Crash – How the Banks Went Bust

Just before he became Prime Minister in 2007, chancellor Gordon Brown congratulated the city on their ingenuity and creativity during his tenure: ‘An era that history will record as the beginning of a new golden age for the city of London’. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Now, thanks to the financial crash, Britain is facing economic catastrophe. The debts the UK is incurring will take generations to pay off. But how did the economy get from boom to bust? In this two-part special, economist and author Will Hutton gives the definitive insider’s account of what went wrong.

Talking to the key players in government, Wall Street and the City, Hutton unveils the true extent of the greed, ambition and reckless risk-taking that is now carrying the economy into the worst recession for a century.

Is it really true that no one saw it coming? Or could the recession have been prevented?

• Dispatches – Crash – How long Will it Last ?
  26 September 2009 6:28 AM | View Comments

  In the second half of this special two-part Dispatches, economist and author Will Hutton continues the definitive insider’s account of how Britain’s economy went from boom to bust. Hutton reveals how those who tried to warn of the impending financial disaster were shouted down, ignored or fired. As a result, the repercussions of the collapse of [...]

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• Dispatches – Crash Gordon
  26 September 2009 6:25 AM | View Comments

  In the first account of its kind on television, award-winning journalist Andrew Rawnsley presents the inside political story of the credit crunch. The programme features exclusive interviews with senior figures close to the economic crisis, including cabinet ministers, senior politicians and former treasury insiders. As Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has presided over the biggest recession in [...]

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• BBC: The Love of Money – Episode 1 -The Bank that Bust the World
  18 September 2009 12:15 PM | View Comments

  Series offering a definitive account of what happened to create the greatest financial crisis for eighty years. In September 2008, the collapse of Lehman Brothers tipped the world into recession. A cast of contributors including national leaders, finance ministers and CEOs describe the tense negotiations in New York and London as the investment institution headed towards [...]

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• Dispatches – Britain’ s Bankers Still Cashing In
  18 September 2009 8:33 PM | View Comments

  Britain’s top bankers helped bring the economy to the brink of ruin; their gambling triggered thousands of job losses and exposed taxpayers to over a trillion pounds of possible risk. In this edition of Dispatches, journalist Jane Moore investigates exactly how much these former bosses have been rewarded for these failings – and how much [...]

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• Dispatches – Britain' s Bankers Still Cashing In
  18 September 2009 8:33 PM | View Comments

  Britain’s top bankers helped bring the economy to the brink of ruin; their gambling triggered thousands of job losses and exposed taxpayers to over a trillion pounds of possible risk. In this edition of Dispatches, journalist Jane Moore investigates exactly how much these former bosses have been rewarded for these failings – and how much [...]

  Read More