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All about Wall Street!

The history of Wall Street goes back to the 17th century, at that time the future town of New York belonged to the Dutch colonial empire of America.The city was then called “New Amsterdam” and the colony was named “New Netherland”. This street thus formed the northern limit of “New Amsterdam” belonging to the Netherlanders.
But then, from where does this famous name come? Well those had built there a wooden wall to protect itself from the Indians and British colonists. The wall always resisted against battles but was demolished by the English in 1699.
However … there is another explanation concerning the name given to this place! Indeed, although the name “Wall street” stands for a wall which was situated in the current place of the street, “De Waal Straat” (Dutch name) does not refer to a wall, but to an important group of colonists who took part in the creation of “New Amsterdam”: French-speaking Walloons. In Dutch, a Walloon means “Waal”. Indeed, in the1630’s, the total population of "New Netherland" was of 300 people, including a large majority of Walloons.

Just after the explosion.
Federal Hall is at the right.

 An attack in Wall Street on September 16th, 1920 caused 38 deaths and 200 wounded.

At noon, a horse-drawn wagon passed on Wall Street and stopped across the street from the headquarters of the J.P. Morgan23 Wall Street, on the Financial District's busiest corner.  

The 38 victims were mostly young people who worked as messengers, stenographers, clerks and brokers. Many of the wounded suffered severe injuries.The bomb caused more than $2 million in property damage and destroyed most of the interior spaces of the Morgan building. The perpetrators were never found.

In 1889, the original New York Stock Exchange newspaper, ‘Customers' Afternoon Letter’, became the ‘Wall Street Journal’, in reference to the name of the current street. This media, published in the city of New York, still exists and has a great influence in the world of the economic daily newspapers. It was for a long time the more read newspaper of the United States of America, although now it is the second national after USA Today. It belongs to Dow Jones and Company.

The band.

On Wednesday, January 26, 2000, under the direction of the director Michael Moore, the rock group ‘Rage against the Machine’ played its title ‘Sleep now in the fire’ in front of the doors of the NYSE of Wall Street in order to turn its video clip. Creating a huge crowd in the street and occurring without authorization, the police interfered in order to put an end to the disorders. Who would have guessed that Wall Street had a rebellious rock'n'roll side!

Wall Street also inspired many directors! Many films are starring this famous street. Among these we can find Wolves of Wall Street. It is a fantastic film which does not concern the financial side. Released in 2002, it was directed by David DeCoteau.  

  

Another well known film about the street may be Wall Street. It was a drama film released on December 1, 1929 and was produced by Harry Cohn, directed by Roy William Neill, and starred Ralph Ince, Aileen Pringle, Sam De Grasse, Philip Strange, and Freddie Burke Frederick.  A widow (Aileen Pringle), believing she can ruin Ince by using his own methods, conspires with her husband's former partner (Sam De Grasse), but a strong friendship between Ince and Pringle's young son (Freddie Burke Frederick) changes things dramatically.

1987.

2010.

Wall Street is a 1987 American drama film released by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Oliver Stone, Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, and Daryl Hannah. The film tells the story of Bud Fox (Sheen), a young stockbroker desperate to succeed who becomes involved with his hero, Gordon Gekko (Douglas), a wealthy, unscrupulous corporate raider. This film had a huge success and even knew a sequel titled Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, also known as Wall Street 2, which was released on September 24, 2010. Stone, Douglas, and Sheen (for a brief cameo) were reunited with Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, and Frank Langella also starring in the film. Set in New York, the film takes place 23 years after the original and revolves around the 2008 financial crisis. 

The Cultural diversity in New York City

For many people, New York is considered as an international city, more than a American city, because of the many immigrants that live there. New York is a very famous city, because it is like an archetype of a nation of immigrants. The seven largest countries of origin of the millions of immigrants living in NYC are China (see the article about Chinatown), Jamaica, Russia, Italy, India, and the Dominican Republic.
In NYC, immigrants reunite in ethnic enclaves, where they can speak their mother tang, find products

Select Holy Days Officially Observed in New York City
Holy Day	Culture	Month (2006)
Eid al-Adha	Muslim	January
Asian Lunar New Year	East Asia	January
Ash Wednesday	Christian	March
Purim	Jewish	March
Nowruz	Iranian	March
Passover	Jewish	April
Good Friday	Christian	April
Shavuot	Jewish	June
Feast of Assumption	Catholic	August
Rosh Hashanah	Jewish	September
Yom Kippur	Jewish	October
Succoth	Jewish	October
Diwali	Hindu	October
Eid ul-Fitr	Muslim	October
All Saints Day	Catholic	November
Eid al-Adha	Muslim	December

 or food from their home country, or work and live with people with whom they share the same origins, culture ...

A crowd celebrating the Puerto Rican day Parade

NYC is considered as the second home and country for Indians, Russians, Latin Americans ...

The West Indian Labor Day Parade

Most of the events and parades that happens in New York was inherited from the immigrants, like the Puerto Rican Day Parade, or the West Indian Labor Day Parade.

New York is the city with the highest number of Jewish people in the world. There are even more Jewish people in New York than in Jerusalem ! This is why NYC's culture has kept some elements of the Jewish Culture, like the bagels.

Some famous New Yorkers are jewish, like the famous movie director Woody Allen.

4 Hot Spots to visit in New York City

The Empire State Building

1. The Empire State Building : It is considered as an american cultural icon in NYC. It is situated at the  intersection of 5th Avenue and West 34th Street. It was the tallest building of the world during 40 years. 

