10 WEALTHIEST CITIES IN THE WORLD: ITS NOT NEW YORK OR LONDON AT THE TOP

Robin Renford
http://financesonline.com/10-wealthiest-cities-in-the-world-its-not-new-york-or-london-
at-the-top/

5. London, England
GDP: $731.2 billion
Area: 1,570 square kilometers
Population: 8,173,194

London started out as a Roman settlement called Londinium and soon grew to be a
huge city even after the collapse of the Roman Empire. London suffered much
throughout the history. There was the Great Fire in 1666, which was then followed by the
Black Plague a century after. London also figured as an immensely important city
during the two World Wars. The city was a dream destination for many people from
different races, cultures, and religions, making London a vital melting pot of the world.
Tourist spots worth going when in London are the Buckingham Palace, the Tower Bridge,
the London Eye and the world-famous Big Ben clock tower. As far as commerce goes,
the city thrives on finance and banking.
TOP 10 RICHEST CITIES IN THE WORLD IN 2014
Nida Zaidi on 2014/01/07
http://www.richincomeways.com/richlist/top-10-richest-cities-world-2014/
London has been the gem of eye since the inception of tourist industry. Filled with life
lights and yes cameras London city has no doubt proved to be golden spoon for
England. Its the amalgamation of different cultures and ethnicities and thats what
makes this city unique and successful.
THE RISE AND RISE OF LONDON
By Jasper Gerard
12:01AM GMT 17 Feb 2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1542934/The-rise-and-rise-of-London.html
While building St Paul's Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren uncovered a broken stone
inscribed "Resurgam". With the extraordinary rebirth of London at the start of the 21st
century, no architect should be lost for an inscription for the dazzling cathedrals to
capitalism currently springing up across the skyline: "I will arise" seems more than fitting
for today.

