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Britain is world's new financial top dog
One U.S. dollar and one U.K. pound bank note
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TEXT OF STORY
Bill Radke: In a new report, Britain has pulled ahead of the U.S. as the world's most financially-developed country. Marketplace European correspondent Stephen Beard has more.
Stephen Beard The World Economic Forum has named Britain as the world's top dog in finance. This in spite of the damage caused by the crisis.
Damien Rees of the Daily Telegraph in London says the forum is looking beyond the crisis. It is taking into account the breadth, scale and sophistication of financial services that countries have to offer.
DAMIEN REES: There's a huge foreign exchange, there's a huge derivatives industry here. They're run very successfully, they're world leaders. And that's why Britain has overtaken the United States as the world's most developed financial nation.
He says the U.S. has sunk into third place because it has been hit disproportionately hard by the weakness of its investment banks. Australia -- which is still benefiting from the commodities boom -- came second ahead of the U.S.
In London this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace
I agree - the UK Banks are said to be, basically, bankrupt. But I don't think your situation is anywhere dismal. The measures put in place by your government seem to have been very good given the limited room to move. The byline "Britain has pulled ahead of the U.S." is more accurately "The US slipped below the UK." The implication that the good results for Australian are built on the comodities boom are too simplistic to be taken seriously. Our banking sector is almost untouched by the stupidity that afflicted much of the developed world. And the government of the day seems to have made the best choices, though admittedly it probably had a wider range of these to choose from - but that is only due to earlier smarts.
