Blog
Government failure and the Rock
26th March 2008
Well here is one for the file on classic examples of regulatory (aka government) failure in the market. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has admitted that it gave too few resources over to monitoring the problems building up at Northern Rock - covered in this BBC article and also this piece in the Financial Times. The FSA seems to have been assuming that the Bank of England stood ready to bale out the Northern Rock and there were failings in the oversight of the Rock by supervisory teams sent to look at the Rock’s flawed business model. None of this will be any comfort to the shareholders and also to the thousands of Rock employees who will lose their job. Robert Peston is brilliant on this issue - here is his latest blog which lays bare the blundering at the FSA and the shocking incompetence of their senior management.
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.