NYC: Capital of the World?

[fioco]

I hope this doesn't become a pissing contest. Welcome aboard, nick-taylor. You can be justifiably proud of London's leadership role in the world. The two cities enjoy a remarkable relationship that feeds each other's creativity, in ways I've not observed between other global cities. "Separated by a common language," we somehow manage an intimate relationship, sharing cultural resources (from the West End to Broadway, Covent Garden to the Met, the LSO to Carnegie Hall) all the while pushing each other to be first in line.

Mayor Bloomberg has a residence in London and I believe he was on the board at the Tate Modern. Such examples of global citizenship are common to both cities and indicative of their distinctive leadership role in the world. In many ways we are joined at the hip and create a whole greater than its parts. Artists, scientists, and business people frequently hop the pond for cross pollination and even outright mating. Many of our achievements are shared efforts. Even our failures and follies are often shared in common.

London's professional symphony orchestras are the envy of the world, as are New York's collections of modern art. For a while London's West End kept Broadway on life support; while New York's dance scene is a magnet that spills its riches into the outer Boroughs with young talent from throughout the world. Instead of a score card I recommend a dance card. Some steps London knows best and is a capable teacher. Others steps are best improvised like American jazz and the fresh upstarts take the stage.

As we bash each other over the head with statistics, maps, anecdotes, and sheer force of will, I hope all of us are able to stand back and appreciate the energy, creativity and leadership these two cities offer to the world. One would be poorer without the other. And the world would be sadly lacking.

[Fabrizio]

When I moved to Italy 23 years ago, the TV seemed to 90 percent American movies and TV serials. It was American music everywhere. Everyone wanted to see NYC and California. Today the kids here don´t care much about the US. There´s not much of an "American dream" dream left. This country has created it´s own media stars of TV and pop music. The kids go to American films mostly to see the special effects ( Star Wars, Spiderman, Batman)... not to absorb the "American lifestyle" as their parents did seeing American films after the war. The kids want to know what´s going on in Milan, they want the latest stuff by Dolce & Gabanna.... the American college students here look dorky to them and the American tourists look clownishly fat. Is Nike American? Or is it just another cool global brand? Italians (like Americans) have no "Made in America" stuff.... because hardly anything cool is made there anymore. GM, Ford and Chrysler can´t give away there cars here. Jeep was a desirable brand for a while, but that icon too is not what it once was. They do love Harley´s though. NY might still be the "World´s Capital" as far as Forbes 500 companies go... but the mythic NY of legend that shaped modern world culture ...of abstract expessionism, pop art, of Jazz and Harlem, freedom and personal rights, of the Village, of Soho and Lower East Side as a creative center etc, etc. ... that´s all a thing of the past... replaced with what?

[Ninjahedge]

Fab, here's the irony of that statement.


You want to know why most American brands are not popular anymore? It is because the Americans do not find them chic anymore.

The mere fact that the culture that people tried to imitate years ago is now more in favor of some europen styles on the runway and on the club scene is reason enough to see why the people of those regions are starting to go back to their own styles.


And the other thing to remember is that people are PEOPLE. Every school I have been too has always looked at foreign students with a certain critical note. College is still an era of posturing and position, being foreign can be a boon or curse depending on how it is played.

And as for tourists, I have seen a few bumbling wide-eyed peeps from other countries over here as well.


So we all bear the bane of being judged on the small percentage of people that the rest of the world sees most often.

[ryan]

New York is still the "capital" of the art world - even more so now that the value of the dollar is down...

that said, nyc egotism is boring - a global media world is decentralized, regardless of where the media is actually created. nothing else to talk about?

