Goodbye the Golden Eggs of Banking?
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 June 2011
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Time was when the City of London and the financial services industry generally were the apple of most politicians' eyes. The fabulous wealth they generated and taxes they paid seemed to set Britain on the road to lasting prosperity without having to worry about its manufacturing sector. With the crash, the political consensus has turned. Now, metal-bashing is back in favour and the bankers can do no right. The ritual call, heard at least once a generation, for Britain's economy to be more like Germany's is echoing across the land again.
But is making things rather than financial innovation really the way to make Britain's economy grow faster? When we have a competitive edge in banking and managing money, should we cast it aside? And why should Britain's economy be the same as that of other countries?
Janan Ganesh of the "Economist" asks if we should be turning our back on the goose that has laid our golden eggs for so many years. And, with no immediate signs that manufacturing is taking off on a bountiful new trajectory, considers if we should try to understand the City better and how it can assist Britain grow again.
Producer: Simon Coates.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
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| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this podcast of Analysis on BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:41.0 | In this program, Janan Ganesh of the Economist asks if the emerging |
| 0:46.1 | consensus for Britain to rebalance its economy away from banking and financial |
| 0:51.2 | services towards manufacturing is right. |
| 0:55.0 | I'm Janan Ganesh of the Economist and in this program I'll be asking if Britain should move away from banking and financial services. |
| 1:04.0 | The British economy is unique in the world that it has a banking sector. |
| 1:11.0 | Five times the GDP, Banks based in London have more assets than in America. |
| 1:18.0 | And we're just a medium-sized economy. |
| 1:21.0 | If you remember back 10 years ago, all of the push was borrow more, lend more, and lend to people who might not be able to afford to pay back. |
| 1:31.0 | And we should be much, much more careful about that in the future. |
| 1:35.2 | Voices from each side of the coalition, damning the bankers. |
| 1:39.6 | After two decades of loosening rules and irrational exuberance, the financial sector faces an era of |
| 1:46.3 | re-regulation. |
| 1:48.3 | Four years on from the first intimations of the Great Crash, the mood of Britain remains anti-finance. |
| 1:55.0 | Politicians want to rebalance the economy towards manufacturing. |
| 2:00.0 | Even George Osborne, a free market Tory, and not exactly a horny-handed son of toil, |
... |
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