Occupying London

Here in the heart of the Occupy London, we are reporting the facts on the ground, with a visit.

Of course the first person to ask about the economy when visiting a country is the local cabbie.  “How’s business”?  Must have said that a thousand or more times all over the world. During a GBP20 trip, he says business is okay, that people are still going out, bankers still need cabs, and he hasn’t noticed any real cut backs. I asked how he felt about the terrible headlines concerning the European financial crisis, and he said it seems to be happening to somebody else.

The next of course is the local pub and restaurant.  The Eagle, in Farringdon, used to be the main watering hole for the journos from The Guardian, until the latter moved offices.  Should be the hub of knowledge. “How’s business?”.  Oh concerned and careful, but business seems to be holding up.  Having dinner there, you could observe that it was a great favourite of the locals – and I know why – absolutely fantastic food and friendly service.  Things are pretty okay he said.  Highly recommend with a KVVV 6/6 star rating.

Strolling around everyone seems busy, either outside St Paul’s, in the golden mile [of bankers] or in the inner city suburbs.  There is substantial building, road works, buses galore, and when dining out in the evening in many local restaurants it is necessary to book.  All looks good so far.

Fantastic soya latte in the local boulangerie (always packed), with a breakfast cost of GBP10, and the Financial Times, get to meet some of the locals.  A mature woman is there every day, and very friendly;  we often discuss the news.  One day she stays longer, saying she is waiting for her son to move out before she goes home.  “Its about time” she says. 

A guy in his forties is there every morning, and as all the locals seem to do, we get chatting.  He has been a senior executive in IT for decades, and for personal reasons 12 months ago decided to have six months off.  “Never been without a good job”.  And here he is today, unable to find any work at all in IT.  He was slightly stunned as he told this story, but claimed that the banks and other institutions that are the largest IT users, have been cutting back sharply on staff and new projects.  Even as the salaries they pay their chief executives reach all time highs.

Waitrose is certainly packed, and it seems that whenever I go in for a shop the lines for check outs are at least 50 -75 people long.  And that is with at least eight check outs.  The British love a good queue. Great fresh food, ready to eat and organic, is the reason. 

Of course this is not Spain, Greece, Italy, nor US, where the jobs situation is dire – not yet anyway.  However, there is a real disconnect between the so called crisis in the Eurozone which is on the front pages of every newspaper and what is experienced on the ground.

And the reason could be this.  In research just published (1 below), from a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide, they mapped the structure of economic power using complexity analysis.  It revealed a core of 1318 companies represented 20% of global operating revenues, and owned through their shares the majority of the world's large blue chip and manufacturing firms - the "real" economy - representing a further 60 per cent of global revenues.

From this group,  147 companies controlled 40% of total wealth.  That is, less than 1% of the total companies and investors in the world, control 40% of wealth and 80% of global revenues.  And they were mostly financial institutions. 

Yes that’s right, the ones we are still bailing out around the world and in Australia with the recent “covered bond” legislation.  No wonder the people on the street are yawning.  In the most part it is not their day to day problem.  However Occupy London [and everywhere else] gets it.  Have you seen Blade Runner?

(1)www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed--the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html