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I think pictures of New York City are most flattering at night time - from a good distance, with carefully selected angles that show off the historic buildings that have nuanced architectural details. This bears little to no resemblance to the street level experience though.
London is still by far the biggest juggernaut and the hub when it comes to international transactions and re-insurance, whereas the banks in NY do more business and earn bigger profits. London's lead in forex/bond/derivatives trading at this stage is so great that any jawboning by think tanks about EU concerns and scandals (many of which involve US banks based in London no less) won't really do much to change that for the foreseeable future.
What London needs to focus on to continue rising as it does is to foster a greater culture of convenience and 24 hour operation, because these are both areas in which it falls short compared to New York. In most other aspects, it is either equivalent or has the lead, or is gaining.
I agree, the subway in London closes for a couple of hours after midnight while the new york subway is 24 hours a day, but just a few weeks ago a big part of the London subway was made 24 hours a day, soon it will all be 24hours a day.
Licensing hours in britain were extended a few years ago so pubs, bars and nightclubs can stay open all night now, and our supermarkets are also 24 hours so things are moving in the right direction
Unless you fall into the trap of comparing gross figures according metro area statistics (comparing the gross output of 22 million population vs 14 million), which is fallacious, no, New York is not clearly ahead on most objective statistics.
Why is comparing apples to apples metro area "falling into a trap"? Then I notice you undercount the NYC area, which has 24 million, and overcount the London area, which has 13 million.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grigoriachel
It lags London in financial services (London is now a juggernaut in the foreign exchange and insurance markets, which sees massive volumes daily, has the edge in OTC derivatives and matches Chicago on commodities futures).
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Actually you're right on all this, which is my point. None of any of these things are major profit centers. It's like saying London trails Zurich on a number of revenue streams, which is true. The point is that London doesn't lead NY in a single significant banking profit center. You even bring up commodities trading which means nothing; Chicago is usually ranked #3 or #4 as a financial center within the U.S. despite being the global commodities center.
The reason NYC is the financial center is very obvious- it has the most important financial firms. It has the most important investment banks, the most important private equity firms, and the most important money managers. It's where financial titans are generally based, with London as the secondary center to access the world's second most important market.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grigoriachel
New York has more billionaires, and HNWIs, London has more multimillionaires, according to the latest Wealth Report by Knight Frank.
NYC has around four times as many millionaires as London by most wealth reports; it has 50% higher median income, somewhat greater wealth inequality, and nearly twice the population, so that should be obvious. The #2 city in the world for millionaires is actually LA, and then I believe Tokyo, but LA doesn't even have half the millionaires of NYC.
The gap should be closer for billionaires, as both London and NYC are huge centers for extreme wealth. London has a greater share of non-British wealth, while the NYC wealth has a larger domestic contingent. Overall though there is still probably a pretty big gap.
Why is comparing apples to apples metro area "falling into a trap"? Then I notice you undercount the NYC area, which has 24 million, and overcount the London area, which has 13 million.
Actually you're right on all this, which is my point. None of any of these things are major profit centers. It's like saying London trails Zurich on a number of revenue streams, which is true. The point is that London doesn't lead NY in a single significant banking profit center. You even bring up commodities trading which means nothing; Chicago is usually ranked #3 or #4 as a financial center within the U.S. despite being the global commodities center.
The reason NYC is the financial center is very obvious- it has the most important financial firms. It has the most important investment banks, the most important private equity firms, and the most important money managers. It's where financial titans are generally based, with London as the secondary center to access the world's second most important market.
NYC has around four times as many millionaires as London by most wealth reports; it has 50% higher median income, somewhat greater wealth inequality, and nearly twice the population, so that should be obvious. The #2 city in the world for millionaires is actually LA, and then I believe Tokyo, but LA doesn't even have half the millionaires of NYC.
The gap should be closer for billionaires, as both London and NYC are huge centers for extreme wealth. London has a greater share of non-British wealth, while the NYC wealth has a larger domestic contingent. Overall though there is still probably a pretty big gap.
Not exactly anything to brag about, Moscow beats New York for billionaires whilst London ties with Hong Kong for third place.
Pictures don't seem as impressive as London. Sorry.
I agree.
And again, for those bigging up New York's alleged financial dominance, who cares? London kills NYC in history, culture, architecture and green space. Things that are far more important and interesting.
Why is comparing apples to apples metro area "falling into a trap"? Then I notice you undercount the NYC area, which has 24 million, and overcount the London area, which has 13 million.
