New York as Number One Financial Center

A string of scandals and uncertainty over Britain’s membership in the European Union have led to New York replacing London as the world’s most important financial center.

As Forbes contributor Jesse Colombo explains in This New Libor 'Scandal' Will Cause A Terrifying Financial Crisis, Barclays, UBS, Rabobank, and the Royal Bank of Scotland, among others, conspired to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which banks around the world drew on to determine the interest rates they charged.  It is simply mind boggling (a) to think that this manipulation had gone on since 1991 and (b) to estimate the hundreds of billions of dollars their manipulation added to their coffers.  As for the issues surrounding Britain vis-a-vis the European Union, here is what UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage wittily said: I don't just want Britain to leave the EU; I want Europe to leave the EU.  So the rise of New York as the number one favored financial hub, by scores of finance professionals, may be more of a London backlash than anything.