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>Case in point, the financial sector move the article is referring to. Just because a bank is based in one country, doesn't mean it doesn't do business elsewher

>Case in point, the financial sector move the article is referring to. Just because a bank is based in one country, doesn't mean it doesn't do business elsewhere. If an investment opportunity exists, deals will still be made regardless. The idea that a company like Goldman Sachs would turn down an opportunity to make money just because their headquarters is elsewhere is almost laughable. So your argument is Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, etc will continue to do business in Britain because it'll be profitable to do so? Yes that's probably true. On the other hand they are bending to regulation that requires them to conduct EU-related business in an EU member state. And as you have stated businesses will not turn down potential profit. Therefore they have no choice but to move the jobs to where the majority of the business is and that's no longer Britain. There's no element of panic here, just the fact that brexit means certain jobs have to move in order to continue conducting business with the EU. The EU are already positioning to move Euro clearing out of London as well. See https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/07/brexit-uk-finance-brussels-thinktank-city-banking-eu-bruegel https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/07/brexit-uk-f...

ZenoArrow 9y ago
> "Therefore they have no choice but to move the jobs to where the majority of the business is and that's no longer Britain." The majority of business wasn't in Britain before Brexit either, but we still had businesses based here. If some companies leave, they're just opening up new opportunities for their competitors. I don't like thinking of people as 'workers' and 'consumers', but let's use those labels for a second. Are you trying to tell me in a nation of over 60 million consumers, with a high volume of skilled and hard working workers, that there aren't business opportunities to be had, regardless of a slow down in exports?
- technofiend 9y ago
  Is there opportunity? Sure. Is there opportunity to replace the salaries and tax revenue of 30,000-100,000 finance and finance-related jobs lost to brexit with equally well paying jobs? I am extremely skeptical such a thing is possible for Britain and until that happens the revenue to Britain's economy and tax coffers are undeniably lost and cannot be recovered. You are once again blithely ignoring the fact that brexit directly resulted in finance companies moving out of Britain. There is no backfill by competitors to be had. In short brexit with regards to employment in the finance industry is a foot shooting exercise of epic proportions.
  - ZenoArrow 9y ago
    > "Is there opportunity to replace the salaries and tax revenue of 30,000-100,000 finance and finance-related jobs lost to brexit with equally well paying jobs?" Two points: 1. I see over-reliance on any one industry as a weakness. The idea would be to find constructive uses for the talents of those in the financial industry elsewhere. There are a diverse range of industries that could benefit from numerically literate people. To give one example, energy management is going to be a growing field as we move towards renewables, both in terms of planning new installations and in balancing the demands on the grid. Is that going to soak up all of the lost jobs? No, but I wouldn't want it to, otherwise we'd have another 'too big to fail' industry, the idea is to spread the talent around. 2. You point at lost tax revenues, but the financial services industry appears to be the worst offender when it comes to tax avoidance. I'd much rather people were employed in jobs where they paid tax, even if their nominal salaries may be lower. To give some idea of how bad tax avoidance in the UK financial sector is, and how much other companies depend on UK-based financial institutions for their tax avoidance, take a look at the following links: http://www.theweek.co.uk/62461/benefit-fraud-v-tax-evasion-which-costs-more http://www.theweek.co.uk/62461/benefit-fraud-v-tax-evasion-w... http://www.taxjustice.net/topics/finance-sector/enablers-and-intermediaries/ http://www.taxjustice.net/topics/finance-sector/enablers-and... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hom07yGhg0Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hom07yGhg0Q Also, to nip the whole 'membership of the EU helps clamp down on tax avoidance' line in the bud, the EU have known about schemes like the 'Dutch Sandwich with a Double Irish' for years and haven't put a stop to it, so their record isn't exactly stellar: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/google-used-double-irish-dutch-sandwich-to-move-10-7bn-1.2541273 https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/google-used-d...
  - gaius 9y ago
    You seem to think that Euro-clearing is the only thing that banks do... And you're forgetting the nuclear option.

ZenoArrow 9y ago

> "Therefore they have no choice but to move the jobs to where the majority of the business is and that's no longer Britain." The majority of business wasn't in Britain before Brexit either, but we still had businesses based here. If some companies leave, they're just opening up new opportunities for their competitors. I don't like thinking of people as 'workers' and 'consumers', but let's use those labels for a second. Are you trying to tell me in a nation of over 60 million consumers, with a high volume of skilled and hard working workers, that there aren't business opportunities to be had, regardless of a slow down in exports?

technofiend 9y ago
Is there opportunity? Sure. Is there opportunity to replace the salaries and tax revenue of 30,000-100,000 finance and finance-related jobs lost to brexit with equally well paying jobs? I am extremely skeptical such a thing is possible for Britain and until that happens the revenue to Britain's economy and tax coffers are undeniably lost and cannot be recovered. You are once again blithely ignoring the fact that brexit directly resulted in finance companies moving out of Britain. There is no backfill by competitors to be had. In short brexit with regards to employment in the finance industry is a foot shooting exercise of epic proportions.
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  > "Is there opportunity to replace the salaries and tax revenue of 30,000-100,000 finance and finance-related jobs lost to brexit with equally well paying jobs?" Two points: 1. I see over-reliance on any one industry as a weakness. The idea would be to find constructive uses for the talents of those in the financial industry elsewhere. There are a diverse range of industries that could benefit from numerically literate people. To give one example, energy management is going to be a growing field as we move towards renewables, both in terms of planning new installations and in balancing the demands on the grid. Is that going to soak up all of the lost jobs? No, but I wouldn't want it to, otherwise we'd have another 'too big to fail' industry, the idea is to spread the talent around. 2. You point at lost tax revenues, but the financial services industry appears to be the worst offender when it comes to tax avoidance. I'd much rather people were employed in jobs where they paid tax, even if their nominal salaries may be lower. To give some idea of how bad tax avoidance in the UK financial sector is, and how much other companies depend on UK-based financial institutions for their tax avoidance, take a look at the following links: http://www.theweek.co.uk/62461/benefit-fraud-v-tax-evasion-which-costs-more http://www.theweek.co.uk/62461/benefit-fraud-v-tax-evasion-w... http://www.taxjustice.net/topics/finance-sector/enablers-and-intermediaries/ http://www.taxjustice.net/topics/finance-sector/enablers-and... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hom07yGhg0Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hom07yGhg0Q Also, to nip the whole 'membership of the EU helps clamp down on tax avoidance' line in the bud, the EU have known about schemes like the 'Dutch Sandwich with a Double Irish' for years and haven't put a stop to it, so their record isn't exactly stellar: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/google-used-double-irish-dutch-sandwich-to-move-10-7bn-1.2541273 https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/google-used-d...
- gaius 9y ago
  You seem to think that Euro-clearing is the only thing that banks do... And you're forgetting the nuclear option.