The City of London - Wow!

[JackRiddler]

Tell me this documentary about the City of London, focusing on its modern incarnation, is not a great starter for its own thread!

Tremendously important and yet only warranting a trifling look here and there, as a sort of curiosity:

BBC - London's secret billion-pound guilds - 12 February 2019

See:

Rune Soup - THE MONEY: ARCHONOLOGY (PART 4)



Not that I am saying any of this is actually specifically relevant to this incident - just providing a friendly information service. Certainly it is germane to many other topics discussed frequently on this board:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Woo ... xual_Abuse

I knew the City of London, at the head of the vast offshore financial empire, is a special jurisdiction separate from the rest of London and the country, but oh man, when you get the details it blows your mind.

Threatened by the end of the British Empire and the US response to the Suez War and concomittant run on sterling, they offered themselves up as an access point to a financially deregulated universe -- and the US capital flowed right in... the documentary cites figures for the City's offshore universe of 4.8 trillion in assets held in 1988, and 90% of all loans made globally in 1998.

Cut to BCCI collapse...

I looked up some other numbers: 7,000-9,000 people live in it, 350,000-500,000 work in it, but the elections of its officials involve 25,000 special voters who represent businesses chartered in it.

"The business or 'non-residential vote' was abolished in other UK local council elections by the Representation of the People Act 1969, but was preserved in the City of London."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London

"London is the world's greatest foreign exchange market, with much of the trade conducted in the City of London. Of the $3.98 trillion daily global turnover, as measured in 2009, trading in London accounted for around $1.85 trillion, or 46.7% of the total."

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[Wombaticus Rex]

Highly recommend Nicholas Shaxson's "Treasure Islands" - one of the best books I read this year, and certainly the best explanation of the Eurodollar and the best concise history of what The City really is I've found anywhere.

Egregores are not an abstract concept! They have teeth.

[vondardanelle]

i'm about half way through 'treasure islands' at the moment and agree it's very good. i think that i (like many, probably), do not have a very good idea or conception of how much "wealth" is out there in the world. we all see figures like jack mentioned above, X trillions of dollars in trade, US deficit of $22 trillion, GDP estimates, etc... but i feel like this book does a good job of nudging the reader a step closer to appreciating the fact that there is *so* much wealth in the world and so little of it comes anywhere near most people. the eurodollar stuff was really fascinating. excited to check out this video, thanks

[cptmarginal]

This is how international finance is conducted. I'm not even kidding.

"London is the world's greatest foreign exchange market, with much of the trade conducted in the City of London. Of the $3.98 trillion daily global turnover, as measured in 2009, trading in London accounted for around $1.85 trillion, or 46.7% of the total."

I don't have an updated statistic at hand regarding foreign exchange totals by locale but one (absolutely crazy) thing I keep hearing is that various US states have now come close to rivaling the Square Mile in onshore-offshore transactions, due to recently implemented financial policies.

[cptmarginal]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Woolf#Independent_Inquiry_into_Child_Sexual_Abuse

I included this link because it is bizarre and telling that the Lord Mayor would be the replacement for Baroness Butler-Sloss, aka female Jimmy Savile:



For whatever occluded reasons it seemed apparent that the Independent Inquiry was meant to be a Star Chamber run by members of Magic Circle law firms.

(Also, incidentally: How Lord Mayor's attendant triggered magic circle scandal)

[Wombaticus Rex]

I don't have an updated statistic at hand regarding foreign exchange totals by locale but one (absolutely crazy) thing I keep hearing is that various US states have now come close to rivaling the Square Mile in onshore-offshore transactions, due to recently implemented financial policies.

Yes, this is something Shaxson digs into in the last half of the book: "offshore" was always an accounting fiction more than an actual place, so now much if not most of the volume is coming from "onshore" finance centers.

This was initially cracked open in Delaware, and it's a wild passage because Shaxson got sources in the middle of it to talk shop about the whole sordid affair. From there it became an ALEC template that spread quickly, because after all, YOU GOTTA STAY COMPETITIVE THESE DAYS.

Even here in Vermont we have a slice - "captive insurance," a gloss that enables risky companies to insure themselves (or at least financialize their liabilities, right?) - and we're directly competing with the Caymans and Bahamas and etc.

[Harvey]

Terrific, thanks cptmarginal for the OP and Jack for making a thread, I might have missed it otherwise. I have to admit, I'm quite stunned, partly at the state of my own ignorance. I'd always assumed The City of London is a flowery way of saying the financial district. I found the slow accumulation of background detail extremely effective.

[Luther Blissett]

I love the documentary so far, but I’m probably going to need to watch it a couple times. Not quite what I was expecting, since I’m craving deeper information like what’s included in this thread. Shaxson is featured heavily throughout, as well.