Water will run downhill

Interesting article in the FT today titled "How the City of London defeated the prophets of doom". London, once feared obsolete as a financial centre because of the rise of the Euro and the might of Manhattan, has had a booming resurgence, for three reasons:

(a) Sarbanes Oxley. It's become so expensive and onerous to list in New York that everyone is flocking to London instead. In 1999, the dollar value of IPOs in New York (around $80bn) was around 10x the value in London. Last year, London raised $10.3bn and the US only $6bn.
(b) The Bush war on terror. Arabs, flush with cash, don't want to put their money in the US where what they regard as a capricious and high-handed administration might decide to seize it. Instead, they're reinvesting in their own countries, starting a Middle East capital centre and leaving the rest with London.
(c) Over-regulation on the Continent, which makes it easier to fire people when things slow down.

Money is like water -- it's very hard to prevent it sinking to the lowest levels. You just have to leave one little crack.

The beginnings are there for the end of the American era, and our leaders are doing everything they can to speed it along.