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The slightly fanciful notion that London has replaced New York as the centre of the financial universe is about to be knocked sideways.
When the downturn kicks in - and it's hardly begun yet - the City will shrink more rapidly than Wall Street, as big American banks and the hedge funds we have been trained to regard as glamorous return home or shut up shop.
The claim that London had edged ahead should have been a clear sign that trouble was brewing, but in truth it never made much sense anyway.
The commentators who got so excited by the idea of booming London seemed to base their argument on the fact that the City has lately been a more popular place for big companies to float than New York.
In practice, this seemed to mean that Kazakhstani mining companies came here which would not have been welcome in New York anyway. They now sit on the London Stock Exchange serving little purpose other than to keep the FTSE 100 looking misleadingly healthy.
A simple comparison of the attitude in the two cities would tell you that London was always the insecure younger brother.
Dealers in London sit on their hands every day as the opening of the Dow Jones approaches, waiting to see what the Americans do before they make their next bet.
No one in New York is watching the FTSE for signs of direction - its movements don't even merit mention on the financial TV shows that run all day.
On Wall Street, footsie is the beginning of a process that leads to your secretary filing a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Many Wall Street bankers have transferred to London in the last few years, but they tend not to be the top players, and they come expecting a bigger role than they had in the US.
On Wall Street, Bob Diamond of Barclays is just another one of those guys. Even his catchy name wouldn't be enough to get him into the gossip pages.
Here, he's the most famous, most highly-paid banker in town. Back home, contemporaries probably make jokes at his salary - £27 million? For a whole year's work? Are you freelancing on the side?
So far we've seen only a few dribs of the job-cut announcements we can expect from the multi-national banks, and London seems likely to bear the brunt.
When they announce these cuts, the banks often refuse to offer breakdowns by region or claim it hasn't yet been decided, but this is hard to believe.
And there's no political comeback for UBS or Credit Suisse in firing Londoners.
In theory, it's a global economy. In practice, globalisation was a nice word as long as it suited the bosses. The flip side of us letting foreign companies in to boost the economy is that they have no compunction about heading home when times turn bad.
John Thain, the former Goldman Sachs chief who now runs Merrill Lynch, was born in Britain but has spent almost his whole life in America. Wall Street is where's it's at as far as he is concerned.
If the how many is decided, the who is still up for debate and the scramble is on. The next few months could see a truly heroic amount of back-stabbing, conniving and gossip-mongering at firms across town.
Did you hear Steven had treatment for depression? And Richard is definitely having an affair.
New York is over its worst crisis - 9/11 and the ensuing collapse of Enron et al - while London's could be just beginning. Sleep tight.
Bank on Snoop's business savvy
Royal Bank of Scotland desperately needs to beef up its board and I have just the man.
In theory Snoop Dogg is a rabble-rousing, drug-dealing pimp who wants your children to break the law, but this has always been a brilliant disguise for what he really is: an excellent entrepreneur who has made millions from selling the idea of himself.
Snoop is in the news again after seeing a ban on entering the UK lifted. A judge has ruled that the rapper had in fact behaved impeccably during a brawl at an airport lounge in 2006, which is of course what you would expect from such a thoughtful business leader.
Snoop took the usual opportunity to make remarks designed to scare parents - promoting the book, the film and the CD of the outrageous character he has created in the process.
Snoopy (real name: Cordozar Calvin Broadus) was playing piano in public at age five. Later he married his childhood sweetheart, with whom he has two children. If you find yourself listening to one of his songs and don't get it, you probably aren't supposed to. And if you find his remarks on drugs outrageous, remember that his real idea of entertainment is playing golf or watching tennis - just like all proper non-executive directors.
Snoop has always been more than just a singer - he's a spotter of trends in everything from clothes to technology. He was monetising his website back when most companies were still wondering if this internet thing would catch on.
You can bet Snoop would have advised Sir Fred Goodwin against the disastrous £57 billion purchase of ABN Amro. Mr Dogg probably saw the credit crunch coming and adjusted his portfolio accordingly.
If parents and newspapers ever work out that Snoop is mostly kidding, his business might be in trouble, but there seems little danger of that. And if Snoopy ever floats his empire, the shares would be a raging buy.
The HBOS 'rogues' were being too kind
It was a modern-day bank robbery. A sinister attack on one of our most vital institutions. A ruthless attempt to drive down HBOS shares by spreading false rumours that the bank could be the next victim of the credit crunch.
The Bank of England got involved and HBOS was briefing furiously - call the cops, these rogue traders must be stopped. This one-day wonder in mid-March saw HBOS shares fall 17% to 398p at the lowest.
Now HBOS is going to the City to raise £4 billion from a rights issue priced at £2.75 a share - in other words, the rogues and their malicious rumours were, if anything, underestimating the situation.
So the FSA can now drop its entirely farcical "investigation" into these supposedly criminal investors and find proper work. The short sellers should think about coming into the open and suing for defamation.
