The reputation of London has been damaged by recent events in the financial markets. The UK government is keen on talking about problems as if they are entirely of US origin, and that the UK is a hapless victim. Of course, it is a global problem – but some of the regulatory failures have been most obvious in the US and the UK.
While subprime lending in Birmingham, Alabama, may not be [UK prime minister] Gordon Brown’s problem, he does have responsibility for 125% loan-to-value lending to homebuyers in Birmingham, England. If you look objectively across the world, the regulatory failure is at its most pronounced in the UK-American sphere, and the UK must certainly share part of the responsibility for that regulatory failure.
