Neeson was a bit more important than I made him out to be - but only a bit. He was head trader and general manager of his branch in that office, but in terms of how far up the corporate chain he was - not very high.
This site gives a good overview of what happened, including the corporate structure that enabled Neeson to hide his activities (the fact that Barings was undergoing a merger didn’t help). During the time of his trades, because of the merger he (and his office) was actually moved down the corporate pecking order.
Here is an extract from the Bank of England’s final report about the collapse of Barings.
The problem with such reports, of course, is that they’re after-the-fact. It’s easy to see what went wrong, it’s a lot harder to see what’s going wrong.
I hope those Polaroid backs are not doorstops now, I love them on my 4x5 camera, and I’ve always wanted to try the 8x10 films. I understand Ilford and Fuji will pick up some of the slack. What Polaroid had was a lock on a very nice “niche market”. They blew it. After the photo ID business dropped (due to digitizing), there were still the many amateurs and professionals who used Polaroids. A lot of pro people still use Polaroid as a proof, to set up for the film shot. Many use it as the “final shot”. Many people were working with emulsion transfers/lifts. There was plenty of activity, but the suits blew it.
That’s nice to know, thanks. I have a Mamiya Universal with all 6 x 7 format backs. I used the Polaroid back for a fast B&W photo when doing wedding work, back in the day.
I may have to stock up on a few (or many?) boxes of Polaroid 55 while I still can. I mean, here’s a film that can give you an instant print, or an instant negative, and has a real nice palette to it. It scans very nicely too. If Polaroid had stuck with what they know, and held onto it, they might still have done fine.
I can see the logic in rewarding CEO’s and execs who build a company and make it prosper, but to give big rewards and golden parachutes to the ones who killed the golden goose does not make any sense.
