Amid all the gloom of a gathering depression and a bout of deflation, is London still the financial capital of the world?

It may not be a useful question to ask especially since all the others have been affected in the same way, and Wall Street practically wiped out.

However, here’s a little bit of nostalgia from this site showing how it was just a few short months ago:

In a survey of financial executives by the Global Financial Centres Index, London scored well ahead of its rivals, and even extended its lead.

London did better than New York on an array of topics, including personnel, business environment, market access, facilities and competitiveness.

The City scored 806 out of 1000, compared with nearest rival New York’s 787. Trailing behind came Hong Kong, Singapore, Zurich and Frankfurt.

Again London is reaffirmed as the world’s financial capital.

You couldn’t make it up.

In a survey of financial executives by the Global Financial Centres Index, London scored well ahead of its rivals, and even extended its lead.

London did better than New York on an array of topics, including personnel, business environment, market access, facilities and competitiveness.

The City scored 806 out of 1000, compared with nearest rival New York’s 787. Trailing behind came Hong Kong, Singapore, Zurich and Frankfurt.

Again London is reaffirmed as the world’s financial capital.

The London Stock Exchange retained its number one spot as the world’s most successful borse in the first half of the year.

A report from Dealogic gives the LSE initial public offerings worth £16.8bn ($34bn), compared with New York’s £15.1bn ($31bn). Hong Kong trailed in third place with just £7.4bn despite its proximity to the burgeoning Chinese growth engine.

With reports that this bonanza may have peaked, especially from Russia, Michael Long, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette and Woods, said : “There is a concern that a lot of the Russian listing is a bit bubbly.”

However, he didn’t see much sign of New York improving its relative market share on IPOs. “It’s cheaper to do them here, regulations are less complicated and strenuous, and they argue there’s a bigger international investor base here than in the U.S.”

The good times continue.

The new edition of New York Magazine asks, is New York falling behind London?

As I wrote over in Syntagma, “Certainly the City — London’s world-class financial centre — is much more vibrant than Wall Street, which is suffering the dead hand of Sarbanes-Oxley regulation. The light-touch, principle-based system of the Square Mile knocks spots off New York’s draconian regime. This, almost alone, allowed the London Stock Exchange to survive a ferocious takeover bid from New York’s Nasdaq recently, simply by pointing out to shareholders that it was in a much better financial position than the American exchange. That kind of insouciance can’t be bought, only built. Very English.”

The magazine also asks, Are we no longer the world’s financial capital?