman created in the late 19th century, was built on restless R&D and bold innovation. So why did it flunk the shift from chemical to digital photography - having invented the first digital camera. We ta… -
The Turning Point: The Story of ASML
Welcome to a new series where we look at big businesses and what led to their big break or failure..ASML is the biggest European company you’ve never heard of and the Continent’s only true tech giant. But how did t… -
The Derailment of Railtrack
It was supposed to bring in the cash to revive Britain's creaking railway network. But then it all went wrong for the listed network owner. A series of tragic accidents undermined public confidence, beginning the slow unravelling of rail priv… -
New Year Special: The Guinness Scandal
It's often seen as the point where the City dumped its old gentlemanly mores ("My word is my bond") for a new "win at all costs" culture - one that the UK's new regulatory regime singularly failed to quell. But what was the Guinness Scandal of the… -
How Britain Lost Its Shipbuilding Industry
Everyone knows that Britain once built almost all the world's ships, and now builds almost none. But what were the steps by which this mighty activity disintegrated? And no less importantly, how did it climb so high in the first place, when t… -
Britain's Energy Disaster
In the 19th century, Britain transformed itself into the workshop of the world by harnessing the power of coal and steam. Now a new energy revolution - that of renewable power - looks set to turn the UK into something closer to a workhouse inhabit… -
Barbarians at the Gate: A Short History of Private Equity
From a few tiny funds in the 1970s, private equity has transformed the financial world and is now a $7 trillion industry, accounting for 30% of the US private sector economy. But how did it all happen, why have pension funds poured so much into&nb…