The end of London as a financial centre?

[tim123]

Does London want a financial center? What has it done for the country with its short termist, pocket-lining ways?

Nearly brought the whole economy down that's what!

Not all trading has the potential to end in catastrophe.

Basic Share/Commodities/Forex trading are reasonably benign functions for the traders if they stick to the rules.

tim

[HairyArsedBloke]

Not all trading has the potential to end in catastrophe.

Depends on the trader. If it is AtW then yes it is.

Basic Share/Commodities/Forex trading are reasonably benign functions for the traders if they stick to the rules.

[BrilloPad]

Depends on the trader. If it is AtW then yes it is.

Are you two not in love anymore?

[Gonzo]

**if** the city moves away from the UK then the UK will go down the tubes quicker than it already is.

Maybe the bright young things will join other industries. More likely they will move abroad.

See what happens Brillo? - You try and start a debate on the implications of the financial services industry being driven abroad but what you get is the thickos in the provinces with a chip on their shoulder jumping up and down showing us why the country will be down the tubes.

From memory, the City of London generates about 4% of the UK GDP, and London as a whole generates 20%. That will be one big hole to fill unless the Brits are prepared to live with a permanent decrease in their standard of living. There are other business areas that generate income such as Pharma (stop looking so smug Baggie ) but is the country going to be able to develop these sufficiently to replace the financial services?

In its 2000 year history, London has always drawn people to it from all over the world which is one of the reasons I am so fond of the place. I remember once going to the Theatre to see a play about a young man who went to London because he had heard that all the streets were paved with gold. They weren't but he did eventually become Lord Mayor.

There is a lesson there for everyone. There are opportunities to thrive in London if you want to take them, it does not matter who you are or where you are from. It would be a shame to be the generation that sees London replaced as the city of opportunity by somewhere like Hong Kong.

That article does make it sound like these restrictions are a done-deal though when in fact the european leaders are going to take the ideas away and come back with something more concrete in a couple of weeks' time. Expect some watering down to occur in the interim.

[DimPrawn]

Yes, London that generates wealth, like another 500bn of liabilities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7906922.stm

BBC business editor Robert Peston says that if the deal is completed it will take the total support by British taxpayers to the banks to £1.3tn.

[expat]

I keep saying, Brown is a Jacobite sleeper, undercover for 250 years.

The Jacobites: did to Scotland what centuries of English armies could not.

[expat]

From memory, the City of London generates about 4% of the UK GDP, and London as a whole generates 20%. That will be one big hole to fill unless the Brits are prepared to live with a permanent decrease in their standard of living.

As you know, "generating GDP" is not the same as generating wealth or income. For a start, the government's huge orientation towards London generates huge GDP in London. Oil from the North Sea generates GDP in London, because it is accounted for in the London offices. Everybody who lives in London genarates GDP every time they eat. Etc. Much of this would not necessarily follow the City financial institutions down the tubes.

[Gonzo]

Yes, London that generates wealth, like another 500bn of liabilities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7906922.stm

So, half of that 500bn is needed to sure-up the Royal Bank of Scotland, the other half is Lloyds because it rescued HBOS - or Halifax Bank of Scotland as it is known.

I rest my case.

[Churchill]

Depends on the trader. If it is AtW then yes it is.

Are you two not in love anymore?

The way I understood the relationship, it was purely a sex thing.

[Churchill]

So, half of that 500bn is needed to sure-up the Royal Bank of Scotland, the other half is Lloyds because it rescued HBOS - or Halifax Bank of Scotland as it is known.

I rest my case.

Oi Gonzo, the term I believe is to "shore up".