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!