How to revive Britain’s stockmarket
London’s once high-flying bourse has spent the past decade tumbling back to earth
ASK BRITONS what actually goes on in the City of London and you’ll be met with a blank stare. Trading the yen and the yuan, structuring derivatives and providing the world’s financial plumbing are all money-spinners, but they barely register in the public imagination. The exception is the stockmarket. Daily news bulletins report trading on the FTSE 100 index of leading London shares. Booms and busts are charted by its gyrations. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is the stamping-ground of giant multinationals, where city-slickers and corporate fat-cats thrash out huge deals to buy and sell the world’s companies.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “From Big Bang to a whimper”
Leaders October 2nd 2021
- How to revive Britain’s stockmarket
- China’s new reality is rife with danger
- Japan deserves better than an inoffensive prime minister
- Why the word “woman” is tying people in knots
- America will never have a European-style welfare state without a VAT
- New ways to make food are coming—but will consumers bite?
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