Word: britishisms
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...fitting end to what has been a remarkably bubbly period for London. Over the past decade and a half, ever since its last protracted downturn, the British capital has transformed itself into Europe's indispensable financial center. Leaving Frankfurt and Paris in the dust and encouraged by the policies of Gordon Brown, the current British Prime Minister, it has become a 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...
...this activity has made the City - the square mile around St. Paul's Cathedral that is the heart of the old financial district, and the gleaming towers of the new financial district in the docklands area - a powerful motor not just for 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...
...world is in the grips of a perilous market crunch, the boom is over and tough times loom. The U.K.'s FTSE-100 stock index has nosedived in recent days and is down about 35% in the past year. Three famous British banks have already imploded - Northern Rock, HBOS and Bradford & Bingley. And after a dramatic plunge in the stock price of other banks, the deeply rattled British government came to the rescue on Oct. 8, announcing an emergency $88 billion recapitalization package. The City has been through enough slumps to know what to expect next: layoffs, shrinking bonuses...
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...
...question is starting to make the rounds - a question that London hasn't really asked itself before: Did the City become too successful for its own good? The increasing dependence on financial services has brought in fabulous wealth in the past 15 years, but it has also left the British capital at the mercy of the ups and downs of the moneymen. As finance has soared as a proportion of the local economy, it has eclipsed other sectors. London was once a major center for industry, for example, but manufacturing now accounts for just 6% of the city's output...