When I moved to Italy 23 years ago, the TV seemed to 90 percent American movies and TV serials. It was American music everywhere. Everyone wanted to see NYC and California. Today the kids here don´t care much about the US. There´s not much of an "American dream" dream left. This country has created it´s own media stars of TV and pop music. The kids go to American films mostly to see the special effects ( Star Wars, Spiderman, Batman)... not to absorb the "American lifestyle" as their parents did seeing American films after the war. The kids want to know what´s going on in Milan, they want the latest stuff by Dolce & Gabanna.... the American college students here look dorky to them and the American tourists look clownishly fat. Is Nike American? Or is it just another cool global brand? Italians (like Americans) have no "Made in America" stuff.... because hardly anything cool is made there anymore. GM, Ford and Chrysler can´t give away there cars here. Jeep was a desirable brand for a while, but that icon too is not what it once was. They do love Harley´s though. NY might still be the "World´s Capital" as far as Forbes 500 companies go... but the mythic NY of legend that shaped modern world culture ...of abstract expessionism, pop art, of Jazz and Harlem, freedom and personal rights, of the Village, of Soho and Lower East Side as a creative center etc, etc. ... that´s all a thing of the past... replaced with what?

[alex ballard]

When I moved to Italy 23 years ago, the TV seemed to 90 percent American movies and TV serials. It was American music everywhere. Everyone wanted to see NYC and California. Today the kids here don´t care much about the US. There´s not much of an "American dream" dream left. This country has created it´s own media stars of TV and pop music. The kids go to American films mostly to see the special effects ( Star Wars, Spiderman, Batman)... not to absorb the "American lifestyle" as their parents did seeing American films after the war. The kids want to know what´s going on in Milan, they want the latest stuff by Dolce & Gabanna.... the American college students here look dorky to them and the American tourists look clownishly fat. Is Nike American? Or is it just another cool global brand? Italians (like Americans) have no "Made in America" stuff.... because hardly anything cool is made there anymore. GM, Ford and Chrysler can´t give away there cars here. Jeep was a desirable brand for a while, but that icon too is not what it once was. They do love Harley´s though. NY might still be the "World´s Capital" as far as Forbes 500 companies go... but the mythic NY of legend that shaped modern world culture ...of abstract expessionism, pop art, of Jazz and Harlem, freedom and personal rights, of the Village, of Soho and Lower East Side as a creative center etc, etc. ... that´s all a thing of the past... replaced with what?

Maybe it's becasue you all hate America.

[ryan]

Maybe it's becasue you all hate America.

The "freedom fries" argument is even more boring. Not worshipping the US is not the same as hating it. Read up on some basic logic.

[Ninjahedge]

You notice Alex is a bit combattive too, don't you.

Alex, he is not insulting America. Pleas READ what people say and UNDERSTAND it before you alienate people that are actually sympathetic to a lot of things you are.

Your xenophobia, as in the other post "go to China", is quite insulting and says nothing of your observational abilities. You are insulting yourself more than you are those you seek to denigrate.

If you want a fight, please keep it on the schoolyard and off the forum.

[ryan]

You are insulting yourself more than you are those you seek to denigrate.

I would have said he is embarassing himself. I generally avoid trolls, but sometimes I let myself get sucked in...

[Ninjahedge]

I would have said he is embarassing himself. I generally avoid trolls, but sometimes I let myself get sucked in...

You just wanted an opportunity to site "Freedom Fries" before the reference no longer holds any salt...

[ryan]

You just wanted an opportunity to site "Freedom Fries" before the reference no longer holds any salt...

groan... actually, this brought a smile to my pre-coffee face. bad puns are so good.

[Ninjahedge]

What pun?

[bkmonkey]

in my opinion, what makes New York City the capitol of the world, is a wide array of things. The fact that New York is not the capitol of any paticular nation, rather, the United Nations is a good place to start, the United Nations (despite all the scandals) is the center of world politics, and reasonablly chooses to reside in the city of New York. New York's ethnic diversity is also something to marvel at, practically, every nationallity from around the planet is represented in New York. Culturally New York is above all competition. One may argue that Hollywood makes alot of movies that have a large audience, however, pay closer attention to where those movies are set, a great portion of them are set in New York, or mythical cities which are based on New York (Gotham, Metropolis). In addition, the American media, chooses to center itself in New York, further giving credit to New York's claim as the cultural capitol. New York's cultural institutions and symbols are famous. No matter where you are in the world, when someone mentions 5th avenue, one tends to think shopping, when someone mentions wall st, people tend to think about finance, when someone mentions broadway people think about theater. On New Year's eve it is estimated that 3 billion people watch the ball drop in Times Square, (talk about cultural impact) New York is remains unrivalled. Econmically, New York houses the largest and most influencial stock market in the world, a stock market which bears the city's name. New York is home to a great many of the world's financial institutions and that list is growing (bank of America is building a new headquaters in the city). In addition, New York city has the 16th highest GDP in the world (higher than Russia's), making it one of the most econmically infulencial cities in the world. Lastly, if all of you truly seek the definition of a world city, go to Wikipedia where they list New York and London as the top two world cities. (with an extensive explanation)

