Crypto News: Alistair Darling's wisdom

The global financial crisis remains one of the most pivotal moments of the century, an event so seismic that many Western economies have never recovered.

I recall being told about normally rational, balanced people in the City of London who at the time of Lehman Brothers' collapse feared that the entire financial system was imploding, with the future of capitalism, democracy, and even the rule of law suddenly thrown into doubt.

Alistair Darling at a conference in London, June 2010 Photographer: Jason Alden

Much of the carnage originated in the US, of course, yet Britain was particularly exposed due to the relatively big size of its financial sector. The job of handling the fallout on this side of the pond fell mainly to Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the Exchequer at the time.

Darling died this morning, leading to a flood of tributes from Westminster and beyond. Gordon Brown, prime minister at the time of the crash, said he relied on Darling's "wisdom, calmness in a crisis and his humor." David Cameron hailed Darling's role in convincing Scottish voters to reject independence in the 2014 referendum. Like Cameron, Darling was also opposed to Brexit and took part in the calamitous Remain campaign.

Less than a month before Lehman's collapse, Darling was interviewed by a weekend magazine and warned that economic conditions were the worst they'd been for 60 years. "I think it's going to be more profound and long-lasting than people thought," he portended, with unfortunate accuracy. Growth and productivity have still not returned to their trend levels pre-crash, and if Darling's Labour party wins the next election it faces the kind austere conditions that he and Brown endured (and over which they quarreled) during the final stretch of their term in power.

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The stories you need to know about this evening

UK rail unions accept deal to end dispute at least until spring.
COP28 scores early win with $260 million for climate damages.
Hedge fund to back traders who risk their own money if bets fail.
Bank of England survey of firms shows inflation is persisting.
Tesco's banking firms said to attract interest from Lloyds.
Ex-Goldman analyst and lawyer brother accused of insider dealing.
Apple faces a full blown probe by UK antitrust watchdog.

"For almost three centuries, the UK has been at the forefront of the global economy," said Microsoft president Brad Smith at an event today in Acton, west London, which my colleague Thomas Seal attended.

Announcing £2.5 billion of investment into artificial intelligence infrastructure – the most Microsoft has ever pumped into the UK – Smith said Britain had "been at the forefront of commerce and industry and especially technology" and praised the government for stepping up to the plate. Music to the ears of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, no doubt, who was also in attendance.

It marks a stark turnaround from earlier this year when Smith said the EU was "a more attractive place to start a business" than the UK. Back then he was furious with a decision by the Competition and Markets Authority – Britain's antitrust watchdog – to block Microsoft's takeover of gaming company Activision. "People's confidence in technology in the UK has been severely shaken," Smith added at the time.

Needless to say, the CMA ended up giving the deal the green light, following concessions.

Smith's change of heart is one U-turn that the government won't mind, but it also highlights the extent to which the CMA can affect global perceptions of Britain. The watchdog encapsulates wild variations in Tory party philosophy that we've seen in recent years; some Conservatives have pushed for it to become more of an activist "consumer champion," others have wanted it to protect UK companies from so-called foreign predators, and some old-fashioned liberals (they still exist, just about) want it to take a more laissez-faire approach.

Indeed, after the CMA originally blocked the Activision deal, one prominent Conservative commented that regulators should remember their wider responsibility to foster economic growth. The MP in question was none other than the member for South West Surrey, Jeremy Hunt.

A damaged tram on O'Connell Street Photographer: Paulo Nunes dos Santos/Bloomberg

The Irish government waited too long to address the factors that led to last week's Dublin riots, according to Ryanair Holdings Plc's Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary.

"We need to see how the government responds to it. And so far, the government response has been slow and tardy. They're all of a sudden going to rush through legislation," O'Leary told Bloomberg News in an interview. "Why do you have to rush it through? It should have been passed through about two years ago."

Read more here.

Fat chance. Novo Nordisk is suing pharmacies over knock-off versions of Ozempic that contain a peptide that US regulators have deemed unsafe.

Unprofessional. Elon Musk told advertisers that have stopped spending on the platform over antisemitic posts to"f——" themselves.

Heating up. United Nations and WMO say 2023 has been the hottest year as they gather with leaders at climate summit in oil-rich Dubai.

One key story, every weekday

HPS founders Scott Kapnick, from left, Scot French and Michael Patterson Photographer: Sarah Blesener/Bloomberg

Dinner with Barack Obama, mansions on both US coasts and dazzling modern art collections — from Frank Stella to Jean-Michel Basquiat. These are all solid bragging points when you're sitting at finance's top table.

And yet for the three core founders of HPS Investment Partners, how they spend their fortune is much less striking than how they made it.

Perhaps more than anyone else, the usually secretive HPS has come to personify the remarkable rise of private credit as a usurper of traditional Wall Street lending. And the founding trio has the billions to prove it.

Read The Big Take.

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