Since the financial collapse of 2000, the ‘flat white economy’—named after the coffee popular with young workers of media, internet and creative businesses—has spawned four times more jobs than the City lost in the crisis. London is now growing one and a half times faster than Hong Kong as a result, with immigration a driving force behind this triumph of lifestyle and economics.
Leading economist Douglas McWilliams describes how this meteoric success, centred on East London where a growing ‘hipster’ community has swapped the City’s champagne and supercars lifestyle for bicycles, boho flats and beards, has become the prototype for digital cities around the world.
The Flat White Economy is the key book you need to read on London’s economy today, written by an expert in his field. Easily accessible and well written, it will appeal to fans of Stephen J. Dubner’s and Steven Levitt’s Freakonomics and Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail.