To have been in London these past few weeks has seemed, at times, like residing in the
capital of the universe. It might lack a little of the pomp of 1900 when the City Imperial
Volunteers, back from the Boer war, marched spectacularly through crowds 100-deep
in Hyde Park as "hysterical shrieks of women mingled with the deep-throated huzzas of
the crowd". But with the Baftas, Brits and London Fashion Week, London has just borne
witness to a cavalcade that reinforces its economic and cultural resurgence.
Today, London stands on the brink of surpassing New York as the world's financial
centre; a week of art sales earlier this month has raked in a record 392 million, and
France's likely future president has been electioneering - in London. There is a palpable
sense that something big is going on. It is a phenomenon much more important than
Cool Britannia, embraced by New Labour a decade ago. It is about sheer power, and
it renders all other cities faintly provincial.
Once, the world sang New York, New York with Frank Sinatra. Now, as we prepare for
the Olympics, it is London calling. And this time it is in merriment, not anger. To me it
seems an almost miraculous resurrection. My impression of London on childhood
excursions in the 1970s was of a city broken by disappointment and bad plumbing. Loss
of Empire and economic collapse glowered over the capital. The cars were knackered,
the people more so. Everywhere there was dog muck. It wasn't that we were tired of
London so much as that London was tired. There was a feeling that history had flown
down the Thames and far away, just as inexorably as the life blood drained from
Babylon, Samarkand and Constantinople.
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A gem of a show from royal jeweller 17 Feb 2007
As funky new restaurants now open daily, I look back in wonder at a visit circa 1976 to
one of London's smartest restaurants. My sister asked for something vegetarian; after
long stares and consultations it was agreed an omelette might be possible. At the time,
the very survival of London could even be questioned. As late as 1989, Martin Amis
wrote: "I must go to London Fields, before it is too late."
Amis-land - stale ashtrays, darts, squalor - already seems as period as "Greeneland",
Graham Greene's evocation of seedy bed-sits, coin-operated electricity meters and
chipped whisky glasses somewhere off the Edgware Road. That is not to paint modern
London as paradise: not with a spate of shootings, congestion, dirty streets and
expensive housing. But while announcing at a party that one worked abroad once
elicited coos of envy, now it merely provokes bafflement: why would you live anywhere
else than London?
If this sounds jingoistic, London's rebirth is not a singularly British triumph, for the capital
often appears to be in opposition to its country. The slick metropolitanism of Tony Blair
and David Cameron can jar with Middle England. London is Athens, the city state
making decrees that the surrounding countryside obeys sulkily.
And like Athens once did, London sucks in all talent. Look at its two finest football teams,
Arsenal and Chelsea: both have fielded sides entirely bereft of Englishmen. A Brit can
feel like a foreigner in his own capital. Once New York was the world's melting pot, now
it is London: 36 per cent of New Yorkers are foreign-born, against 40 per cent of
Londoners. While bidding for the Olympics, New York boasted 200 languages could be
heard on the streets of the Big Bagel. It went silent when it learnt London echoes to 300.
How much immigration drives our economic revival is a moot point, but immigration is,
incontrovertibly, a response to that revival. As well as the super-rich of Russia, the super-
poor of Eastern Europe dream of the Thames Gateway as the promised land; hard to
fathom, but the London Eye has taken on the iconography of the Statue of Liberty.
The M25 - the nearest we now have to a city wall - encircles the largest professional
population on the planet, with more flying in every day via our five airports than to any
other city. With such an educated workforce, no wonder more books are published
here than in any other city.
London might look like Paris's plain friend across the water, but when presidential
candidate Nicolas Sarkozy sought support from the French elite he came to London,
the seventh-largest French city. More than 300,000 French people live in Britain, with
South Kensington resembling a mini-Paris. Sarkozy praised London to the clouds,
promising Thatcherite tax cuts and urged Frenchies to return to Paris - to make it like
London. To appreciate the change, imagine Jacques Chirac doing that when he ran
for president seven years ago.
Russian plutocrats are just the latest out-of-towners to like the country so much they
bought it. It was made possible by Gordon Brown's decidedly un-socialist, un-
Presbyterian decision to exempt foreign swanks from the inconvenience of paying tax
on income earned abroad. Lakshmi Mittal (worth 14.8 billion) and Roman Abramovich
(a mere 9.1 billion) are among 11 foreign-born London billionaires, augmenting our 12
native billionaires.
It is this openness to outsiders that many think has enabled London to eclipse New York.
After 9/11, America turned inwards, reducing immigration that for so long had stoked its
economy. It also introduced humiliating airport checks that outrage foreign
businessmen. Not that we can be smug in "Londonistan": it would be futile to put up
such security blankets here - we know that the terrorists are already among us.
The rise of London at New York's expense cannot be attributed to immigration alone.
London has been helped by a lighter regulatory framework, which attracts jealous
glances from across the pond. While Wall Street once swarmed with ticker tape, now it
is red tape - a response to the Enron and WorldCom scandals.
New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, so fears that London is "rapidly gaining ground"
that he has commissioned a report: London, he suggests, threatens the very future of
America. If we really can become the dominant power of world finance, then imperial
London will be reborn; and every indication is that it can.
A 2005 survey of financial types scored international cities and London won easily,
beating New York in all bar one category. The City employs a smidgeon under Wall
Street's 328,000 souls but is gaining fast. Some 367 companies floated in London over
the past year, raising 29 billion - against 270 in New York, yielding 28 billion. London
has the most foreign banks, 70 per cent of the world's secondary bond market and half
the derivatives market. It is home to foreign-exchange trading and 80 per cent of
