Alt-Finance

So the subtitle is a bit misleading as it's not really talking about 'the City', at least as I'd understand it, and the basic idea, that Brexit was driven by the libertarian right, might not be wholly new, but I still thought this was well-worth reading.

There's a very useful overview of the history of the UK financial industry that's filled in a lot of gaps in my understanding, followed by a classification of different sectors, explaining why they refer to 'alt-finance'. I think the key point here is that much of the financial sector makes its money within the framework of the EU's rules-based neoliberal order, and quite like it that way. There are, however, more speculative forms of finance whose protagonists would much rather everything was deregulated, providing more of a night-watchman libertarian state, that's simply enforcing contracts and nothing more. These are the people who contributed so much to the leave campaigns and, since the vote, have pushed for the hardest possible Brexit.

As if that wasn't grim enough, the latter part of the book ties this in with their more general authoritarian libertarianism, climate change denial, and the rest.

All very thought-provoking, and now there's lots more I want to read, but not necessarily a cheery book.