There is a lot as well that is outside the Fed’s purview that could have been done to make the U.S. economy perform better. This includes tax reform, job retraining programs and infrastructure investment. So, what can we do to bolster global growth in the future? The first is to undertake the necessary structural reforms to make our economies more efficient. Productivity growth is not preordained. The steps we take as countries to eliminate and lessen bottlenecks and improve our human and physical capital are important. The second is to ensure that our financial systems are well-functioning. Tremendous progress has been made globally in 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  implementing higher capital and liquidity standards post-crisis. But we still see some important banking systems impaired by bad loans, low profitability and inadequate capital. The population aging in the developed world does imply that, purely from the productive factor side, less of the global growth contribution is likely to come from Japan, Europe and the United States. And economies like China are likely to continue to slow as their per capita income increases and they make the transition from investment-to consumption-led growth. But this doesn’t imply a bad outcome. There are many other countries with tremendous potential for growth in areas such as Africa, Asia, and South America. Take, for example, the surge in growth that we are seeing out of India. I am an optimist. To a large degree we do control our destiny. It is up to us to seize those opportunities.
On scale first, a recent estimate put the total number employed in “City” jobs, including supporting professions like lawyers and accountants as well as bankers and asset managers, at around 340,000. That amounts to about 9% of the total in London; significant but still lower than the number in distribution or in government services. And the growth of employment will continue to be the net result from the expansion of activity and from the economies made possible by IT and by the relocation particularly of back office work to cheaper areas elsewhere in the UK or abroad. The jobs figures understate the importance of the sector in the economy because on average pay may be twice as high in the financial sector as in the rest of the economy; 9% of wages and salaries in the year to March compared to 4% of employment. And within London its share is even greater. The average earnings of someone working in London’s financial intermediation sector in 2006 were around £ On that basis, the financial sector might account for around 20% of remuneration in London. However it is still far from the only game in town. For example the Work Foundation’s fascinating new report on the creative industries suggests that their growth has contributed at least as much as the City to London’s overall performance. Moreover, while the trend is upwards, there is a marked cycle in the financial sector.