Posted on 03/08/2018 3:02:32 PM PST by Berlin_Freeper
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday he wanted France to supplant Britain as New Delhi’s partner of choice in Europe, as he embarked on a four-day tour of India.
Macron, a pro-business centrist who swept to power last year, has been beating the drum for France as a new, modernised “startup nation” on the world stage, while he pushes ahead with a wide-ranging programme of reforms at home.
He has also used Britain’s decision to leave the European Union to pitch France as an investment destination at the heart of the European single market.
“Your historical partner in Europe was the UK, and I want France to become the new partner,” Macron told India Today in an interview published on its website. “I want France to become the reference partner of the 21st century.”
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
you mean 200, not 200 hundred, right :)
Ok, jokes aside, this is very plausible - remember that the banking industry in the UK is primarily London and London replaced the great Italian banking houses because London was the center of free trade and the Italian city states were boxed in by enemies
Today if London closes itself off from the EEC (European Economic community) it loses a lot of what made it a financial hub
.
Remebmer that London was pre-eminent as THE financial hub in the 19th century but lost the top spot to New York as New York started funding expansion not only in the USA but also in the rest of the Americas
And since the 1980s it has faced increasing competition from Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai.
Hong Kong would have replaced both London and New York if there wasn't the fear of Xi, while Dubai is still a bubble. But look at Singapore
Anyway, back to replacing London as the hub for European financials - yes, not only very plausible but it is likely that London will not be pre-eminent especially if the Euro clearing houses have to move out of London and also it gets more expensive to provide funding in London.
but I don't see Paris replacing London on its own -- what I see right now is that London is already losing business -- a lot of operations are moving to Dublin, Cork and Warsaw (massive IT movements from the UK to Warsaw, Łódż, Wrocław and Kraków as well as to Cork) and big clearing house operations and bankers to Frankfurt and to a lower extent Paris
Oh and Santander has made the banking scene in Madrid really exciting while in the Nordics the innovations they are doing for fintech threaten to destroy much of the basic banking world
There's not going to be one replacement for London and London will not die like Genoa, Pisa and Sienna did as banking centres BUT London will not be the 800 lb gorilla - rather, it will still be large but matched by Frankfurt, with Paris close behind.
As someone who has worked in Switzerland and worked with Luxembourg based clients, I can tell you that this statement is wrong
Both have strong points as niche banking centers but they have nowhere near the breadeth AND depth that London and definitely not enough people (Swtizerland is too damned expensive to house most of your staff) had until 2015
Neither does Paris or Frankfurt, I'll grant you. But London's pre-eminence is going post Brexit. Who would they provide services to? Fortress EU? Nah, locked out. Russia? Nah, the Russian embargo means more Russian oligarchs will look at Cyprus. Asia? Nah, Singapore, HK and Dubai already are strong and getting stronger. The Americas? Nah, New York is too tough
The article is about France wooing Indian businesses to use France as a business partner.
India is already a business partner with France when they decided to purchase the Rafale, but found out how unreliable deals with the French government can be. Do you know the backstory of the Indian Rafale deal? It may be worth your time to look it up.
My point being that in past dealings, India has not found France to be a completely trustworthy partner.
The Euro's demise has been talked about for years -- its not going to happen. Don't get me wrong, I think it is very flawed and I don't want Poland (where I reside now) to join it - but the Euro is not going to be dead in 8 to 14 years. 2012 proved that
The Euro is already the second most widely held reserve currency after the dollar and ahead of the pound and the Swiss Franc
No country is ADDING it because they've already added it -- the share of the $ and the Euro as the worlds reserve currency over the past 5 years has held at 65% and 20% respectively.
Britain is already losing its banking status. As I mentioned above, it is not losing it to one rival but to a bunch of rivals. Brexit will only make the decline faster. London is not going to fall but rather fade and become one of the largest banking areas in Europe (at best) rather than the supreme unchallenged champion it was in 2015.
I agree that the EU is a socialist joke. But it isn't dying
And I agree that the Muslim horde is a problem hitting Germany and Sweden, but you do know that Brexit was more about keeping out the Eastern Europeans, not the Muslim migrants,right?
The UK was already keeping them out at Calais.
France:Britain as Vietnam:India
Being 3/4 Scottish myself, I’m not very impressed. I’m also 1/4 Irish, so I’d love to get drunk and punch him in the face on St. Paddy’s day.
Remember that it was due to india largely that Britain pulled itself up from being a poor, dirty, gin-filled outlier in the early 1700s to the richest state in Europe in the early 1800s. The industrial revolution and a captive supplier (Indian mines, cotton farms, farms etc had to sell to England only) and captive market (India had to buy from England only) made London rich
Vietnam was nowhere near as pivotal to the French.
Algeria comes close to the pivotal nature
The French lost badly tot he Japanese and then after WWII, instead of starting the process for Vietnamese independence to Ho Chi Minh (who wasn't quite communist yet), they thought they could traipse back as lord colonizers.
Then they sucked in the USA
In contrast the British knew when to leave.
He's a showman.
you are right that India has not found France to be a trustworthy partner and you are right that they would be better served elsewhere
In my opinion Macron's charm offensive will be listened to politely and then the Indians will do their own thing - mixing and matching with various other states
I know for a fact that Indian businesses are doing a combination of four things right now:
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