Word: almost
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This institutional problem pales beside the political one: when crisis strikes, Europe almost never acts like a true union. After French President Nicolas Sarkozy summoned the leaders of Britain, Germany and Italy to Paris on Oct. 4, German Chancellor Angela Merkel coolly torpedoed his proposed $409 billion Europe-wide financial rescue plan. No money for the greedy fools of other lands, she seemed to say, only to then guarantee German private bank accounts and save Hypo Real Estate. That followed similar moves by Ireland and Greece. And Britain's Gordon Brown will always be loath to see Brussels...
...society by his lifelong asthma and eczema. At Glasgow's School of Art, he specialized in mural-painting before graduating to a life of persistent penury with a four-year, wage-free commission to paint The Seven Days of Creation on the ceiling and walls of a local church. Almost no one saw it before the building was razed...
...magnet for people, jobs and investment from around the world. The big U.S. banks made London their international hub, and the major continental European banks moved much of their trading and investment banking operations there. About 70% of international bonds, one-third of the world's foreign exchange and almost half the total volume of international equities are traded in London, more even than New York, its only remaining rival as the world's financial capital. Hedge funds piled into Mayfair on the heels of private-equity players. Any self-respecting Russian oligarch has a Knightsbridge mansion, sends his kids...
...gross domestic product, up from 5.5% in 2001. Add in professional services linked to finance, such as accounting, law and management consultancy, and the total rises to 14%. And that's for Britain as a whole. For London, finance has been even more important: It now accounts for almost one-fifth of the city's total output, and perhaps as much as one-third if professional services are included. That's far more even than New York, where financial services are about 15% of the local economy...
Oxford Economics, which specializes in regional forecasts and advises the British government, expects 110,000 jobs to be cut in London between this year and 2010 as the city's economy contracts - although if the credit crunch is protracted, it predicts that the number could rise to almost 150,000 next year alone. Real estate is already reeling. Plans for two huge new skyscrapers in the City have been shelved, and the price of prime residential houses in central London has dropped by 12% so far in 2008, according to realtors Savills, while sales volume is down...