Talking with a friend at Citigroup last night, he agreed fully that London is now the financial center of the world. I’ve known for a while that AIM has outstripped NASDAQ in IPO numbers, but hadn’t fully appreciated that more was raised publicly here than in NY (via TechCrunch UK):
London has already surpassed New York in terms of IPOs. According to the article, this year, through September $33.6 billion (US) was raised in London compared to $26.5 billion (US) raised in New York and London is predicted to beat New York again in 2007.
It’s the US’s fault that London is taking over, and as my friend quipped last night- “if the costs associated with being public in the US aren’t bad enough, you still have the “Bush Factor”- which might mean your assets are frozen at a whim.”
It’s also of interest that London is the center of venture activity for both the UK and the EU- something like NY and Silicon Valley combined…
Jason Ball 
Thanks Jason did not realise I was on your blogroll !
Yes, I put all the UK VCs in my blogroll (ok, I know you’re in Paris these days, but Paul is in M&A, so I haven’t kept strict guidelines)
Glad you guys are around to link to!