The UK: The Sick Man of Europe and the demise of family businesses

In 1920 the Economist JM Keynes wrote about the last days of La Belle Epoque, a war-free period of unprecedented globalization and economic growth that occurred in Europe from 1870 to 1914: “The inhabitant of London,” Keynes wrote, “Could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth.” This type of fortunate and self-assured Londoner “regarded this state of affairs as normal, certain and permanent”.