[nick-taylor]

Not at all---- NYC's is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges, NYSE and Nasdaq and the world's largest physical commodity exchange, NYMEX. The world's largest financial services company, Citigroup, is also HQ'ed in New York. Look at any world-wide financial news website, and you'll see it centers around the latest news coming out of Wall Street. London has one huge advantage over New York, though---centralization. The United States populous spans an area almost 40X larger than the UK! Yet, NYC is the financial center of the US [and the world, according to most sources]; that gives it an enourmous amount of power. The United States has 200 of the world's largest corporations, and is home to almost half the world's billionaires. The United States also has more millionaires than the entire continent of Europe combined for the first time this year.

Yes since the Big Bang of financial services in the UK in the 1990's, the UK has become the 2nd largest financial centre country on the planet. In 2004 I believe the current balance was that of global financial output, 21% came from the US and 15% came from the UK. Now remember that the US is 5x larger than the UK and that there is more than just New York for finance in the US, as there is Chicago, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, Charlotte, etc... in the UK this market is dominated by London.

New York claims to two largest stock exchanges in the world. London then goes one better and claims the largest currency market in the world which is around 18x larger in daily turnover than the NYSE or equivalent to the entire stock market daily turnover.

On top that though.....and note the figures













And a little table I put together of the world's top 10 largest banks according to Forbes:




I could go on about how the price of gold and silver is set in London, how most metals are traded through London (LME) and how with New York the price of oil is set around the globe. Then there is maritime and aviation insurance, ship brokerage, dispute resolution, ICT, advertising, financial publication, etc... New York in 1980 was the world's foremost financial centre. In 2005 it is now London.

Also London has geography on its side which will only grow stronger with the rapid development of Asia: central location between North America and Asia that means London can trade with New York and Tokyo at the same time.

Also the US having more billionaires and millionaires than a more populous continent doesn't always show the good side of the US. If you had looked at gini-coefficients you would note that the US has the most extreme wealth inequality of any developed country on the planet. This means few people control a majority of the wealth, while the masses have very little or a small percentage of what they would get had there been greater equality as seen in European countries such as the UK. On top of that the average American works far harder than the average Brit or European, so the obvious GDP per capita being larger decreases more. Especially when you also factor in that productivity is falling behind most EU countries (including the UK now).

Los Angeles more of a cultural center than New York? It's more like a 55-45 split in New York's favor — and even then many of LA's cultural institutions and resources are spread throughout the metropolitan area, as opposed to in the city itself. Many of the renowned communities which make LA famous, like Malibu, Long Beach, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Santa Monica, are independent cities not associated with the City of Los Angeles. We can probably go further and say that it's more like the region of Southern California shares most of the U.S.'s cultural capital with New York City. To be fair to NYC, you'd then need to include parts of its own metropolitan area, like Long Island, Westchester, Rockland and Orange Counties, and possibly Northern New Jersey and Southern Connecticut.

The '70s were when we lost the title of cultural center to LA? We may have lost The Tonight Show (to Burbank, not LA itself), but in turn we got Saturday Night Live, and Rolling Stone magazine moved here from San Francisco; at the time, that established New York as the countercultural center of the US. Punk rock, anyone? That started right here. (Not to mention that once Conan O'Brien takes over from Jay Leno in 2009, in all likelihood he's going to move The Tonight Show back to New York. Hallelujah.)

Hip-hop. It started in the South Bronx in '79 and took over the music world the next decade...and the next...and now this one. Gangsta rap comes to us from Compton, which is another independent city in Los Angeles County. Lately, however, the "Dirty South" — particularly Atlanta and its environs — has been a major nexus of the hip-hop scene, with acts like OutKast, Ludacris and Sean Paul, just to name a few. But without the Sugar Hill Gang, Public Enemy, Run-DMC, Doug E. Fresh and KRS-One, they wouldn't have gotten off the ground.

