
How the Banks Won
Britain's bank bailout is supposed to have been the crisis; journalist Will Hutton sets out to show it never really ended. He goes through the banks' own accounts and finds government-guaranteed funds still being used to trade derivatives much as they were before the 2008 crash, while salaries and bonuses stay largely intact. City head-hunters tell Hutton how banks structure pay packages to obscure the real sums involved, and current and former members of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee explain how near-free government money has fed the banks' profit margins directly. Hutton also tracks the industry's lobbying against reform and cites OECD research showing how unusually embedded bankers are within Britain's civil service and government compared with other countries. Interviews include Paul Volcker, then advising President Obama on banking, former Chancellor Alastair Darling, ex-City minister Lord Myners, and Business Secretary Vince Cable. The film's warning is specific: without reform, taxpayers face another crash with no money left for a second rescue.