Not so. Far from it. There is a building boom in London, both in the City and in the Westend. There is an air of confidence. New found I was told, but there nonetheless. London is open for business. To a large extent, London is its own economy, and is not a proxy for the rest of the UK.
Berlin, more sedate, provincial even (especially the airport), but since I was there to observe the elections to the Bundestag, and call on old friends, it didn't matter. What struck me about Berlin (I had not been there for several years) was the amount of building and the style of the building. In Berlin Mitte, Prussian Berlin is being reconstructed from original materials stone by recovered stone. The communist demolishers recorded where they sent the post-war rubble. In Potsdam, the Stadtschloss is finished and looks just like the original. In West Berlin, the style of the late 19th/early 20th century, complete with ornamentation and gold leaf, is making a comeback. So is Albert Speer if you look at one the new hotels.
Paris, frenetic, and in deal making mode. Which we did. Similarly Singapore.
There are two things that struck me back here in Brisbane: the clear air and the number of properties for lease, rent and sale. I did not see this anywhere else in the parts of the cities where I was (perhaps the air was not as clear!).
My first read of the Weekend Australian told me why (5-6th October, p.16). John Black is an insightful statistician and demographer. He concludes : "Our labour market is now increasingly unemployed, under-employed, under-utilised or discouraged, and vulnerable....." I have written before that Australia was following the European road. That reality will dawn over the next few months as truth comes out. Australia is likely to enter a period of low growth just as the major Northern European economies are regaining confidence.
As John Black writes: "Cheers, Tony, It's all yours."
David Millhouse is an international entrepreneur with over 30 years in venture capital and private equity internationally. Based in Brisbane, Australia he is a specialist in venture financing and capitalisation, as well as the management of high growth companies, many of which proceed to IPO. He has conducted business in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. A scientist by original profession, with an MBA and LLM from Bond University in Australia. He is a trustee of Bond University, Australia’s premier private University, and was formerly a trustee of the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art. There are 30 years of publications and media on his professional activities and he has had a stellar career at CEO level since 1983.