The Biggest International Financial Centre in the World Faces Its Toughest Test（节选)

全球最大的国际金融中心面临最严峻的挑战（节选)

　　The City’s history is long but serpentine. In 1873 Walter Bagehot, The Economist’s then-editor, wrote of its “natural pre-eminence”. In fact decades of decline lay ahead. A revival began in the 1960s when the offshore market for dollar lending boomed. Another lift came with the stockmarket deregulation of Big Bang in 1986 and again after 2000 when London became a centre for trading the euro and emerging markets. Even the financial crisis of 2008 did not do much damage to the City’s standing abroad. Today the magic formula has many parts: openness to people and capital, the time zone, proximity to subsea data cables, and posh schools. But, above all, it relies on stable politics and regulation, close ties to America and seamless ones to Europe. Brexit and Mr Corbyn threaten this formula in three ways.

　　The first is by ripping up the legal framework, as the EU cancels the “passports” that let City firms operate across the continent. Activity may move in search of certainty. The second is by the remaining 27 EU members adopting an industrial policy that uses regulation to compel financial firms to move to the euro zone. As Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris jostle for business, this fight is turning ugly. And the last is from within Britain – if a Corbyn government takes the country back decades, with nationalisation at below-market prices, a financial-transactions tax, a tough line on mergers and acquisitions and possibly even capital controls. If a Labour government also attacks private schools and second homes, London’s giant pools of capital will disappear faster than a trader’s cocktail.

　　Given the sums at stake – London hosts $20trn of bank assets and securities – you might expect a grand bargain between the EU and its financial hub. Some chance. Britain has spurned the option of staying in the single market. A bespoke deal for financial services is not on the table because the EU is loth to grant special favours to a departing country. It is as if New York and Wall Street were divorcing America without any agreement. Thanks to temporary licences, the risk of a financial crisis on Brexit day is slim. But these arrangements will not last long – the deal over derivatives, say, expires next year.

　　点击查看讲义辅导资料及网校课程

　　口译：翻译资格考试三级口译模拟题 翻译资格考试二级口译模拟题 翻译资格考试一级口译模拟题

　　笔译：翻译资格考试三级笔译模拟题 翻译资格考试二级笔译模拟题 翻译资格考试一级笔译模拟题

　　资料来源中华考试网校乔宏轩老师主讲教材精讲班课程，完整讲义下载进入个人中心>>

　　　　下载焚题库APP——翻译资格考试——题库——做题，包括章节练习、每日一练、模拟试卷、历年真题、易错题等，可随时随地刷题。【在线做题>>】【下载APP掌上刷题】

　　翻译资格考试复习有问题？不知道怎么高效备考？加入考试群760421514和考生一起交流信息。