City of tour

1. St. Paul’s Cathedral

● Welcome to the Occupy London Tour of England’s smallest city! ● We start off at the home of the 2011-2012 Occupy encampment… ● ...and find out a little about what the Church authorities were thinking when the camp was evicted

2. Temple Bar

● We head over to the original site of the Occupy camp: the ... ● ...and learn about the rituals that mark the boundary between the and Greater London (and a little about an eighteenth century barmaid’s journey through high society!)

3. St Paul’s Cross

● Time to use your imagination, and jump back in time to the thirteenth century, and learn about the old wooden St Paul’s Cathedral, and an ancient tradition of direct democracy in the heart of the City. ● But it’s also where we learn about the first efforts to wrest power away from the people and into the hands of a few closeted elites. ● And it’s also where we prepare to play ‘Spot-the-Tax-Dodger’...

4. St Mary-le-Bow

● At St Mary-le-Bow we dive into some London folklore. There’s a little bit of pantomime, but mostly gore (and debt!) ● We introduce one of London’s unsung rebels, William ‘Longbeard’ FitzOsman, who came to sticky end when he challenged the City’s elites in 1196.

5. Royal Exchange

● At the Royal Exchange we introduce Thomas Gresham, who brought the lessons he learned in back to London in the sixteenth century and founded the first ‘bourse’ or stock exchange, kick-starting London’s financial history.

6. Lloyd’s of London /

● The Lloyd’s insurance market now stands on the old site of the East India Company, but was originally established in a coffee shop in the 1680s, before spending some time in the Royal Exchange. ● While at the Royal Exchange, Lloyd’s came up with the shipping insurance contract that made the slave trade possible, made casting slaves overboard profitable, and made fortunes for the founders of many banking dynasties, like the Barings. ● And the East India Company has come back to haunt us too!

7.

● Here we learn about the origins of the Bank (and of the national debt) in the War of Spanish Succession ● Plus, we talk about the Bank’s recent admission that modern money is created, as debt, by private commercial banks (and that most textbooks get it wrong!) ● And we talk about why that matters for inequality and the housing crisis in the UK today

8. City of London Corporation

● For those of you with ambition, you’ll need to pay close attention to the Occupy London Tours Guide to Becoming Lord Mayor. ● Learn how to become a Freeman, an Alderman, and a Sheriff, and then (if you’re lucky, and probably male), Lord Mayor. It’s a good job if you can get it - you preside over the only local government body in the UK whose finances are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act!

9. University of Chicago

● The European outpost of the influential Booth Business School stands not far from the City of London Corporation, and we learn about how the ideology of Chicago School economists influenced the way the City has been governed since the 1980s. ● Plus, we look at one of the biggest economic debates of the twentieth century - between followers of JM Keynes, and Chicago’s own Milton Friedman. ● We look at how Chicago School policies have contributed to growing inequality, and the financial dark arts that triggered the crisis.

10. TheCityUK

● Discreetly tucked down a side road, TheCityUK is the City of London’s lobbying arm. Launched in the wake of the crisis to restore the reputation of the financial sector, TheCityUK also spend much of their time pushing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which could lead to less regulation for London-based banks operating in the US. ● And while it’s aim is to restore the City’s reputation, TheCityUK is no stranger to scandal itself: former head of HSBC Private Banking Holdings (Suisse) - also later the Minister for Trade & Investment - the Reverend Lord Stephen Green recently stepped down from its board in the wake of the HSBC tax scandal...

11. Deutsche Bank

● Following the lead of the 2011 Senate inquiry into the financial crisis, we’re taking Deautsche Bank as our case study of reckless derivatives trading in the run-up to the crisis ● We explain a little about Collateralized Debt Obligations and their role in the housing crisis, and take a look at the role played by pricing models developed by some Chicago School economists ● Plus (obviously), we all get involved in covering a 1980s hip-hop ‘classic’

12. Royal Bank of Scotland

● We end the tour at the Royal Bank of Scotland - involved in so many scandals that C4 economics editor Paul Mason is sick of the sight of it ● But this also marks the boundary between the City and Tower Hamlets - if you’re born across that boundary, your life expectancy drops by ten years compared to the City. Tower Hamlets is a borough where one in every two children is born into poverty, one of the hardest hit by the crisis. We encourage you to challenge austerity policies that make the poorest bear the brunt of the excesses of the wealthy. Visit h​ttp://occupytours.org/resources-links/ ​for some ideas.