Does the credit crunch spell an end to the role of New York and London as bankers to the world?

In a splendidly abrasive paper for the central bankers’ talkfest at Jackson Hole last weekend, Willem Buiter of the London School of Economics suggested just that. After lambasting the US Federal Reserve (along with any other central banks loitering within easy reach) for its inept management of the crisis, he threw off a damning verdict on these two great hubs of global finance. Their position, he felt, had been permanently impaired.