Canary Wharf themes in the news

Below, I list some articles in the media that reflect the themes explored in my rock opera. I update this list periodically. The last posting is always the most recent.

As of October 2022, Rishi Sunak is the UK’s third Conservative prime minister (in a few months). This Feb 2020 article from The Times provides a description of the then Chancellor’s background in the finance industry:

“Rishi Sunak was part of a small team of hedge fund bosses who shared nearly £100m after an audacious stock market bet that lit the touchpaper on the 2008 financial crisis.

The new chancellor was a partner at the hedge fund TCI when it launched an activist campaign against the Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007, resulting in its sale to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).”

Guardian article from 25 October 2022 on devastating impact of Private Finance Initiatives on the NHS:

“NHS trusts spent close to a half a billion pounds on interest charges from private companies for private finance initiative (PFI) contracts last year – equivalent to the salaries of 15,000 newly qualified nurses.” The government requires UK hospital Trusts to prioritise the contractual repayment of interest payments to private finance companies above the provision of hospital services.

Guardian article from 16 December 2022 on absurdity and dangers of relying on ‘pricing nature’ and ‘the markets invisible hand’ to solve the global environmental crisis:

“Given the glaring relationship between profit and extinction (think of the logging firms clearing the Amazon), you might wonder at the mental gymnastics required to present financialisation as an alternative to immediate government regulation.”

In his Melbourne The Age opinion column 26 December 2022, respected Australian economics journalist Ross Gittens discusses how ‘economics’ does not exist outside of the narratives constructed by political, financial agents and economists themselves:

“So, what have stories got to do with economics, especially when economics is more about impersonal concepts than about particular people? More than many economists want to admit. Just as stories are our way of making meaning out of the seeming chaos of life, so the economists’ “models” – whether the ones they carry in their heads or the sets of equations they program into a computer – aren’t as scientific as economists like to think.”

John in Canary Wharf agonises “Where is the enemy, is it inside of me, or is it simply the 1%? The Guardian 18 Jan 2023 reports that this group of ultra-rich are very sure they are the 1% and they are the problem.

“In the letter entitled “the cost of extreme wealth”, the millionaires, from 13 countries, said: “The history of the last five decades is a story of wealth flowing nowhere but upwards. In the last few years, this trend has greatly accelerated …The solution is plain for all to see. You, our global representatives, have to tax us, the ultra rich, and you have to start now.”

Market manipulation, share revving and corporate corruption allegations - in Australia? Adanis’ profiteering from mining operations in Australia under scrutiny as part of wider expose report on companies owned by world’s richest man from short-seller research group Hindenberg:

“Even if you ignore the findings of our investigation and take the financials of Adani Group at face value, its 7 key listed companies have 85% downside purely on a fundamental basis owing to sky-high valuations.”

The Carillion collapse. Creditors (unpaid debts) claim ”…Carillion had racked up massive losses, and paid out £210m in dividends, because it relied on audits from KPMG – which itself collected £29m for its audit work for Carillion over 19 years.”

And now hospitals at risk of not being built: The collapse…” also delayed the construction of two new hospitals including the 646-bed Royal Liverpool and 669-bed Midland Metropolitan in Sandwell, West Midlands, which were due to open in 2017 and 2018, respectively, resulting in the projects running hundreds of millions of pounds over budget.”

Some 2023 satire courtesy of Clickhole about the 1% angst and everyone else’s angst: “Millions of Americans live in poverty, and millions more have tons of money but also seem sad and negative all the time!”

In a 5 July 2023 article, The Guardian reports that, post-pandemic, Canary Wharf is struggling to reinvent itself. Its future as a desirable location for key finance industry players is uncertain as key tenants such as HSBC desert their “towers of doom” in the corporate “wasteland”.

Want to be an ethical investor? Buyer beware - the Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced on 25 July 2023 that it was investigating Vanguard’s hedge fund for massive ‘greenwashing’: “ASIC alleges Vanguard made false and misleading statements and engaged in conduct liable to mislead the public in representing that all securities in the Vanguard Ethically Conscious Global Aggregate Bond Index Fund (Hedged) (Fund) were screened against certain ESG criteria. The Fund was marketed to investors seeking, amongst other things, securities with an ethically conscious screen.”

As always, the best humour can nail the issues: The Onion’s take on the difference between the stock market and the economy

“Fossilflation” “climateflation” - Positive Money Europe’s latest report (Feb 2024) explores the links between climate change and inflation