When I think of culture, I think of sports, history, music, film production. London is strong across the board in these categories.

Firstly sport - London currently has 10 stadiums above 20,000 capacity. New York City in comparison has 3. Then London is also at this very second building 1 90,000 and 60,000 stadium and has more on the horizon. London's new Wembley Stadium will be the largest football stadium on the planet (not by capacity - but my pure size).....the stadium in size is over 2x the size of the 80,000 Stade de France stadium in Paris. (Pictures by Peyre)










This is Arsenal's new 60,000 all-seater Emirates Stadum currently under construction:





By 2012, this is what the list of all stadia above 20,000+ should be like in London:
- Wembley - 90,000
- Twickenham - 82,000
- Olympic Stadium - 80,000
- Stamford Bridge - 65,000
- Emirates Stadium - 60,000
- White Hart Lane - 50,000
- The Valley - 40,600
- Boleyn Ground - 40,500
- Craven Cottage - 30,000
- Lord's - 28,000
- Selhurst Park - 26,309
- Millennium Dome - 26,000
- Griffin Park - 25,000
- The Oval - 23,000
- The New Den - 20,146


And what sport are played in London? none other than the top 4 global sports (among others): Football, Cricket, Rugby and Tennis. London just happens to be at the epi-centre of global sports, unfortunately the same can't be said of baseball, basketball or AFL. Lord's Cricket Ground is now 191 years old and still in working order (also has the world's oldest sports museum), then there is Wembley the 'home of football', the immense Twickenham and of course Wimbledon, it is the world's most watched tennis tournament (viewership figures comparable to the other 3 Grand Slams combined).




Secondly history, well thats obvious, no real need to try and make a statement there when London has some 1,600 more years of it!




Thirdly music and film production - very little appears to come out of New York other than on the music front and the only aspect of global production is that the major film studios are HQ'ed in New York. If you watched the recent Batman Begins, you might be shocked to know that the primary production and a large selection of the outdoor shooting locations were......in and around London and at Shepperton Studios (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372784/locations). See Star Wars.....again the primary production was in London at Elstree Studios....the same studios the original 3 films were made. Harry Potter, James Bond, Aliens, Indiana Jones,... filmed primarily in studios in London. Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers was filmed just north of London (my friend's university campus is built on the spot where Tom Hanks character 'dies'. The urban fight scenes in what was meant to be Ho Chí Minh City in Full Metal Jacket have been replaced by Canary Wharf and its towers.

Most movie soundtracks, be them James Bond, Lord of the Rings, Superman, Harry Potter, etc have been done by the world's premier symphony orchestras based in London such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra (there is also the English Chamber Orchestra). Even War of the World's is connected to London - the original novel by Londoner HG Wells was based in and around London (infact in Woking there is a statue of a tripod walking down the highstreet: http://www.lanceradvanced.com/Illustration/FanArt/WOTW/Woking1.jpg). The other big blockbuster that is to come out by the end of the year: King Kong was also written originally by another Londoner. London has been quite influential along the years and thats not even scratching the surface with the like of Dickens and possibly the greatest playwright: William Shakespeare and of course the most extraordinary theatre in the world: the Globe Theatre: http://omni.cc.purdue.edu/~corax/globestage.jpg

I'd say the media power alone makes in NYC the cultural capital of the United States. When something happens in Hollywood, where do we hear about it? In fact, I'd say LA's impact on the world actually contributes to NYC's cultural influence. New York is also home to NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox, which produce shows that are popular even in the UK. The BBC is a massive organization, but while I have seen American remakes, I honestly cannot remember the last time I saw a British television show. And what's the biggest movie out right now? Batman--which is produced by Timer Warner, based in NYC.

Anyway you put it, the United States is far more influential than Britain, and when you're comparing two cities that are on such a global scale, you need to put their nations into account.

