The most powerful city in the world?

Is it DC, NY, London, or something else? And why?

This source (https://ceoworld.biz/2020/02/13/most-economically…) apparently says London is the most economically influential city in the world 

27 Comments
 

Money. Yes, DC has the politicians, but who funds them?

New York. If we wanted to go the “power” route you could argue Riyadh as Saudi money controls our foreign policy, which in turn controls us.

You might think you understand how much money they have but you don’t. Oil money is insane. The true wealth of these guys shits on Elon

 

DC is the most important politically (similar to Beijing though), but NYC is still much more important since it still has the deepest capital markets which affects most of the American economy to some kind of degree. While it's obviously true that London is also very important, and probably more linked to other markets, Europe isn't a high growth market anymore, and depending on how Brexit shakes out, London could lose its edge. NYC is not going to lose that, it would take the whole American economy slowing down for that to happen.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 

I think you ought to make a distinction between the "most powerful city" vs. the "city where powerful people reside." Sure, D.C. might have all the American political organs of power - but the major stakeholders in the city itself (business, arts, media) do not hold serious influence over domestic or international policy. Yes, there are probably a handful of think-tanks in D.C. - but none with the serious clout of the multinationals headquartered in New York.

 

I'm reading The Prince right now too.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 

It isn't a city but rather a place.  It is with out a dobut the Mid Western US.  This area of the world drives the calorie creation for the entire planet.  

As seen above this entire line of questioning is idiotic.  It could be argued that Dubuque, IA is the most powerful city in the world.  Or even that New Orleans or Houston is the most powerful city in the world as these are major energy transit hubs.  The world is much more complicated than just politics or money, there is real world things that have as much or even bigger sways on the way the world works. 

 

I've thought about this a lot over the years, and how that's increasingly going to become more important as Africa and other places develop more and consume even more resources. I don't know much about agricultural commodity markets, but with Russia/Ukraine having issues bringing their grain to market, wouldn't this be a great thing for Midwestern farmers (not sure how much grain we actually grow)? As a result, I've wondered how this would affect places along the Mississippi River in the future. Will the Minneapolis-St. Louis-New Orleans corridor lead the agricultural commodity future? That would be wild and probably is a complete mischaracterization, but is something fun to think about.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 

If we didn't have idiots running the world, yes.  The issue is ferterlizer, who ever advised world leaders to embargo Russian gas do not know anything about agriculture or what natural gas is used for.  There is a major global ferterlizer shortage that is predicted to lead to a harvest that might be 10 - 20% lower than normal.

 
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Economically? NYC >= London (post-Brexit, I give the edge to NYC). Next level down gets you Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, probably LA/SF, and arguably Paris and Seoul.

Politically? DC > Beijing (and shifting closer to parity over time). Edge goes to DC for the current ability to project global power, but growth and modernization in Africa and South Asia alongside the Belt and Road Initiative definitely continue to strengthen China’s influence. Next level probably includes Moscow, Riyadh, and New Delhi as super-regional powers. The EU as a whole is obviously a major player here, but too distributed to allocate to one city. NYC has a place on this list too (UN, financiers), but not at the top.

Culturally? Much more spread out. LA (entertainment), NYC (media, fashion / art), Rome and Riyadh (religion), London, Paris, Hong Kong, Dubai, Tokyo, Shenzhen, Singapore, Seoul, Shanghai all on the list. Regional strength in Toronto, Sydney, Mumbai, Lagos, CDMX, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, but none as globally influential. Probably give the nod to London for #1 with strong arguments for LA, NYC, or Paris in contention, but obviously my anglo-western background is biasing me here

 

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