home > by region > europe/russia > western europe > u.k. > Issue Guide: Britain and the Global Financial Crisis
Email
London, alongside New York, entered the financial crisis as one of the major hubs of global finance. The British bank Northern Rock was the first large commercial bank to require emergency government funding as a result of the crisis. Falling British housing prices contributed to London's woes. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was credited for his bank bailout plan, however, which created a template later followed across Europe and in the United States. But Britain's economists expect a persistent recession, and the British currency, the pound, has fared poorly outside the relative shelter of the eurozone. Britain also played a major role coordinating an international response to the crisis. London hosted the April 2009 G-20 meetings, and Brown drafted an ambitious plan for fixing international financial regulation ahead of the meetings. Following the meetings, however, the British finance ministry announced more bad news, revealing that the country would not break even on its banking interventions and could wind up losing roughly $87 billion.
The following is a list of resources on the British economy and how it has been affected by the crisis.
What Went Wrong
First Response
Fixing the Banks
Looking to the Future
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
CFR offers a variety of email newsletters about up-to-date CFR.org material on what’s happening around the world.
Enter your email address and click 'Go' to subscribe.
CFR Experts are based in CFR’s New York and Washington offices. Each expert's bio page contains his or her contact information, professional and educational history, links to publications and current research, a downloadable one-page biographical narrative, and a high-definition photo.
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
Global Economy 