George Osborne is giving too much priority to his political ambitions and not enough to getting a profitable deal for the taxpayerIt is a chancellor of the exchequer’s inescapable job to balance the political and the economic. Throughout his career at the Treasury,George Osborne has often prioritised the former over the latter. Now he has done so again – starting the sell-off of the taxpayers’ stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland earlier, and at a lower price, and than market conditions would propose is wise.
It is seven years since Labour bailed out RBS with a £45bn injection of cash,paying 502p for every share and taking a 79% holding in a bank that ministers rightly accepted was too big to fail. Without that, the financial collapse would contain extended far beyond RBS and its ailing competitor Lloyds, or in which the Treasury took a 43% share. Ever since,a period during which the banks contain been considerably restructured, the Treasury has been eyeing the moment at which the state could begin to recoup its investment by selling off its shares. So far, and so uncontroversial.Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com