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A Long Time In Finance

by Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins
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Latest episodes

  • The Turning Point: The Necessary Collapse of Rolls-Royce (Part 2)

    June 19, 2026 · 37 min

    When Rolls-Royce went bust in February 1971, it was a national disaster. One commentator likened it to discovering "Westminster Abbey had been turned into a brothel". At the root of the failure was an expensive and risky project to build a…

  • The Turning Point: The Necessary Collapse of Rolls-Royce (Part 1)

    June 5, 2026 · 43 min

    When Rolls-Royce went bust in February 1971, it was a national disaster. One commentator likened it to discovering "Westminster Abbey had been turned into a brothel". At the root of the failure was an expensive and risky project to build a…

  • The Turning Point: How Arnault gobbled up LVMH

    April 17, 2026 · 41 min

    How did Bernard Arnault go from running a construction company in Lille to being Europe's richest man? Neil and Jonathan look at the moment that changed everything for Arnault, the man they call "the Wolf in Cashmere": the audacious…

  • The Art of the Squeal

    April 3, 2026 · 26 min

    When a debt crisis unfolds behind closed doors, who really has the upper hand? Taking in a range of characters – from Donald Trump to Philip Green, the Barclay brothers and the private equity firms – this is a potted history of how some of…

  • The Turning Point: Kodak's Digital Asteroid

    March 20, 2026 · 41 min

    Kodak, the photography company George Eastman created in the late 19th century, was built on restless R&D and bold innovation. So why did it flunk the shift from chemical to digital photography - having invented the first digital camera…

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  • The Turning Point: The Story of ASML

    March 6, 2026 · 34 min

    Welcome to a new series where we look at big businesses and what led to their big break or failure.. ASML is the biggest European company you’ve never heard of and the Continent’s only true tech giant. But how did this seemingly anonymous…

  • The Derailment of Railtrack

    February 6, 2026 · 30 min

    It was supposed to bring in the cash to revive Britain's creaking railway network. But then it all went wrong for the listed network owner. A series of tragic accidents undermined public confidence, beginning the slow unravelling of rail…

  • New Year Special: The Guinness Scandal

    January 2, 2026 · 30 min

    It's often seen as the point where the City dumped its old gentlemanly mores ("My word is my bond") for a new "win at all costs" culture - one that the UK's new regulatory regime singularly failed to quell. But what was the Guinness…

  • How Britain Lost Its Shipbuilding Industry

    December 5, 2025 · 31 min

    Everyone knows that Britain once built almost all the world's ships, and now builds almost none. But what were the steps by which this mighty activity disintegrated? And no less importantly, how did it climb so high in the first place…

  • Britain's Energy Disaster

    November 21, 2025 · 31 min

    In the 19th century, Britain transformed itself into the workshop of the world by harnessing the power of coal and steam. Now a new energy revolution - that of renewable power - looks set to turn the UK into something closer to a workhouse…

  • Barbarians at the Gate: A Short History of Private Equity

    November 7, 2025 · 33 min

    From a few tiny funds in the 1970s, private equity has transformed the financial world and is now a $7 trillion industry, accounting for 30% of the US private sector economy. But how did it all happen, why have pension funds poured so much…

  • Britain's Melmotte? The Cautionary Tale of Robert Maxwell

    October 24, 2025 · 31 min

    The publishing mogul Robert Maxwell lived a life shrouded in mystery that was ultimately capped by great disgrace. But was he an out and out villain, like Anthony Trollope's fictional swindler in The Way We Live Now, or a more nuanced and…

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About the show

The long view of finance, markets and money as seen by two veteran City editors, Neil Collins and Jonathan Ford, presented in partnership with The Library of Mistakes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.