The New York Times reports:
At a black-tie event this summer, some of the world’s most powerful bankers and business executives gathered for a toast: “We are the international finance and business capital of the world, the world’s greatest global financial center, without question,” the mayor told the assembled crowd.
But that was not Michael R. Bloomberg talking. The city was not New York — it was London.
Even as the Dow Jones industrial average reaches new highs and Wall Street companies report robust profits, by some measures New York’s long-held crown as the financial capital of the world may be slipping.
London, whose lord mayor, David Brewer, made the summertime boast at the city’s annual merchants and bankers dinner, has had a heady resurgence in banking and lending. In recent years, its stock market has attracted a growing number of companies that once would have sought to list in the United States. And London is drawing an increasing tide of hedge fund assets.
The fact that London trading hours hit the opening of Toyko and New York City in one trading day gives London the advantage.The New York Times has this reminder:
This year, through the end of September, companies raised £17.9 billion ($33.2 billion) in initial public offerings on London’s exchanges. In New York, initial public offerings raised $26.5 billion through September. By the end of 2006, more than $40 billion will be raised in Hong Kong, thanks to two oversize bank offerings. Hong Kong’s leadership in public offerings is not expected to extend to 2007, when the battle between London and New York will be fiercer than ever.
Sarbanes-Oxley is just another term for dumb.
