Enterprise Account bao
The Finance Curse
Article

The Finance Curse

How the Outsized Power of the City of London Makes Britain Poorer

Nicholas Shaxson
The Guardian, 2018
Read the article

Read offline

audio autogenerado
  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×
audio autogenerado

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Controversial
  • Eye Opening
  • Overview

Recommendation

A thriving, dominant sector that draws money from around the world should help a country’s economy and benefit most of its people. But nations that boast abundant natural resources have a long history of passing profits to the wealthy as the rest of the populace becomes poorer. Journalist Nicholas Shaxson asserts that a similar pattern occurs in London’s financial sector, where growing wealth has inflated asset prices, promoted tax dodges and enriched a small segment of the population. His call for change may raise some eyebrows, but it may also open some policy makers’ and taxpayers’ eyes to a significant economic imbalance.

Summary

The United Kingdom and Angola may not appear to have much in common, but one feature unites them: the impact a dominant sector has on wealth distribution and the economy. In Angola, wealth from oil and other abundant natural resources trickles through to a small part of the population, while the fortunes of most people deteriorate. The pattern is so predictable that economists call it “the resource curse.” In London, a thriving financial sector has long attracted vast wealth. But like the resource curse in Angola, the “finance curse” in Britain hurts the economy in a number of ways: It draws the brightest workers away from careers...

About the Author

Nicholas Shaxson is a journalist and the author of Treasure Islands and The Finance Curse. 

Comment on this summary