Europe's hedge funds.
Our private equity firms raised 20 billion last year, and our law firms - the world's biggest
- contributed 11 billion. If last year's record 9 billion bonus celebrations seemed muted
after the cork-popping excess of the 1980s it is because then wealth was novelty, now it
is normality. Even the head of Goldman Sachs spends half his time in the identical
London office he has had built to match his New York one. Such are the tremors the
world still feels 20 years after the Big Bang set the City free.
A decade ago, it would have seemed fanciful that we could usurp New York as the
world financial capital, when the smart money was predicting London's eclipse by
Frankfurt as Europe's financial capital. Instead, Deutsche Bank moved the global
headquarters of its investment banking division to London and Frankfurt is a smaller
financial centre than Canary Wharf. Britain's refusal to join the Euro prompted many to
write London's obituary, but even that has proved another opportunity, with 80 per cent
of trade in the currency occurring here. With plummy Brits dominating the burgeoning
asset management business for the world's super-rich, we are becoming Zurich-on-
Thames.
And boy, is all that felicitous, filthy lucre affecting London life. It has fed a salivating
atavism that makes the Beckhams' lifestyle look positively spiritual. And there is much
more than City money sloshing around Bond Street and Burlington Arcade. Sotheby's
has sold 167 million of paintings in the past week, including a record 94.9 million for a
single sale, while Christie's sold Francis Bacon's Study for Portrait II for 14 million. The
same big money is being paid for anything that smacks of luxury. Theo Fennell, jeweller
to Elizabeth Hurley and Elton John, reports a seven-fold increase in pre-tax profits.
All this loot has achieved the impossible and turned London into a world gastronomic
centre, too. In his novel Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd described foul meals of eels, the
"noise and the vapours of the Ale House"; now London exports food. And how: Gordon
Ramsay opens a restaurant in Manhattan - called "London". Even our cocktails are
better, apparently. Audrey Saunders of Manhattan's great Pegu Club sighs: "I hate to
admit it, but London is the best cocktail city in the world."
Our splurge on fripperies is trifling against money being sunk into property: a pied--terre
off Knightsbridge is rapidly becoming pricier than some spaciously appointed African
state in need of modernisation. With London's population rising to 7.5 million and the
housing stock almost static, prices are heading so far north they are positively Arctic.
Four flats in Hyde Park are up for 84 million each, and folk are fighting for them.
Apartments around Central Park can be snaffled for 1,400 per sq ft, but Belgravia pads
often exceed 3,000 a sq ft, up 35 per cent in a year. Here, natives with a couple of
million who would be called rich anywhere else can't compete against foreigners who
think nothing of upping a bid by a million. In London the average home costs 500,000,
after rising 11.3 per cent in 2006.
The easiest way to spot a city's vitality is to look for cranes, and the City is creaking with
them. Exciting new edifices will include London Bridge's 72-storey "shard of glass". But
while money underpins London's resurgence, its attraction also rests on much that at
least starts as anti-commercial. For a city superficially conservative, London is a haven
for quirky, anarcho-weirdos. That was evident at London Fashion Week. Anna Wintour,
editor of American Vogue, flew in declaring: "I come to London for ideas, not for
clothes to wear." Even American-owned Vanity Fair concedes: "London produces
three-quarters of the fashion ideas for the rest of the world."
Paul Smith, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan and Sophia
Kokosalaki all shot to prominence at LFW. And now the big boys are seeking a bit of
that credibility. For the first time, the man they call the designers' designer, Marc
Jacobs, sashayed into collections that used to be the ugly duckling of international
style, following in the footsteps of Giorgio Armani last season. Once, such an event
seemed as likely as the Duke of Westminster settling in Wigan.
If anything, the eccentric London art scene is even more thriving. You don't have to
adore everything in Tate Modern - which, with the Gilbert and George retrospective,
literally includes excrement - to realise it is the world's most vital showcase for
contemporary art, just as New York's Museum of Modern Art once was. And as for
theatre, we started to fear that, dominated by sickly musicals, it would never make a
recovery. Now it bursts with challenging news plays. Hollywood actors - from Kevin
Spacey down - make their bucks Stateside, but in some curious way feel validation
requires critical approval on our boards. David Hare's experience of opening The
Vertical Hour in New York left him reflecting that Manhattan was "artistically much more
conservative. There is a definite feeling of being bored with the old, yet even more
terrified of the new." Not so London.
There was little left of British film to revive, so the burgeoning celluloid industry is
essentially new. In 2005, a record 12,655 days of shooting took place in London, many
with that quintessential New Yorker Woody Allen mooning over Scarlett Johansson in
Match Point under the leaden London skies he has fallen in love with. Even the Baftas -
once mildly less significant than a Blackpool wet T-shirt contest - now set the agenda for
the Oscars. And to complete a remarkable week, the crme of international rockers
such as the Killers and the Red Hot Chili Peppers played at the Brit awards, alongside
local troupers Oasis.
Remarkably, London's rise has been in spite of, rather than because of, government.
Just think what London could be without high taxation, terrible transport and even
worse social services. Moreover, Mayor Ken Livingstone has often appeared keener
posturing than governing. We need a Rudy Giuliani.
And the danger ahead? Even Athens fell in the end, as confidence lapsed into
decadence. Only London spawns companies such as Quintessentially, a concierge
service satisfying an elite's outlandish demands: a dozen albino peacocks for your party
tonight? Certainly, sir.
We know the Olympics will prove a financial disaster. Eventually, the cavalcade will
move on, history flowing down the Thames to some other city of human possibility. But
for now, as London's biographer Ackroyd smiles: "If London were a living thing, we
would say that all of its optimism and confidence have returned - the capital of all
capitals again."

