London’s attempt to maintain its financial muscle while boycotting Europe’s move toward a banking union risks isolating the city from its major trading partners and undermining its status as the world’s top money center.
Max Keiser
Financial War Reports
A commenter in this article suggests London has the advantages of the time zone and talent pool.
Talent pool? London?
from wikipedia:
London’s largest industry is finance, and its financial exports make it a large contributor to the UK’s balance of payments. Around 325,000 people were employed in financial services in London until mid-2007. London has over 480 overseas banks, more than any other city in the world. Currently, over 85% (3.2 million) of the employed population of greater London works in the services industries. Due to its prominent global role, London’s economy has been affected by the Late-2000s financial crisis. The City of London estimates that 70,000 jobs in finance will be cut within a year.[164] The City of London is home to the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, and Lloyd’s of London insurance market.
The big quote:
“The worst outcome would be the creation of an over- powerful banking bloc,” said Clegg, whose coalition government is facing pressure from inside the Conservative Party to hold a referendum on the U.K.’s relationship with the EU. “The rest of Europe needs to be crystal clear: If they integrate in a way that hurts the City, they potentially hurt Europe as a whole.”
This is exactly the gunpoint banking style Max has been preaching. If you fuck with the center of fraud, the center of fraud is going to fuck back. They already have an obviously over powerful banking bloc that can rig LIBOR or other benchmarks we haven’t even heard the full story about. Someone needs to call the cartel bluff, but no one in the game has enough chips to do it.
Talent pool was referring to Cameron I believe. Possibly Gordon Brown.
I say let the corrupt banks move to Germany. They’re all bankrupt anyway – at least if they had to mark their ‘assets’ to market value they would be. Let all the really crud ones go to Germany, and they can bail them out instead. At the moment, if you allow for the impacts of QE on all other sectors, are the banks actually making any money for the country?
The UK could do worse that to re-invent itself as a giant tax haven on the edge of Europe – especially as the Euro area moves closer and closer to Socialist Utopia (oxymoron obviously) . That would rely on the UK getting a Prime Ministers with the balls to give the people the vote on EU membership.
@PragLib
Read again, Max says Germany runs the show. ‘Over powerful banking bloc’ seems a bit castrated at the moment. Without fraud, the UK is Greece x20 minus the beaches, great food and culture not to mention the Brits.
Odds and Sods, it’s the weather …
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-30/infographic-how-hurricane-sandy-compares-irene-katrina-yasi/4341760
The remains of a World War II carrier pigeon – still bearing a secret coded message – have been found in the chimney of a house in England.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-02/pigeon-remains-reveal-coded-war-message/4349146
A quarter of a million pigeons were used on on active service during the War, flying messages in little canisters strapped to their legs across enemy lines.
But one pigeon never made it home.
Surrey resident David Martin found the bird’s bones in his chimney when he was renovating his fireplace.
“About three handfuls of rubbish later, down came the leg with the red capsule on with a message,” he said.
“You had to unscrew it and on a piece of paper, cigarette paper thin, was the secret message.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-30/infographic-how-hurricane-sandy-compares-irene-katrina-yasi/4341760