Above: Yesterday the turmoil in the markets continued.
Towards the end of the working day I was visiting a client at Canary Wharf (yes I am visiting clients once again). It was a long meeting that went on until nearly six. Afterwards I took one of the express lifts down to the ground floor, and instead of turning right into the station I went through the marble Reception and out into the open air (the first time I have done this at Canary Wharf).
Above: outside the hush of the tower, I heard the agitated sound of a crowd. Looking down from the steps I saw thousands (no exaggeration) of financial people standing in the balmy evening at the open air bars that overlook the old docks. All of them had drinks in their hands and were talking, talking, talking.
Above: I walked a little distance away and turned back to take this photograph of the Canary Wharf tower. The proud tower stood, Tuchman-like, in the last rays of the golden sun. A moving (in the physical sense, although it would also have for some people emotional implications) red digital display on a nearby building reported nemesis in the form of final stock prices.
Above: other parts of the financial city were almost deserted. The sun slipped away leaving the landscape in a twilight of the gods. I knew I needed to hurry to get my train, and yet I also wanted to see the ending of this infamous day and record it as best I could.
Above: how much wealth has evaporated today from Canary Wharf?
On the crowded DLR train back to Bank I stood next to a man in his fifties talking into his mobile ’phone:
“Just finished, not like you part-time traders… I can’t even begin to tell you how bad it’s been. I don’t know where to start. Well, I DO know where to start – I’ll start with a pint so have one ready when I get there… He sat next to me all day. He was punch drunk. All he did all day was read out the falling prices…”
This was the music going through my mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20RldhK9354&feature=related (the Nibelungen obsession with their golden treasure drove them mad and brought about their gotterdamerung).
Barabara Tuchman’s Proud Tower: http://www.amazon.com/Proud-Tower-Portrait-Before-1890-1914/dp/0345405013
2 comments:
driving yesterday between town, village and city, passing through countryside so familiar, I had such a strong sense of 'let this never change'..I passed a tractor sailing slowly up and down a field, and as I drove past the horses, cattle and trees in the neighbouring fields, the light was so magical I wanted so badly to stop the car and just look at it all...my little digital camera was left unused as I knew that no photograph could capture what I was really seeing......
But you've captured it in words!
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