伦敦能保住全球金融中心的地位吗？

    然而，卡梅伦这次动用否决权还有一个更深层的缘由——英国在世界上地位的不断下降，早已让英国政坛上下颇为不满。英国依然拥有世界级的机构、公司和文化，但除了金融服务之外，这个拥有6,000万人口的国家竟然拿不出任何主导性出口产品。现在似乎正形成一个共识：倘若卡梅伦同意缔结“财政契约”（这个契约缺乏具体的细节，重新谈判的时间或许将延续数月之久，甚至有可能持续好几年），那么在争取伦敦方面试图获得的事物时，他或许会处于一个更有利的位置。

    然而，虽然卡梅伦的这项举动已经导致英法关系趋于紧张，但这或许只是整个危机的一个旁白而已。在镜头面前，默克尔、萨科齐和卡梅伦都摆出一副笑容可掬的模样，并且在本周公开宣称将英国纳入欧盟框架之内的重要意义。这很可能代表着一个坚硬的现实：倘若欧元分崩离析，英国经济由此承受的苦痛将远远大于金融监管逐渐加强对其造成的伤害。

    那么，伦敦的那些金融家们将来会怎么样呢？

    其中的许多人已经感受到了影响。经济和商业研究中心（Centre for Economics and Business Research）发布的报告显示，伦敦约有2.7万名金融从业者在今年失去了工作。鉴于这一环境，相比于对监管的担忧，大多数人现在更加担心的是银行破产。

    无论欧元区发生什么情况，金融城或者说金丝雀码头，似乎不可能就这么凋谢下去。“伦敦填补了亚洲交易日结束后与美国交易日开始前这个时间缝隙，这是一项无可比拟的优势，而且它还是一个使用英语的市场，”一位基金经理人说。“我今年挣的钱不如2006年多，但我还能去哪儿？”

    译者：任文科

    Cameron's veto, however, also represents a broader source of British political discontentment—one that stems from the UK's steadily declining place in the world. England still has world-class institutions, companies, and culture, but it's a country of 60 million without any major export except financial services. A consensus now seems to be forming that if Cameron had agreed to move forward with the "fiscal compact" -- which has few concrete details and will likely continue to be renegotiated for months, if not years -- he might have been in a better position to get what London wants.

    Still, his veto, which stoked the tension between the French and the British, might prove to be an aside of this entire crisis. Merkel, Sarkozy, and Cameron all smiled for cameras and publically proclaimed this week the importance of having Britain in the EU. This may well represent the blunt reality that a dissolution of the euro would be much more painful for the British economy than incremental increases of financial regulation.

    And what does the future hold for London's bankers?

    Already, many of them have caught the hook. Around 27,000 people working in finance in London have lost their jobs this year, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Given the environment, fears of regulation now commonly play second fiddle to more fundamental fears of insolvency.

    And whatever happens in the eurozone, it seems unlikely that the City or Canary Wharf will simply fade. "London has the benefit of the end of Asia's trading day, the opening of America's trading day, and a market in English," says one fund manager. "I make less money now than I did in 2006, but where else would I go?