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The answer is NO, but New York City is the closest! At least, that's what a recent report, , claims. This report is result of a research study conducted by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, A.T. Kearny, and Washington Post.

60 cities, including the world's biggest & most interconnected cities, were ranked based on the dimensions of Business Activity, Human Capital, Information Exchange, Cultural Experience, and Political Engagement. Some of the highlights are provided below, but read the to find out which cities are bearing the brunt of the world's financial meltdown, where is crime the highest, and where is climate a major concern.

This is probably not the best economy for European luxury brands such as Versace, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Bulgari, and Gucci. A discussed the impact of Japanese consumers on these major European fashion houses. After the U.S., Japan is the next biggest market for luxury goods. Fashion houses are targeting this market to increase sales. Louis Vuitton is taking steps to form an extra special relationship with their wealthy Japanese customers. However, this strategy will not solve the loss of thousands of Japanese secretaries who used to pay off the most recent handbags in credit card installments. The European fashion houses are going to have to develop a new strategy to keep their middle class customers in Japan during these rough economic times.

The globalEDGE website is run by , which is one of 31 CIBERs across the U.S. CIBER stands for Center for International Business Education and Research. Another in D.C. recently held a discussion on the origins and implications of the current global financial crisis. It was a very interesting panel discussion with some extremely bright individuals offering a unique perspective not influenced by the mass-media. There is a video you can watch here: . Be sure to check it out!

Last week I attended a luncheon hosted by the , which focused in part on the importance of free trade. Erik Magdanz of the U.S. Department of State was the keynote speaker, and he had sparked my interest in some current free trade issues. One statistic in particular caught my attention – in 2006, countries that the United States has free trade agreements with accounted for only 7.5% of world GDP, yet they accounted for 42.6% of U.S. exports.

The week of November 17-23, 2008 will be the first ever Global Entrepreneurship Week. The week will be a coordinated effort of dozens of countries across the globe coordinating activities aimed at young people. Why? To think big. To turn their ideas into reality. To make their mark. Additional details such as participation in the various activities and/or sponsorship opportunities can be found on the following website: . Also check out their blog: .

Recently President Bush and heads of state from 11 other nations in the Western hemisphere met in New York to sign the initiative. The agreement focuses on further cementing regional “trade and investment liberalization, social inclusion, development, rule of law, and democracy.” Although the agreement is largely symbolic at this point, talks are planned for the end of the year to discuss possible policy changes that can advance the goals of the initiative. In his formal announcement of the agreement, president Bush declared that the deal provided “a forum where leaders can work to ensure that the benefits of trade are broadly shared,” and expressed optimism that cooperation would enhance and strengthen the relations between all signatory nations.

Medical tourism refers to people who go to foreign countries to get medical help. In recent years, the popularity of medical tourism has been increasing. There are many factors that have contributed to this – high costs of in industrialized countries, waiting lists in countries with public healthcare, ease and affordability of international travel, and better technology across the world.

The domination of English literature and jounalism did not stop users of other languages from contributing to the diversity of global communication. Arabs are a good example of this. Taking advantage of wealth from oil export, they are making efforts to ahieve the popularity of Arabic literature worldwide. For example, on Oct 15th, Bloomsbury announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair that it will launch an Arabic Language publishing house in . Another multimedia centre is going to be stationed in Abu Dhabi, the ' capital. The purpose of these centres are to train and develop Arabic talent in jounalism, publishing, or broadcasting, who can hopefully build to the success of Egypt's Alaa Al-Aswany and Afganistan-Born Khaled Hosseini; both of them have been international bestsellers. In fact, lots of western readers have interest in Arabic literature, and the recent promotions of Arabic literature are to fulfill "the desire of ordinary people in the west and in the arab world to engage with each other."

Full article can be found here .

In the midst of a housing bubble, sub-prime mortgage crisis, an unpopular war, and the stock market steadily declining, it stands to reason that many Americans, nay, citizens of the world are worried about the future of the financial world. Our business world has been built on the "magic of the market" and "success of the fittest," which provided the booms throughout the century that shaped the contemporary market. However, in an article by , Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd argues, the global economic crisis is a result of the "comprehensive failure of extreme capitalism."

For many years Americans looked at as a place for vacation and not as a place for economic innovation. However, recent events have proved them wrong – Europeans have proven themselves better at solving financial problems.

Many Europeans feel very triumphant now as Leon Brittan, who served as Home Secretary under Margaret Thatcher and was a top official at the European Commission, says that "There’s no doubt that it was a British plan that was copied by the U.S." As the financial crisis deepened, Europeans came up with a bailout plan that has set up the pace for Washington. This was clear when the Treasury Department decided to depart from its own bailout plan and invest up to $250 billion in banks across the . And that outcome left Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, in something of a commanding position to claim the title of wise men.