Word: britains
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...London but for British prosperity. In 2007, financial services accounted for 10.1% of the U.K.'s 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...
...crisis is taking place at the same time as a real estate downturn, a conjunction that is unusual; in the past, one has often followed the other, but it's rare for them to happen simultaneously. And the problems are being exacerbated by an explosion of household debt in Britain over the past decade, which now leaves people especially vulnerable. Buoyed by rising property prices, households ratcheted up their borrowing to a massive 173% of disposable income, vs. 106% in 1995. That's way above even that paragon of profligacy, the U.S., where household debt amounts to 139% of income...
...Labour Party had a history of antagonism with the City. Brown sought to convince the financial community that New Labour would be probusiness, pro-enterprise, noninterventionist and keen to cosset the rich, believing their wealth would trickle down into the wider economy. Brown also led the way for Britain to put in place a new governance system for financial services that he and other politicians like to refer to as "light-touch" regulation (although bankers and regulators cringe at that phrase; they prefer to call it "appropriate" regulation). In June 2007, just days before he replaced Tony Blair as Prime...
...ever since. First came the run on Northern Rock, the stricken bank that the government ended up nationalizing and whose near failure raised serious questions about the effectiveness of U.K. banking regulation. Then came a damaging political storm over the taxing of "non-doms" - wealthy foreigners who move to Britain and are taxed only on their U.K. income. Following last month's rescues of HBOS and Bradford & Bingley, the big question now is what sort of new regulatory measures will be put in place as a result of the current market meltdown. Fraser, the City's policy head, is hoping...
...migrate to Singapore or Dubai, rapidly emerging regional centers, and some of the back-office jobs that are cut may never come back. "As in any business there will be more pressure to take more support roles out of London, to Asia or just to cheaper places in Britain," says Owen Jelf, who heads the U.K. capital markets practice at consultancy Accenture. But nowhere other than New York boasts the combination of specially tailored office space and clustered expertise to challenge London's status. "I don't see how what is happening will upset London's position as the fulcrum...