In June this year, Osborne announced he was launching a ‘Bad Bank’ review for the partly state owned Royal Bank of Scotland.  Like Northern Rock before it, the Chancellor intends to sell off the valuable assets of the Bank to the private sector, while the toxic assets are retained by the public sector. And he’s paying the Rothschilds to draw up the plans. Yes, it is exactly as bad a deal as it sounds.

The RBS Story

In a nutshell: relatively small, parochial safe bank in Scotland decides to become a bigger player by taking more risk – and it all goes badly wrong.

Dating back to the 18^th Century, the bank started with £111,347 and focussed on printing bank notes.  Over time it developed a personal and corporate banking business, and grew south of the border through the 19^th century.  During the 20th century post…