Actually you're right on all this, which is my point. None of any of these things are major profit centers. It's like saying London trails Zurich on a number of revenue streams, which is true. The point is that London doesn't lead NY in a single significant banking profit center. You even bring up commodities trading which means nothing; Chicago is usually ranked #3 or #4 as a financial center within the U.S. despite being the global commodities center.
The reason NYC is the financial center is very obvious- it has the most important financial firms. It has the most important investment banks, the most important private equity firms, and the most important money managers. It's where financial titans are generally based, with London as the secondary center to access the world's second most important market.
NYC has around four times as many millionaires as London by most wealth reports; it has 50% higher median income, somewhat greater wealth inequality, and nearly twice the population, so that should be obvious. The #2 city in the world for millionaires is actually LA, and then I believe Tokyo, but LA doesn't even have half the millionaires of NYC.
The gap should be closer for billionaires, as both London and NYC are huge centers for extreme wealth. London has a greater share of non-British wealth, while the NYC wealth has a larger domestic contingent. Overall though there is still probably a pretty big gap.
Now read his post and answer what he actually wrote.
In terms of business, London is one of the great financial centres of the world with more foreign banks headquartered in London than any other city in the world and more American banks in London than in New York City itself, with the city of London straddling the major time zone between North America and the Far East.
The UK’s financial and related professional services employ more than 2 million people, accounting for 7% of total UK employment, according to the ONS Business Register.
London was ranked first in the March 2013 Global Financial Centres Index. “We are a world-leader because of the sheer concentration of professional skills and support services, the fact we are a relatively open market and we have a legal system people can trusts .The regulatory environment has come under pressure, but it’s probably still an advantage, too.”
According to TheCityUK, there are over 1,400 financial services firms in the UK that are majority foreign-owned, from around 80 countries. London has 251 foreign banks, more than its nearest rivals New York, Paris and Frankfurt, holding nearly half of the UK’s banking sector assets, while UK-owned banks have over half of their assets outside the country.
The UK is also one of the largest hedge fund markets (18% global market share in 2012), an important centre for global equity trading (7% share of the global equity market capitalisation), and a major centre for issuance and the trading of international bonds (16% of the global total and second only to the US).
London is the place to be for foreign private wealth, too. According to The Wealth Report 2013, Britain’s capital is the second-top city in the world by high-net-worth-individual population (6,015 of the world’s HNWIs lived there in 2012), after New York. This also boosts jobs in the sector. Martin Graham is chairman of the advisory board at Oracle Capital Group, looking after wealthy Eastern Europeans, overseeing a total client wealth of several billion pounds. “We help them with relocation to London and pre-immigration tax planning,” he says.
The UK insurance industry is the largest in Europe and third largest in the world. The UK is the global market leader in marine insurance with a 21% market share in 2011. The London market is the world’s largest international insurance market, with gross premium income of £41.7bn in 2011. According to TheCityUK, it’s the only place where all of the world’s 20 largest international insurance and reinsurance companies are active. And let’s not forget brokers and industry support services: “The total contribution of the UK general insurance brokers to UK GDP is 1%, the same as the entire agricultural sector,” says Katie Small, director at RK Harrison Insurance Services.
London is also a global legal hub (English law is the default system in international trade, maritime law and business law) and a centre for creative industries from advertising through to the fashion industry through to new hi-tech internet start up's and medical research, pharma and bio-techs (the impressive new Francis Crick Institute will opening next year at St Pancras).
Whilst London is Europe’s most popular city for large companies to establish their global headquarters, according to a recent report, and it is poised to attract more emerging market companies as they come into their own, with areas such as London's Royal Docks being set aside for the expansion of Chinese and Far Eastern companies in London.
It should also be noted that London is also currently enjoying good rates of growth and is seeing massive investment and has a growing population which is set to exceed 10 million by 2030, with new transport infrastructure in terms of Crossrail and Crossrail 2, Night tubes (24 hour tubes) and new trains set to come on line next year which reduce the time between London and Paris to a mere 2 hours. Paris being another great city, and the fact the two cities are only 2 hours away on a train (from city centre to city centre) has started to create a cultural hub that few cities can compare with.
London's current building boom is concentrated on many dilapidated areas such as the East End and parts of South London, which will account for 77 per cent of the planned high rise developments in London. Indeed Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, Greenwich, Newham and Southwark will between them see 140 of the 236 planned high rise towers in London.
Couple of Examples of London Apartment Developments in the East End.
Ballymore's new London City Island at Leamouth, which is just east of Canary Wharf.
Providence Tower near Canary Wharf - East London
Royal Wharf - East End
Last edited by Bamford; 03-26-2014 at 12:22 PM..
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