London also isn't lackluster when it comes to media power. London is home to the likes of Reuters which is the world's largest international mulitmedia news agency. Then there is the world famous BBC News which is the largest broadcast news gathering operation in the world (over 100 hours each day of output). Then there is the BBC itself which has 20 global TV channels, 54 radio channels, 30 magazine titles, dozens of digital interactive channels, film and tv production studios (funded Woody Allen's latest film set in London) and one of the most visited websites on the planet: www.bbc.co.uk which has over 3mn webpages.

One of the most interesting things about the BBC is the BBC World Service which has some 150mn weekly listeners and is the world's only neutral non-commercial and non-political (eg VoA) news organisation that is listened around the world (especially developing and/or un-democratic countries). I have even heard stories of people learning English from the World Service!

And now prepare yourselves for a very interesting if unbelievable fact: The UK is the world's largest exporter of global format programmes and dominates by a whopping 45% of the global market (the US had 20% and the Netherlands 15%). Examples would be The Weakest Link, Teletubbies, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Top of the Pops.


Regarding Batman Begins - Primary production was done in and around London. Secondary shooting was done in Chicago and tertiary shooting was undertaken in Iceland. The director: Christopher Nolan is.......a Londoner and what about the cast? Well I took the first page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372784/) of Batman Begins on IMDB and the names of the primary cast overview and this is the make-up:

British: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson, Linus Roache, Lary Holden, Gerald Murphy + Colin McFarlane
American: Katie Homes, Mark Boone Junior + Morgan Freeman,
Irish: Cillian Murphy
Dutch: Rutger Hauer
Japanese: Ken Watanabe

As you can see, 60% of the main cast is British, its being directed by a Brit, the primary production and shooting was in and around London. Funding was American though.




fioco - I am purely here to act as the other force of reason and to show the other side of the argument. I would note (as I haven't already), that London doesn't try to 'big itself up' like New York has done in the past - its a more reserved city that just gets the job done. If we were having this discussion back in the 70's, it would be New York on top. Now the roles have been reserved and its about time New York gets its act together to try and topple London again. This little game will continue for a good few decades I believe :laugh:

New York is still the "capital" of the art world - even more so now that the value of the dollar is down...

Probably for modern art, but I would say everything other than modern art art is centered around London. I should note though that in terms of the art trade, London is the world leader as it is home to the two undisputed world leaders: Sotheby's and Christie's. Sotheby's I believe is also the largest auction house of fine art in the US.

in my opinion, what makes New York City the capitol of the world, is a wide array of things. The fact that New York is not the capitol of any paticular nation, rather, the United Nations is a good place to start, the United Nations (despite all the scandals) is the center of world politics, and reasonablly chooses to reside in the city of New York. New York's ethnic diversity is also something to marvel at, practically, every nationallity from around the planet is represented in New York. Culturally New York is above all competition. One may argue that Hollywood makes alot of movies that have a large audience, however, pay closer attention to where those movies are set, a great portion of them are set in New York, or mythical cities which are based on New York (Gotham, Metropolis). In addition, the American media, chooses to center itself in New York, further giving credit to New York's claim as the cultural capitol. New York's cultural institutions and symbols are famous. No matter where you are in the world, when someone mentions 5th avenue, one tends to think shopping, when someone mentions wall st, people tend to think about finance, when someone mentions broadway people think about theater. On New Year's eve it is estimated that 3 billion people watch the ball drop in Times Square, (talk about cultural impact) New York is remains unrivalled. Econmically, New York houses the largest and most influencial stock market in the world, a stock market which bears the city's name. New York is home to a great many of the world's financial institutions and that list is growing (bank of America is building a new headquaters in the city). In addition, New York city has the 16th highest GDP in the world (higher than Russia's), making it one of the most econmically infulencial cities in the world. Lastly, if all of you truly seek the definition of a world city, go to Wikipedia where they list New York and London as the top two world cities. (with an extensive explanation)

Firstly I might point out that the UN is now the centre of world politics - it is a global forum, but thats about where it ends. It lacks any political sovereignty as shown from the lead-up to the Iraq War or on matters such as climate change and poverty in Africa. Its the actual politcal powerhouses of our world: Washington DC, London, Paris, Tokyo, etc that do have this power and the ability to make a definate change.