WEALTH REPORT: LONDON, NOT NEW YORK, IS WORLDS GREATEST CITY
Nico Hines
03.05.14

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/05/wealth-report-london-not-new-york-
is-world-s-greatest-city.html

London has surpassed New York as the worlds greatest city. Resplendent, booming,
and conveniently located for the growing cadre of Russian oligarchs and Arab petro-
billionaires, the European capital has leapfrogged its long-time American rival.
Among the worlds richest people, Britain is seen as the most desirable place for the
next multi-million-dollar apartment with a view. With favorable visa rules, a political and
financial center, cultural excellence and a network of elite private schools to finesse
their heirs, the very wealthiest are now focused on London.

The city has replaced New York as world number one in the eighth annual Wealth
Report published by global property consultants Knight Frank. London is a much more
international city than New York, Liam Bailey, the consultancys head of research, told
The Daily Beast. It is the capital city of Europe when it comes to finance, politics,
advertising and media whereas New York shares some of those functions with other
cities in America. Its dominance isnt as clear cut.

In purely economic and political terms, New York still has the edge but it is London that
boasts the greatest number of resident Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (The UHNWI club
has a minimum entry requirement of $30 million), and scores best when the views of the
worlds richest are analyzed. Abishek Lodha, the managing director of Indias biggest
prime property developer, recently decided to expand his investment portfolio outside
of Asia. He considered New York, but ultimately decided there was only one choice.
London, because it has emerged as the global capital of money and talent, he said.
The business and leisure opportunities are unmatched.

David Leppan, the chairman of Wealth-X which helped to compile the data for the
Wealth Report Global Cities Survey, said London was the most important hub for his
UHNWI clients. London [is] the Wests only truly international city, he said.

Russians are clustered along the banks of the Thames in West London, while Arab
investors have poured billions into central London districts like Mayfair. Asian property
developers, like the Malaysian SP Setia group, have invested in huge new projects all
over the city including the redevelopment of the Battersea power station into luxury
condos, which they have largely sold to clients back home.

"Baalbek, Palmyra, Pompeii, Rome, Liverpool. New York can now beaded to that
melancholy list of lustrous metropolises gone dull.

Bailey said the sales of premium property, worth more than $3 million, rose 34 percent in
London last year. On average, you can buy 270 square feet of luxury London property
for $1 million. Only Monaco and Hong Kong are more expensive, according to Knight
Franks research, New York limps in at sixth place.

For Jonathan Miller, one of Manhattans leading luxury real-estate consultants, all this
talk of Londons dominance is overblown. In my view New York is still number one, he
said.

Like London, Miller said New York was experiencing a surge in interest from foreign
investors. In 28 years of real estate appraisals, he said the property market had only
seen a similar explosion in foreign interest in 2007. In the last three years, theres been a
tremendous amount of European, Chinese and South American investorsVenezuelans
and Brazilians, he said. We are seeing investors from the Middle East and Russia but
nothing like London. Not even close. I think its a pragmatic decision, a practical
decision because of travel.
Bullish Miller insisted London should still be in second place but he said the new
occupant of City Hall could be a cause for concern. Im not saying De Blasio is the
reason London has overtaken New York, he said. But theres a new mayor and a new
party after 12 years of the most pro-development mayor in New York history. Investors
are not excited about uncertainty.

