6 - ‘Too Big to Fail?’ We Need a Payback This Time

Summary

Chapter 6 argues that businesses, especially large companies receiving government funding, should expect there to be conditionality attached to this. Other European countries have, unlike the UK, built in to their COVID-19 support packages requirements for environmental targets, protections for jobs and put caps on the interest rates banks can charge on government-backed loans. It will discuss the missed opportunity to secure a payback after the 2008 banking crisis and the moral hazard that the large-scale bailouts engendered. It will suggest that the loosening of monetary policy, both then and now, will, if not managed properly, continue to funnel money to the rich.

It will look at proposals to learn from past mistakes to secure a ‘pandemic payback’, for instance if the government were to take advantage of historically low interest rates to purchase equity stakes in businesses that face challenges but are fundamentally sound. It will look at international voices calling for a fundamental change in how companies are governed so that they serve a broad group of stakeholders, and proposals for changes to the law to make it the duty of directors to promote the long-term success of a company in place of short-term shareholder interest.