The FTSE Fights on: Discourses of the City, the Stock Market and the Economy

Abstract

This chapter analyses Second World War discourses that discussed London’s defiance through analogies of the City and the economy. The current discourse on bankers and the City — since the credit crunch, banking crisis, subsequent recession and government austerity programme — provides an interesting contrast to some of the discourses after 7 July. Since then, City traders have often been heavily criticised and held responsible for the economic crisis (Kelsey, 2014a; Philo, 2012). I have argued that they now reflect the paradoxical traits of trickster mythology in the coverage they receive as immoral, foolish and reckless figures who are disconnected from the lives and values of the general public (Kelsey, 2014a). However, after the 2005 bombings (just two years before the credit crunch of 2007), there was a discourse that celebrated the status of City traders and used them as a metaphor for British spirit and defiance, favouring a particular view of the City that conformed to the archetypal mythological conventions of Blitz mythology. The stock market remaining relatively unaffected by the bombings became a metaphorical symbol for the resilience of London under attack. The City symbolically endorsed a mythological ‘victim as hero’ (Lule, 2001) status with the stock market’s resurgence following signs of an initial crash after the bombings.