Indeed, its the security of investing in property in both New York and London that has
helped to transform both into international hubs. Many UHNWIs see the luxury property
market in these cities as a kind of global reserve currency that offers safety from
fluctuating markets and unstable governments at home.

As Vladimir Putin sends troops into Crimea, attracting international condemnation and
a tanking Russian stock market, the Wealth Report suggests that 37 percent of UHNWIs
in Russia are considering a move abroad. London is their most likely destination for a
number of reasons. In the 1990s, the British government introduced an investment visa,
which substantially improved work permit chances if a foreign national invested $1.5
million in the country; none of the oligarchs who subsequently moved to London has
been extradited back to Russia; and off-shore incomes are rarely scrutinized by the
British taxman.


Dr. Pippa Malmgren, a former White House economic advisor, explained in the report
that tax advantages had benefitted the wealthy moving to London. I would argue
that the UK has now emerged as the worlds most attractive residence for
nondomiciles, she said. The crackdown on tax havens in Switzerland has removed
these old options for new capital. As a result, there has been a huge influx of global
capital into the UK.

Citizens from fellow members of the European Union also have virtually unlimited ability
to live and work in Britain. The result has been a recent influx of foreigners into London,
making it a thriving multi-national conglomeration of the global super-rich, and
European adventurers.

Stephen Bayley, cultural critic and Londoner, said the fresh, foreign impetus had left
London unrivaled. Baalbek, Palmyra, Pompeii, Rome, Liverpool. New York can now be
added to that melancholy list of lustrous metropolises gone dull, he said. My son often
goes to what he calls New York, but he means Brooklyn. Williamsburg means to him
what SoHo once meant to me. He never goes to Manhattan because Manhattan
means old money, old values. It seems to have lost the sense of urgency and organic
vitality that made it great. Meanwhile, the strange thing about London, as the capital
of a conservative nation, is that its a city positively addicted to change.

Its an old truism that you dont finish a city, you start it. New York, a magnificent
catastrophe, was finished some time ago.

CITIES AS SYSTEMS: LONDON CASE STUDY

http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/learning_modules/geography/04.TU.01/?se
ction=3
2004, The Science Museum, all rights reserved. Making the Modern World is sponsored
by the ISB fund of the Treasury and the Cabinet Office.
Produced in partnership with mwr and Peter Symonds College, Winchester.


London has experienced great changes in its population which in turn has had
implications for the land area occupied and needs for inputs and outputs the basis for
any system. Sustainability depends on the nature and balance of the system. If the
system grows in total numbers, it will require more inputs and inevitably produce more
outputs. If the system reduces or increases in numbers of working age group, other
issues will ensue.


London comprises the following areas:

Inner London
Both inner and outer boroughs are within the administrative and political area of
London. Inner London includes the boroughs of the City, Greenwich, Westminster and
Camden. Between 1901 and 1981 inner London's population declined in the form of
decentralisation to outer suburbs and people seeking lower density housing and a
cleaner environment. This was encouraged by government policy to disperse people
and jobs beyond the green belt, established in the 1930s to contain sprawl. After 1991
this trend has reversed as regeneration schemes have encouraged more investment
and better quality of environment, especially in central and inner London.

Outer London
Outer London includes the suburban developments such as the boroughs of Bromley,
Richmond and Barnet. Outer London developed with the growth of the railways and
the underground, which subsumed rural areas around London as the conurbation
developed. Between 1941 and 1991, the population of outer London declined as
people moved further out into the southeast.

Greater London
Greater London is the sum total of inner and outer London. It is the main administrative
area now presided over by the Mayor.

Metropolitan Area
This extends beyond the green belt and is the functional area of London. Metropolitan
London is the main geographical region based on the 'travel to work' area.

The graph below illustrates the changes in total population in these areas, which
London has experienced since 1891.

It is critical for a sustainable city to reach a positive balance. Inputs into a city include
people and goods, water and energy. Outputs again include people, and goods as
well as unwanted products such as sewage, air pollution and refuse.

Sustainability can be measured by having fewer outputs than inputs for example
when efficient recycling and waste reduction is achieved.

The following diagram shows how the spatial area of London, and hence its demands
via inputs and outputs, have increased dramatically over time.