WP, pg1: London's New Super-Rich

[DeepModem Mom]

For London's New Super-Rich, No Whim Need Go Unfulfilled
By Mary Jordan and Karla Adam
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 8, 2007; Page A01


"Le Prêtre Marié," by surrealist René Magritte, sold last month at Christie's auction house in London for about $10 million, far above the estimates. (By Matt Dunham -- Associated Press)

LONDON -- They call themselves "the haves and the have yachts": rich London bankers and traders who drop tens of thousands of dollars for an evening of cocktails and hire "personal concierges" to get their girlfriends dresses like those worn by movie stars.

Long a hub for the world's ultra-rich, London has just welcomed an unprecedented number of newcomers into those ranks. Analysts here estimate that London's financial stars were paid a total of $17 billion in annual bonuses in recent weeks -- including more than 4,200 people who received bonuses of at least $2 million each, on top of salaries already sagging under the weight of zeros....

This has drawn attention from Wall Street, which regards itself as the center of the financial universe and is not unfamiliar with staggering and conspicuous wealth. A January report commissioned by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) concluded that increasingly tight regulation of U.S. financial markets, as well as strict immigration laws, were hurting New York, while rival London, closer to rising giants in Asia and Russia, was becoming more attractive to business and talent.

The swelling number of London's rich means high times for tailors, jewelers and other people whose job is to cater. Personal concierge services -- your whim is their command -- have never been busier. They jump for customers who, for instance, want one of Britain's soccer superstars to report for duty, like a pony, at Junior's birthday party....

***

Rich Russians, Arab sheiks, Indian moguls and other foreigners are among those buying up mansions like cartons of milk. At One Hyde Park, a luxury apartment complex that the British media have dubbed the world's most expensive address, the cheap apartments are going for $40 million and the penthouses are expected to fetch well over $100 million each....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/07/AR2007030702643.html

[MADem]

1. Well, all the money in the world won't stop Father Time... NT