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My replies: 1) Obviously. But whatever laws are passed in the U.S. are not going to be enforced outside the U.S. (of course). The president of the U.S. can exe
by Rod 17y ago
My replies:
1) Obviously. But whatever laws are passed in the U.S. are not going to be enforced outside the U.S. (of course). The president of the U.S. can exercize his influence abroad but he can't exactly force other countries to do what he wants, unless he threatens with penalties (not limited to military action), which would help denigrate the image of the U.S. abroad even more. Obama's administration can pass whatever laws it wants. Financial institutions will always find a loophole to be exploited. Regulatory arbitrage works wonders...
2) Defining "world's capital" is admittedly a childish game. One possible definition of world's financial capital would be to count the number of hedge funds in London and the number of hedge funds in NYC.
3) Of course the concept of decoupled economies is false. What I was trying to argue is that the correlation between the American economy and other countries' economies is not 100%.
America is still a great country, obviously. Just don't expect the post-WW2 status to last forever. Things change.
- noaharc 17y agoOkay, I think I understand what you're saying. It certainly is easy to project the geopolitical status quo infinitely into the future, and just as certainly that is wrong. But I think financial centers shift slowly -- we've only really seen three (London, New York, and Amsterdam) in as many centuries. Moreover, the traditions and rules of the predecessors are often carried over to the successors, and we can probably expect this continuity to be even stronger in the future, given the greater degree of global interconnectedness. So I guess what I'm saying is that it will be some time before we seen a financial industry like that of the turn of the 21st century, no matter where you look.
- Rod 17y ago"So I guess what I'm saying is that it will be some time before we seen a financial industry like that of the turn of the 21st century, no matter where you look." I agree. And, honestly, that could be a wonderful thing. Now that the New Gilded Age seems to be over, maybe people can cool their heads off and get back to reality...