Newsletter Feb 2007: Wall Street set to decline unless public policy changes

NEW YORK – Anxiety over the declining competitiveness of US capital markets touched a new intensity in late January with the publication of yet another report, and dire warnings about the consequences if corrective action is not taken. This latest report,* released by Senator Charles Schumer and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, suggested the city could lose its status as a global financial market without a major shift in public policy. Schumer and Bloomberg, together with New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, warned that New York financial markets, stifled by stringent regulations, and high litigation risks, are in danger of losing businesses and high-skilled workers to overseas competitors, relegating today’s largest financial centre in the world to regional market status, and adversely impacting the U.S. economy.