The reason any of this matters is that what is being sold is largely a small-business bank - almost two-thirds of its loans are to businesses, especially smaller ones - and right now one of the alleged great scandals of the British economy is the great shortage of choice for small businesses in the provision of vital finance.

BBC: Investors want to buy RBS's Williams & Glyn's

Many had painful losses, especially the smaller ones.

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For instance, industrial parks in China today want large companies to go in, not smaller ones, especially those in traditional industries without (desired) technology.

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It may seem strange to more recent generations, but auto stocks, especially the smaller and more speculative ones, were once the wave of the future.

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