Richard Roberts When Britain Went Bust

Tue 22 November 2016

Britain’s 1976 IMF crisis marked the nadir of the country’s post-war relative economic decline.

Dramatic elements included a plunging pound and a ‘gilts strike’; the Chancellor’s turnaround at Heathrow and his confrontation with Labour’s left-wing; the arrival in London of a shadowy IMF mission and a personal intervention by the Managing Director; well-leaked cabinet divisions and resistance to Fund conditionality.

As a key turning point in economic policy, there are intriguing resonances for post Brexit-shock Britain.

Richard is Professor of Contemporary Financial History at King’s College London. He is the author of Saving The City; The Great Financial Crisis of 1914 and The Lion Wakes: A Modern History of HSBC amongst many others. As we approach the season of good cheer Richard will lecture on his new book When Britain Went Bust: The 1976 IMF Crisis.

Recent lectures

Harry Nimmo on Biggest ain’t best

Thu 20 March 2025

Harry will talk about the key lessons learnt when picking stocks, constructing portfolios and building a specialist investment business. He’ll look at the characteristics in…

View Lecture →

The Stories We Tell – Narrative Economics and the Stage

Wed 19 March 2025

This is a companion event to the recent staging of Liam’s play, The Land That Never Was, about legendary Scottish conman Gregor MacGregor, who sold…

View Lecture →

The Library of Mistakes Course

Advanced Valuation in Financial Markets

The online version of our renowned course, is available for both finance professionals and nonprofessionals.

As featured in the Financial Times

In conjunction with Heriot-Watt University

twoguys
Scroll to Top
The Library of Mistakes
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.