Olympics only give host's economy a short-term boost

As Londoners prepare for a two-week-long festival of queuing, mostly in the rain, and getting struck in traffic and on the over-crowded tube trains (otherwise known as the London 2012 Olympics), Goldman Sachs has looked into the economics of the event.

They found that stock markets of recent hosts have outperformed in the year after the Games, local houses prices have tended to rise and that dictators award the most valuable medals.