Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 139 posts

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#81

Post by lmm »

yAnonymous wrote: post #49
Houshalter wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn't have sympathy for the bankers, but it shouldn't be surprising that they would prefer countries with more favorable regulations. Anyway what is the justification for a cap on bonuses? As opposed to taxing them more or something.

>Anyway what is the justification for a cap on bonuses? That the bonuses are paid for with tax payers' money? The banks fail, then get bailed out... and from the bailout money they continue to pay themselves bonuses when they actually shouldn't see a dime. Banks had to be bailed out a bit too much recently to still be allowed such high bonuses.

What about banks that weren't bailed out, why should they be punished for the failure of their competitors? What about banks that have repaid their bailouts with interest?

But more than that, why this focus on bonuses rather than total compensation? Surely what matters is how much someone is paid, not the details of how that payment is structured.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#82

Post by sasvari »

bodyfour wrote: post #53
simonh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's also not that clear that Brexit will force finance away from London, which is well entrenched. Maybe not all, but a lot. Over the last few decades London has captured a lot of business that has to be conducted within the EU for regulatory and legal reasons. One example is clearing trades; London clearing houses have captured about 80% of clearing activity from exchanges all across Europe. there are many others…

> Another is the LSE/Berlin stock exchange merger which was going to see the German exchange hosted and operating from London. That deal will not now happen. DAX is in Frankfurt, not Berlin. What will be interesting is if the deal does go on, but happens in reverse. It might provide an easier path for LSE-listed companies with a heavy European interest to move to DAX. > we cannot even start to negotiate any deals wit…

just nitpicking: DAX is a stock market index consisting of the 30 major German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange [0], so you can't just move to DAX.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAX

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#83

Post by johan_larson »

I'm always a bit surprised to see entries like "good restaurants and cultural offerings" on lists like these. Aren't the people these companies are trying to hire really really hardcore workaholics? How much time do they really spend going to the opera?

Maybe I'm an outlier, but my own tastes in culture are amply satisfied by a decent bookstore and movie theatre, or in a pinch Amazon and Netflix, these days.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#84

Post by lucozade »

willvarfar wrote: post #70
lucozade wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, has been in Brussels discussing this. In summary, it's complicated. Firstly, economically, the remainder of the UK is a far larger market for Scotland than the EU. This wouldn't be a big issue if the UK can negotiate very good access to the single market but that's highly questionable. It also is complicated by the second point. Secondly, it is highly unlikely that Sco…

If Scotland was part of the EU, could it still have a separate Scotland-England-Wales trade-deal? IE could it grow fat being the middle man between the Leavers and the EU?

Highly unlikely. The EU generally negotiates as a bloc. It is almost inconceivable that there won't be some sort of trade deal between the EU and the UK and all of the EU would be party to it.

It's probably worth pointing out also that, currently, the UK has a lot of wiggle room when it comes to its relationship with the EU just because of its size. It is very unlikely that Scotland will be given any of this both because it's relatively small, economically, and it won;t be in a good negotiating position.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#85

Post by eru »

johan_larson wrote: post #83

I'm always a bit surprised to see entries like "good restaurants and cultural offerings" on lists like these. Aren't the people these companies are trying to hire really really hardcore workaholics? How much time do they really spend going to the opera? Maybe I'm an outlier, but my own tastes in culture are amply satisfied by a decent bookstore and movie theatre, or in a pinch Amazon and Netflix, these days.

Even the workaholics might have some partners or family that need convincing to move to the place?

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#86

Post by lsd5you »

johan_larson wrote: post #83

I'm always a bit surprised to see entries like "good restaurants and cultural offerings" on lists like these. Aren't the people these companies are trying to hire really really hardcore workaholics? How much time do they really spend going to the opera? Maybe I'm an outlier, but my own tastes in culture are amply satisfied by a decent bookstore and movie theatre, or in a pinch Amazon and Netflix, these days.

For finance types, I would say it's largely about status - i.e. having something 'better' than other people. Even if they cannot fully appreciate these things.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#87

Post by simonh »

gjm11 wrote: post #54
simonh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's also not that clear that Brexit will force finance away from London, which is well entrenched. Maybe not all, but a lot. Over the last few decades London has captured a lot of business that has to be conducted within the EU for regulatory and legal reasons. One example is clearing trades; London clearing houses have captured about 80% of clearing activity from exchanges all across Europe. there are many others…

> Since canceling the free movement of workers was the defining issue of the referendum, I don't think there's any valid inference from "X is what a lot of people thought they would get by voting Leave" to "X is at all likely to happen if/when the UK leaves the EU". A lot of people thought that by voting Leave they were voting for an extra £350M/week that would go to the NHS. Nigel Farage admitted within an hour of t…

Good post, I agree with it all, but on this:

> I'm not, for the avoidance of doubt, saying that if/when the UK leaves the EU we will still have free exchange of goods, services, capital and workers, or that London will keep its passporting rights. We might well lose those things.

We are guaranteed to lose those things at least for some time, because we can't even begin to negotiate getting them back until we're out of the EU.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#88

Post by tyfon »

lmm wrote: post #81
yAnonymous wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Anyway what is the justification for a cap on bonuses? That the bonuses are paid for with tax payers' money? The banks fail, then get bailed out... and from the bailout money they continue to pay themselves bonuses when they actually shouldn't see a dime. Banks had to be bailed out a bit too much recently to still be allowed such high bonuses.

What about banks that weren't bailed out, why should they be punished for the failure of their competitors? What about banks that have repaid their bailouts with interest? But more than that, why this focus on bonuses rather than total compensation? Surely what matters is how much someone is paid, not the details of how that payment is structured.

Bonus is usually paid out as a reward for short term goals, and that creates incentives to take higher risk in the short term. Total compensation does not have this incentive.

I am a banker (although we are a startup bank), and for us the bonus is structured so that it is not paid in full immediately. Quite a bit is held back in case someone does something unhealthy to the company to reach their short term bonus goals. This is not common practice though.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#89

Post by eru »

lmm wrote: post #81
yAnonymous wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Anyway what is the justification for a cap on bonuses? That the bonuses are paid for with tax payers' money? The banks fail, then get bailed out... and from the bailout money they continue to pay themselves bonuses when they actually shouldn't see a dime. Banks had to be bailed out a bit too much recently to still be allowed such high bonuses.

What about banks that weren't bailed out, why should they be punished for the failure of their competitors? What about banks that have repaid their bailouts with interest? But more than that, why this focus on bonuses rather than total compensation? Surely what matters is how much someone is paid, not the details of how that payment is structured.

Credit Suisse once paid the bonuses in `toxic assets'. A brilliant move: the PR was excellent, toxic assets moved off their balance sheets, and the bankers actually made a better bonus than they would have gotten in cash. (The toxic assets turned out to pay more when held to maturity than many models had forecast.)

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#90

Post by chongli »

johan_larson wrote: post #83

I'm always a bit surprised to see entries like "good restaurants and cultural offerings" on lists like these. Aren't the people these companies are trying to hire really really hardcore workaholics? How much time do they really spend going to the opera? Maybe I'm an outlier, but my own tastes in culture are amply satisfied by a decent bookstore and movie theatre, or in a pinch Amazon and Netflix, these days.

Good restaurants are critical for workaholics. These people don't have time to cook!

As for cultural offerings? People at the top of finance make a LOT of money. They aren't just stuffing it under the mattress.

Post reply on HN