Dennis RomeroLos Angeles is the biggest city in a state that has more billionaires than any other place except the United States itself and China. L.A. is home to the movie industry and to the largest ports in the nation, the latter of which are known to generate more than $1 billion a day in economic activity.
So, of course, Los Angeles has been determined to be one of the globe's most financially potent metropolises.
The folks at The Atlantic analyzed five world economic powerhouse lists to come up with its own ranking of “the world’s 25 most economically powerful cities on our combined Global City Economic Power Index.”
L.A. came in at seventh place, up from from ninth place in 2012, when The Atlantic last produced a similar ranking.
Some of the indexes used to construct the publication's list had Los Angeles even higher on their scales. The Brookings Institution's Global Metro Monitor had us at No. 3 behind Tokyo (first) and New York (second).
On A.T. Kearney's Global Cities Index, L.A. gets as far as sixth place.
On a second Atlantic list controlling for economic output per capita, L.A. again made seventh place.
Credit: The Atlantic
The Atlantic's main omni-list says New York is the most economically powerful city in the world. London (second), Tokyo (third), Hong Kong (fourth) and Paris (fifth) round out the top 5. At No. 6, Singapore just beat Los Angeles.
Seoul (eighth), Vienna (ninth) and Stockholm and Toronto (tied for 10th) wrap up the top 10. Other American cities on The Atlantic list include Chicago at No. 12, Boston at No. 18 and, in a tie for 23rd place, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
The publication says, “The world remains extremely spiky, with its economic gravitational pull increasingly rotating around a relatively small number of uber-powerful cities …”
It's good to know, at least, that we've taken shelter in one of those cities.
Send feedback and tips to the author. Follow Dennis Romero on Twitter at @dennisjromero. Follow L.A. Weekly News on Twitter at @laweeklynews.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.