Another view is to take is this: more NGO's are located in London than in any other city on the planet. The reason is that the UK government is still important on the global stage and is at the forefront of a large variety of things aimed at making the world a better place: climate change, poverty reduction, etc. Now Washington is more important politically, but lacks the will to really make a fundamental change as has been seen by the policy of the US in terms of writing off debt (started by the British government) and climate change which the US I think is slowly accepting. Another interesting tit-bit is that London is also home to the LSE which has educated more world leaders than any other (2nd is Oxford, in London's metro).

Secondly I would be careful about bringing diversity into the argument as even though New York has the largest foreign born popualtion of any city, it is not the city with the most represented foreign born communities, for that city is....funnily enough it is London. A study found out that London had the highest number of 5,000+ and 10,000+ foreign born communities in the world - more than New York. An amazing fact you are probably thinking, but its actually true. The School of Oriental and African Studies in London (so happens to be a world leader in languages and foreign communites) conducted the study. They also conducted another study into the most amount of languages spoken in world cities and again London came tops - 300+ officially recognised languages.

I should also note that London is also absorbing more foreign immigrants than New York and Los Angeles. At current rates London may indeed overtake the city proper population of New York and take the title of having the largest foreign born population from New York within a few years.



London also has more billionaires than any other city on the planet...this is not because they are British, but because they are foreigners attracted to the financial position of London in the world, tax arrangements and all the cultural attachments that come with it. Russian Roman Abromovich (ranked 6th I believe in the world) is now living in London and recently brought one of the world's richest sports clubs: Chelsea (located in West London) as his personal hobby. Egyptian Mohamed Al-Fayed, the man who owns Harrods owns Fulham (another West London Premiership football club), the richest house in the world located on Kensington Palace Gardens, London is owns by Lakshmi Mittal the Indian Steel billionaire.

Thirdly the latest blockbuster in the cinema is based on a book that was based around Victorian England and London. In the current form it is just located to an area that modern American cinema fans can 'attach' with.

Fourthly on all other points you have made - London isn't exempt from famous places. People would know of Oxford Street for shopping, the Square Mile for finance and business in London, West End for theatres, etc.

Just yesterday the world's largest concert was played with the largest line-up of all the Live8 concerts was held in London's Hyde Park! The likes of Pink Floyd chose London's Hyde Park Live 8 concert as a reason to reunite. The world's richest man: Bill Gates, the head of the UN: Kofi Annan and perhaps the most famous current sports person alive: David Beckham all came on stage in London. Thats not including the acts of Madonna, Razorlight, Coldplay, U2, Robbie Williams, Pete Townsend, Joss Stone, Sissor Sisters, Sting, Mariah Carey, Dido, Pink Floyd, George Michael, Bob Geldof, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Snoop Dogg, Miss Dynamite, etc.... now that was a once in a lifetime event unlikely to be repeated and its actually for a cause: eradicating poverty. Estimates put forward that some 5bn will have watched or listened to the concerts in one form or another. It was interesting as to why New York did not host it!

The NYSE handles each day around $40bn. London's currency markets handle on a daily basis some $700bn. London is home to more top 50 banks than New York and yet they still don't build skyscrapers oddly (except HSBC). Also if were going to talk about economy, New York's is not the largest - that title would go to the immense Tokyo. London is increasingly catching up with New York's which has admittedly a larger population. Also I am well aware of world-cities....I don't study Geography at university for no reason


Now I aint saying New York is somehow redundant or crap or anything like that. I am saying though that it isn't the best across all fields like London now is. It would have been different back in the 1970's though.

[Pottebaum]

Yes since the Big Bang of financial services in the UK in the 1990's, the UK has become the 2nd largest financial centre country on the planet. In 2004 I believe the current balance was that of global financial output, 21% came from the US and 15% came from the UK. Now remember that the US is 5x larger than the UK and that there is more than just New York for finance in the US, as there is Chicago, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, Charlotte, etc... in the UK this market is dominated by London.

