Reclaim the City
Hildy Johnson | 21.06.2009 11:28
The Times reports today that a group of powerful hedge funds have organised a lobby group to fight EU proposals to implement tougher regulations. Having benefitted from the virtual tax haven status of London in the past ten years they are now trying to blackmail ministers by threatening to leave.
"Brevan Howard, Europe’s largest hedge fund with £14 billion of assets under management, said it would be forced to leave Britain if the directive was not changed.
James Vernon, one of the firm’s founding partners and chief operating officer, said: “The directive envisages setting leverage [borrowing] limits and that wouldn’t just make it difficult for us to run our business, it would make it impossible".
Hedge funds are not the first group of beneficiaries from Britains pyramid economy to threaten to go. The way I see it- let them go. In fact I would happily escort them to the door since their exit would also hit at the heart of the investment banking community. London would then cease to be rocked by sky high property prices inflated by the obscene salaries earned by these leeches.
One of these funds Blackrock for example is putting pressure on two already gigantic steel making conlomerates to merge so that more jobs can be cut and more assets can be stripped and flogged off in the name of Shareholder Value.
Black Rock, Brevan Howard, CQS, DE Shaw, Fauchier Partners, Lansdowne Partners, Man Group and Marshall Wace are the originators of the lobby group. For some reason UK activists have been unable to grasp or demonstrate any interest in the extraordinary changes that have been devised in financial circles over the last thirty years or so that have brought hedge funds and private equity groups to the fore.
What activists now have is an open goal that we cannot afford to miss. Public sentiment is already suspicious about the value of hedge funds and the like. Their managers are threatening to go. Now is the time to show them the door. A concerted effort to let them know they are not wanted would be an ideal opportunity for anarchists and the like to take a lead in the movement against 21st century speculative capitalism. There is no need to enter into tricky debates with workers (within which bigots may only be a minority) about the pros and cons of immigrant labour. A "Please Shut the Door on your Way Out" campaign targeted at these tax evading, vacuum cleaners of wealth would focus attention at the heart of the problem.
Friends, the heart of the problem is that we have no control over our own capital city. As it was in Joseph Conrad´s time it remains today a Heart of Darkness waiting to see the light.
James Vernon, one of the firm’s founding partners and chief operating officer, said: “The directive envisages setting leverage [borrowing] limits and that wouldn’t just make it difficult for us to run our business, it would make it impossible".
Hedge funds are not the first group of beneficiaries from Britains pyramid economy to threaten to go. The way I see it- let them go. In fact I would happily escort them to the door since their exit would also hit at the heart of the investment banking community. London would then cease to be rocked by sky high property prices inflated by the obscene salaries earned by these leeches.
One of these funds Blackrock for example is putting pressure on two already gigantic steel making conlomerates to merge so that more jobs can be cut and more assets can be stripped and flogged off in the name of Shareholder Value.
Black Rock, Brevan Howard, CQS, DE Shaw, Fauchier Partners, Lansdowne Partners, Man Group and Marshall Wace are the originators of the lobby group. For some reason UK activists have been unable to grasp or demonstrate any interest in the extraordinary changes that have been devised in financial circles over the last thirty years or so that have brought hedge funds and private equity groups to the fore.
What activists now have is an open goal that we cannot afford to miss. Public sentiment is already suspicious about the value of hedge funds and the like. Their managers are threatening to go. Now is the time to show them the door. A concerted effort to let them know they are not wanted would be an ideal opportunity for anarchists and the like to take a lead in the movement against 21st century speculative capitalism. There is no need to enter into tricky debates with workers (within which bigots may only be a minority) about the pros and cons of immigrant labour. A "Please Shut the Door on your Way Out" campaign targeted at these tax evading, vacuum cleaners of wealth would focus attention at the heart of the problem.
Friends, the heart of the problem is that we have no control over our own capital city. As it was in Joseph Conrad´s time it remains today a Heart of Darkness waiting to see the light.
Hildy Johnson
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