Amidst a shifting political landscape, Britain grapples with uncertainty and potential threats under a new Prime Minister and government. The narrative explores the balance between necessary change and the preservation of established norms, delving into the implications of these transformations both domestically and internationally.
Has the West gone bust - economically, politically and socially? And what can we do to fix it?
But nobody wants to hear it: not the politicians taking credit for an end to boom and bust, not the bankers pocketing vast bonuses, not even Gil's bosses at the BBC, who think it's irrelevant. When Gil gets a tip-off that a small northern bank has run out of money, everything changes.
THE GRIPPING DEBUT THRILLER FROM THE UK'S TOP POLITICAL JOURNALIST, ROBERT PESTON. 1997. He thinks he knows the rules. But when Gil's estranged sister Clare dies in a hit-and-run, he begins to believe it was no accident.
'A manual for our times that everyone should read.' Matthew d'Ancona
'Robert Peston's compelling account of global financial meltdown is a must-read..' - The Observer Former economics editor of BBC news explains the recent global economic mess and how to escape it - in his characteristically straightforward way. 'How do we fix this mess? I don't know. But don't stop reading now. Perhaps if we have a clearer understanding of what went wrong, we'll have a better idea of what needs to be done. This book is a map of what needs to be fixed.' The record-breaking unbroken growth between 1992 and 2008 wasn't the economic miracle that it seemed. It was based on a number of dangerous illusions - most notably that it didn't matter that the UK and US year after year consumed more than they earned. But we couldn't go on increasing our indebtedness forever. The financial crash of 2007/8 and the subsequent economic slump in much of the west was the moment when we realised we had borrowed more than we could afford to repay. So who got it wrong? Bankers, investors and regulators? And were they greedy, stupid or asleep? What was the role of government? And what part did we, as consumers, play in all this? How do we get through this difficult period of transition to a more sustainable economy, one based on investment and exports, rather than on borrowing and consumption? With the same probing lucidity he brought to WHO RUNS BRITAIN?, Robert Peston takes us step-by-step towards a common sense way to fix this mess.
How on earth did the world get into such a catastrophic economic mess? And more importantly, how can we not make the same mistake twice?
ITV's political editor Robert Peston lifts the lid on credit crunch Britain and the rise of the super-rich.