Quotable 2009: Don’t kill London’s ‘goose’

“The proposed national and international regulation that the city faces is a reaction to the financial services crisis, but we must ensure that we don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg.”

– London mayor Boris Johnson. In October Johnson joined the chorus of those warning about the effect that higher taxes and regulations were having on London’s status as a financial centre. Over the year dozens of hedge fund and private equity managers such as Terra Firma’s Guy Hands fled to lower-tax jurisdictions such as Guernsey and Jersey.

Excerpted from PEM’s “London mayor warns of regulation risk”