‘A financier is a pawnbroker with imagination,’ claimed Arthur Wing Pinero in his 1893 play The Second Mrs Tanqueray.
‘A financier is a pawnbroker with imagination,’ claimed Arthur Wing Pinero in his 1893 play The Second Mrs Tanqueray. His work may be rarely seen in the West End these days, but his words are enjoying a revival in the City. Earlier this week financiers found the imagination to invest £49 million in the flotation of a modern-day pawnbroker. Where once the Square Mile mantra was to profit from ‘other people’s money’, it is now about profiting from their lack of it.
Debt is a growth sector of the UK stock market, in line with the growth in consumer borrowing. Since 1997 personal debt has more than doubled to almost £1.2 trillion. This has been fuelled not only by the housing market — non-mortgage borrowing has risen 120 per cent to £192 billion, though this is not always the problem that tabloid editors suggest.
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