BACK TO THE FUTURE WITH COUNCIL FINANCE, SWAPS AND DERIVATIVES Ask around your typical local authority after the “1989 Hammersmith and Fulham vs Goldman Sachs case” and all but the most grey haired of councillors, treasurers and managers are likely to meet your question with puzzled faces and blank stares. Poorly known outside of City […]
As the newly elected Syriza Government make overtures to the so-called Troika of the ECB, EC and IMF on debt restructuring, one thing is increasingly clear. Elites in the UK and across Europe appear deeply uncomfortable the neoliberal logic of the “free market” is being questioned by a democratically elected Government, freely expressing the will […]
Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes were introduced to the UK under the John Major Government in the 1990s, with the first PFI project [Skye Bridge] field tested in Scotland. PFI was significantly expanded under Tony Blair’s New Labour Government who wanted a convenient way of funding public infrastructure “off balance sheet.” Rather than Central Government directly […]