Here's a list of the world's 50 largests banks:


3 of them are in New York, and 12 of them are somewhere within the United States---more than any other nation. 5(or 6[not sure]) are based in London; the United Kingdom as a whole has 6; half the US's count.
America's banking industry is decentralized compared to the UK's (how couldn't be? The US is 40X larger :lol: ), but it still heavily relies on financial activity in New York; for example, notice that every American bank on that list is traded on the New York Stock exchange.
World's 20 largest diversified financial companies

United States: 12/20
which includes
New York: 5 [highest concentration]


When it comes to business, New York is the clear winner:

World's 30 Largest Companies
Company.........Country(USA or UK)/City(NYC or London)

1. Citigroup.............................. USA/NYC
2. GE.......................................USA/NYC
3. American Int..........................USA/NYC
4. Exxon Mobil............................USA
5. BP........................................UK/London
6. Bank of America......................USA/
7. HSBC....................................UK/London/
8. Toyota.................................
9. Fannie Mae............................USA
10.Walmart................................USA
11.UBS.....................................
12.ING......................................
13.Shell.....................................UK/London
14.Berkshire Hathaway:................USA
15.JP Morgan..............................USA
16.IBM.......................................USA/NYC
17.Total:...................................
18.BNP Paribas.
19.Royal Bank of Scotland:................UK
20.FreddieMac.................................USA

21-30
Freddie Mack..............................USA
Chrysler.....................................
Altria Group................................USA/NYC
ChevronTexaco...........................USA
Pfizer........................................USA/NYC
Wells Fargo................................USA
Verizon Commun.........................USA/NYC
Barclay's...................................UK/London
Morgan Stanley..........................USA/NYC
General Motors...........................USA
Nippon Tel & Tel

*Metropolitan areas included

How each city stacks up:
Both cities are the economic capitals of their respective countries, so I included it's nation's company count as it is a factor in the city's overall influence.
New York:
-8/30 are based in New York[largest concentration of this list's companies]
-19/30 are American companies
London:
-4/30 are based in London
-5/30 are British companies
Influence....


New York is globally known as the 'financial capital of the world' because of its role in international business, which closely relates to its huge stock exchanges; like NYSE, Nasdaq, AMEX, etc--that's what the media pays attention to. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when I researched it on Wikipedia and a random searches on the LSE website, it looks like 17 of the top 20 companies are traded on the NYSE, while 5 of them are traded on the London Stock Exchange. This is completely understandable, though, as New York is the financial and economic hub of a nation that is home to 711 of the world's 2000 largest companies[more than the entire continent of Europe].
And I know how important London is when it comes to insurance, and I'm sure you have a bunch of little facts and graphs to back it up--but the world's largest insurance company, AIG, HQ'd in New York has more sales and a larger market value than the UK's top 20 combined.

When I think of culture, I think of sports, history, music, film production.

Sports=probably London, but I don't know--I just golf. :lol:
History=London, but it really depends on what period and kind of history you're into.
Music? New York is fantastic when it comes to music! The big four record labels are:

Sony-BMG Music Entertainment: The world's largest record label by market share=Headquartered in New York City.
Universal Music Group: The world's second largest record label=Headquartered in New York City.
EMI Group=The world's 3rd largest record label=Headquartered in London, with EMI Music Publishing based in New York City.
Warner Brothers=A subsidiary of NYC based Time Warner, Warner Brothers is headquartered in Burbank, California.

Televison:

And now prepare yourselves for a very interesting if unbelievable fact: The UK is the world's largest exporter of global format programmes and dominates by a whopping 45% of the global market (the US had 20% and the Netherlands 15%). Examples would be The Weakest Link, Teletubbies, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Top of the Pops.

