Product Description

The final volume of Kynaston's history of the City of London reviews the post-war years, from a scene of bomb sites to one of gleaming skyscrapers. It covers topics such as the demise of small, independent firms in the wake of the Big Bang of 1986, the Barings collapse, and the coming of the euro.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #509959 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 886 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The City of London. Vol IV: A Club No More is the fourth and final volume of David Kynaston's epic history of the square mile in the modern era. This lively and informative book takes the story from the post-war era, when the City was hemmed in by bombsites and austere Chancellors, through to very recent developments, such as the "Big-Bang" deregulation of 1986. This is as much a social history as a financial study, with interesting discussions of the changing class (it altered only gradually) and sexual (change was almost negligible) complexion of the City, and with fascinating details on the early computerisation of the big companies. As with earlier volumes Kynaston's style is that of an anecdotal storyteller. Colourful characters, dramatic boardroom struggles and heated exchanges between politicians and bankers dominate the pages. And memorable quotes too; the comparison of the Stock Exchange to an acqueduct for example: as one financier observed, "it argues no fault in the construction of the acqueduct that the water it conveys is often dirty". On this point Kynaston is, not surprisingly, neutral. As evidence of share-dealing, pensions and derivatives scandals mount up in the later chapters, and rogues like Robert Maxwell and Nick Leeson join the cast of thousands, the author proves reluctant to wag his finger at the accused. Only the City, it seems, and never any individual within it, was to blame. --Miles Taylor

Review
"Economic history at its most glittering." -"The Times
"A rare kind of writer." -"TLS

TLS
‘The fifty or so years which are chronicled here in impressive detail were momentous ones for the City…an outstanding achievement.’

Customer Reviews

Delicious insight into the mythical world of the City
With the disappearance of village life have gone many of the City's most colourful figures, vividly depicted by Mr Kynaston. The working day has grown, and the screen has replaced the trading floor.

The incoming US banks have supplied a few figures of their own.The atmosphere of the village, where everybody knew everybody else allowed financial regulation to be an informal matter of Etonian codes of honour. The move to formal regulation was driven by a series of home-grown City scandals, from the debacle at Lloyd's to the destruction of the ancient house of Barings by Nick Leeson's speculations.

Fantastic, fascinating and forceful.

Over-enthusiastic survey of the City of London
In this book, financial journalist David Kynaston tells in loving detail the story of the City of London since 1945.

He reminds us of all those City scandals, like Guinness, Blue Arrow, BCCI, Robert Maxwell (backed to the end by Goldman Sachs) and Barings, its endemic crime of insider dealing, and its self-serving incompetence, as when insurance firms wrongly advised more than two million people to leave their occupational pension schemes.

The City claims to help the economy by directing investment into production and growth, but it has not done this. Instead it takes money out of the economy, away from production. It seizes the wealth created by real work, and loots from the constant stream of capital hurtling round the globe - other people's money, our savings, mortgages and pensions - and gambles it away. The interests of what Kynaston calls `infinitely amoral international capital' conflict with Britain's real interests, particularly our industry.

He shows how the City has always backed the most backward forces and policies. He recounts how in the 1975 referendum on EEC membership, "The City, so far as one can tell, was almost unanimously in favour of a `Yes' vote. Two months ahead of voting the clearing banks agreed to contribute £200,000 to the `Britain in Europe' campaign."

He notes, on "the larger question of whether City sentiment as a whole was supportive of Thatcherite economics during these early, highly controversial years of the Thatcher era. Broadly, as far as one can tell, it was ..." And not just in the early years: in the June 1987 election, City traders wore stickers saying, "We all say YES to Maggie."

Successive governments - none more than Brown's - have embraced the treachery in the City. Instead, we need to put Britain, and Britain's industry, first, and make finance serve our national interest of employing all our people in useful work, making what we need.