The Statue Of Liberty

2. The Statue of Liberty : also known as Liberty Enlightening the world, is the most famous monument of The United States. It is situated in NYC, on Liberty Island. It was designed by F.Bartholdi. Actually, the Statue of Liberty is a present from the french people to the Americans. It has become a symbol of freedom and welcomes the immigrants who come to the USA to live "The American Dream".

The Rockefeller Center

3. The Rockefeller Center : It is a complex of 19 buildings, situated between the 48th and 51st streets, in NYC. It was built by the Rockefeller family, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It is famously known for its ice skating, its Radio City Music Hall, and for its many shopping and restaurants. It is visited by millions of tourists every year.

Central Park

 4.Central Park : It is a public park, located in the center of Manhattan in NYC. It was officially opened in 1857. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1963, and is managed by the Central Park Conservacy. It is the most popular park in the USA.

NYC : An economic impulse center

Nowadays, New York has all the characteristics of a world city, sometimes people even call it "the world's capital". In fact, the economy of New York City is the biggest regional economy in the United States and the second largest city economy in the world after Tokyo. Just to have an idea, if New York was a nation, it would be the 16th largest economy in the world, behind South Korea. The New York metropolitan area had an estimated gross metropolitan product of $1.28 trillion in 2010, which means that its GDP is more than Belgium's one.

More precisely now, New York's economy is famous for its financial side. New York City is one of the world's two first financial centers, alongside London and is home to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the world's largest stock exchange. Wall Street in the "Financial District", in Lower Manhattan, is one of the main symbol of this financial power. 

View of Lower Manhattan.

 

Broad Street, with the New York Stock Exchange

Wall Street is the name of a street which goes to the east of Broadway in the direction of East River until South Street, while crossing a part of the Financial District. People use to consider that the heart of this district is located at the intersection between Wall Street and Broad Street. Indeed, the trade of actions is done in 11, Wall street, whereas NYSE is based in  18, Broad street. Gradually, Wall Street began to represent the whole district but also the most important stock exchange of the world, the NYSE. The term thus refers today to the New York financial world.

You already heard about Wall street, didn't you? I guess it was concerning the crisis in 2008, so what was it about and to what extent did it affect the whole world? The financial crisis started during the week of September 14th, 2008 when several American financial institutions entered in suspension of payment, and were saved 'in extremis' by the American Federal reserve (the insurance company AIG for example), or bought by competitors in better situation, or put in liquidation (Lehman Brothers). The crisis affected all the countries of the world, particularly in Europe where several financial institutions, with very serious problems, were saved by the intervention of the States and of the central banks (European Central bank in the Euro zone).  The financial crisis affected the economic activity especially by the demoralization of the households and the companies, the difficulties that had to face the banks and the decreasing number of credits (stronger selection of the borrowers). These factors affected the households' consumption and the investment of the companies.

 

Tower of the Bank of America.

NYC is the leading center of banking, finance and communication in the United States, with an overrepresentation of what people use to call the  « upper service sector », that is the high added value activities that need well qualified workers. Indeed, the financial sector employs 328 000 persons in New York. Another institution, the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), is specialized in raw materials.

Thanks to these advantages, many of the world's largest corporations locate their home offices in Manhattan and most of financial groups too. In 2007, twenty of the 500 biggest worldwide enterprises (by the business figure) were based in New York. It is still less than in Tokyo or Paris, but remains three times more than in Houston, thé second city of the US in this sector.We can fin Citigroup, JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs, but also insurors like  AIG and MetLife. And among these twenty, except the many financial groups, we can list the telecommunications group Verizon, the pharmaceutics enterprise Pfizer or  the media company Time Warner. Other companies are also really important, General Electric and IBM, are based in the suburbs of the city. Moreover, most of big companies of professional services, such as the audit company Pricewaterhouse or the lawyers Skadden, have important offices in NYC. 

The head office of the UNO in New York.

New York also welcomes institutions of a worldwide importance. Specially the head office of the UN Organisation based in Manhattan since 1951 and cultural centers such as the Metropolitan Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Lincoln Center or the universities of Columbia, New York and of the city of NY. 

The city is also the most important center for mass media, journalism and publishing in the United States, and is the preeminent arts center in the country. Creative industries such as advertising, fashion, design are a great source of employment with New York City possessing a strong competitive advantage in these industries. Now let's talk about the other sectors! New York's agricultural outputs are dairy products and other livestock, vegetables and apples. It may be because the nickname of the city is "the big apple", who knows? However, its industrial outputs are printing and publishing, scientific instruments, electric equipment, machinery, and chemical products.

           

Why not talk about exports, a huge factor of NY's role in globalisation? New York exports a wide variety of goods such as foodstuffs, commodities, minerals, manufactured goods, cut diamonds, and automobile parts. New York's top five export markets in 2004 were Canada ($30.2 billion), United Kingdom ($3.3 billion), Japan ($2.6 billion), Israel ($2.4 billion), and Switzerland ($1.8 billion). New York also beneficiates of important resources due to tourism (which is counted in exports): "the big apple" welcomed in 2003 about 2,3 millions of international tourists. The first visitors being the British (1,2 million a year), followed by the German (400 000 a year) and French (265 000). On the 20 first french touristic destinations, five are american, the first being NYC. Indeed the culture was brought to the whole world!

Empire State Of Mind By Jay Z & Alicia Keys & New York New York by Frank Sinatra

Jay Z's Empire State Of Mind, a song celebrating New York City

Frank Sinatra, New York New York

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