No wonder the Olympic Tax-Haven was so anxious to come to London, not to mention all those rich Russians, Italians and Greeks who've finished wrecking their own countries and who don't want to pay for the damage.
Favourite quote:
"How can we have got to this state of affairs, when, on paper, we have some of the strictest anti-money laundering legislation in the world? The answer, I believe, lies in the fact that despite our many laws and regulations, they have never been effectively enforced by the financial regulators, and the banks and financial institutions appear to know that as long as they continue to pay lip service to the rules, they will not be required to implement them too effectively."
Say it ain't so! My colleague Ed Brown and I wrote about this back in 2007 (Brown E. and Cloke J. (2007) Shadow Europe: Alternative European Financial Geographies, Growth and Change
Vol. 38 No. 2, pp. 304–327, for anyone who's interested) but I guess no-one likes a Cassandra, do they?
Better to keep on pretending that London's power and eminence comes through legitimate means, as part of the NY-LON dyad, than open our eyes to the emperor's real clothes...
Dr Jon Cloke
LCEDN/MEGS Research Associate
Geography Department
Loughborough University
Loughborough LE11 3TU
Office: 01509 228193
Mob: 07984 813681
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