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Machiavelli in the ruins of Greensill Capital
May 09,2021 - Last updated at May 09,2021
PRINCETON The collapse of Greensill Capital, a London-based financial services firm, offers a timely but costly warning about a number of contemporary trends. Clearly, we should be wary of the hype around financial innovation. But we also need to shine a brighter spotlight on the shady world of corporate lobbying, the regulation of risk, and other issues at the intersection of capitalism and government.
Greensill reportedly tried to use former British prime minister David Cameron to entice the Saudi government to press investors to contribute more funds to SoftBank so that SoftBank could increase its backing of Greensill. Then, following the start of the pandemic, Cameron reportedly lobbied for Greensill to secure access to an emergency loan scheme and pressed the National Health Service (NHS) to adopt an app owned by Greensill to pay NHS staff daily instead of monthly.
Why Lex Greensill should have read Machiavelli on the Medici
The failed prince of supply-chain financing and his credulous creditors should have heeded the cautionary lessons of medieval banking about the dangers of mixing finance with politics.
Harold James
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The collapse of Greensill Capital, a London-based financial services firm, offers a timely but costly warning about a number of contemporary trends.
Clearly, we should be wary of the hype around financial innovation. But we also need to shine a brighter spotlight on the shady world of corporate lobbying, the regulation of risk, and other issues at the intersection of capitalism and government.