I knew that; but it's only program formats; some Brits at SSC were thinking families in Ohio were sitting around after dinner to watch Dr. Who or something. Even though that's very impressive, it's just the format.
As for the actual programs, I believe the United States is the actual top exporter. There was a thread at skyscrapercity.com a while ago about the forumers' favorite TV shows--I tallied the results:

The List:
Favorite American and British TV programs mentioned by SSC Forumers outside the United States and the UK

US--- With programs produced by NYC networks noted
The Sopranos--NYC
NYPD Blue--NYC
Desperate Housewives--NYC
Simpsons--NYC
Samurai Jack--NYC
Megas XLR--NYC
Family Guy--NYC
Tweaty Show--NYC
South Park --NYC
CSI Miami--NYC
CSI Vegas--NYC
Everybody Loves Raymond--NYC
Seinfeld --NYC
Price is right--NYC
Late Night with Conan O'Brien--NYC
Magnum PI---NYC
Survivor--NYC
Nip/tuck (?)--NYC
Amazing Race--NYC
24--NYC
Big Brother {US Edition]--NYC
Bugs Bunny--NYC
Chappelle's Show--NYC
Reno 911!--NYC
CSI NY--NYC
Daily Show--NYC
Cheers--NYC
King of the Hill--NYC
Friends--NYC
Joey--NYC
Extreme Makeover(?)--NYC
Queer eye for the straight guy--NYC
Star Trek ---NYC
Lost--NYC
Twin Peaks--NYC
The Apprentice--NYC
Futurama--NYC
MadTV--NYC
Desperate Housewives--NYC
America's next top model--NYC
Third Watch--NYC
Law and Order: SVU--NYC
Law and Order: Criminal Intent--NYC
Degrasi--NYC
Will and Grace--NYC
Boiling Point-NYC
Osbournes--NYC
Frasier--NYC
Jerry Springer Show--NYC(Metro)
Stargate SG1
Stargate Atlantis
Extreme Engineering
WWE
Shield



UK

Men Behaving Badly--London
Fawlty Towers--London
Little Britain--London
The League of Gentlemen--London
Black Adder--London
Big Brother--London
The Bill--London
(?)Location Location--London
Brainaic---London
Eastenders--London
Coronation Street--London
Most Haunted UK--London
BBC World programmes--London
Top Gear--London
Monty Python's Flying Circus--London
Forumula 1 racing--London
The Office--London
A Touch of Frost--London
(?)Teachers--London
--------------------------------
Several of those are also produced within New York.

Speaking of Batman, yeah, the funding was American--and it came from a New York City based company. Gotham is also a metaphor of New York City.
Another movie produced by a company owned in New York is War of the World's. The original story was written by a Brit a hundred years ago. Today, though, it is an American movie set in New York with an American director and with American actors. And, more than likely, it will dominate the British box office next week.

I should also note that London is also absorbing more foreign immigrants than New York and Los Angeles. At current rates London may indeed overtake the city proper population of New York and take the title of having the largest foreign born population from New York within a few years.

I've probably mentioned this before..but just because there's a massive amount of international migration into London doesn't mean it's actually gaining that much population.
Take a look at this:


I'll continue later--- I don't want to be late for the Fourth of July BBQ.

[TLOZ Link5]

I should also note that London is also absorbing more foreign immigrants than New York and Los Angeles. At current rates London may indeed overtake the city proper population of New York and take the title of having the largest foreign born population from New York within a few years.

Not that that would be a bad thing. Except for during the past half-century, London has historically always been more populous than New York. New York is currently at its population peak of 8.1 million people; in the 1939 UK Census London had 8.6m.

Both cities experienced population decline in the postwar period, but London's population loss was much more severe than New York's.

At the dawn of World War II, London's population was 8,615,050, a figure that New York has yet to match. By the 1981 UK Census, however, its long population decline had "bottomed-out" at 6,608,598. London's population has increased gradually since then, though much of this can be attributed to the outer boroughs as opposed to the relatively slower growth of Central London.

http://demographia.com/dm-lon31.htm

New York, having previously peaked in the 1970 Census at nearly 7.9m, had declined by the 1980 Census to just over 7,000,000. Its population loss was not as severe as London's, and it likewise has added population since then. Like with Central London, however, many of the most urbanized parts of Manhattan, The Bronx and Brooklyn are no longer at their population peak.

http://demographia.com/dm-nyc.htm (figures are divisible by 1,000)

In September of 2002, the Corporation of London estimated in its study "London's Place in the UK Economy" that Greater London's population would grow to 8.2 million by 2016.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_London

New York has meanwhile almost reached that number already and, barring changes in immigration trends, etc., will continue to grow by 2016. However, London is catching up, so eventually it will probably surpass New York, as it should.