Threats

There is an enduring myth that as long as a country is rich with natural resources than everything will be ok. Sadly, that is all it is. A myth.
For the wealth of nations depends not on how much "stuff" can be found in the land, but on how productive the people, the industries and economies are.
Thus, we see that countries like Nigeria are rich in oil, but due to low productivity, these countries are extremely poor.

So how do people, industries, and economies become productive? They do so by competing. When someone is out to have your lunch, there is an incentive to do things better, faster and cheaper. It was ever thus.

This week marks "Big Bang" in The City of London. That brave decision on October the 27th 1986 to open London's financial markets to foreign competition. The City was raided by foreign firms led by the Americans and it resulted in London becoming a global financial powerhouse today. The City dominates world forex trading, its share of over the counter derivatives has risen from 27% in 1995 to 43% in 2004, and a fifth of the world's hedge fund assets are managed out of London(80% of Europes hedge fund assets are managed in The City). Of a more qualitative progression, The Economist has this to say:

"The City, long notorious as a stuffy place where the old school tie mattered more than talent, became more meritocratic....The new financial aristocrats don't wear old school ties. Many don't wear ties at all. People have brought talents and tastes from the four corners of the globe. The ethos is American: what you know matters more than who you know."

It is a counterintuitive truth (at least to those of us who are non-economists), but to prosper, it appears that we have to open ourselves up to threats.