Tale of Two Cities, 2.0

This issue is about the longstanding, multi-point rivalry between the cities of London and New York. We decided this would be an interesting topic to cover after seeing so many newspapers compare the performance of financial markets in both cities earlier this year. Our writers have taken the financial competition of NY and London as a centerpoint for this issue, and expanded upon other areas including culture, arts and even culinary delights. Here are our articles, for you to enjoy:

Financial Capitals
by Aditya Bothra
According to the Financial Times, London won a larger amount of IPOs in 2006 than New York City. What were the drivers behind London's success? Can New York recover its title?


Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk
by Vince Lau
London and New York are two of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Yet they are diverse in their own ways, and there are notable cultural differences between the them. Paradoxically, they also share many things in common.

Arts and the City
by Cathy Gao
"If London and New York were sisters, they would be the lovable Jane and Elizabeth Bennet from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice," writes Cathy in an excellent article comparing the two cities' art scenes.

London 2012
by Heidi Jen
In this excellent report, Heidi exposes the bidding timeline for the 2012 Olympics and London's ultimate success. She also analyzes the facts behind the victory, as well as New York's shortcomings in the process.

London Cuisine: A Defense
by Kevin Ng
Our layout artist, and more importantly, food connoisseur, dispells the longstanding bias against British food by exposing some fine dishes to be found in the country's capital.


Letters Abroad: London
Igor Bakharev; Weijia Li
The lattest contributions to our Letters from Abroad column were made by two fellow Sternies spending their semester abroad in London. Their intimate accounts of life in that city adds an excellent personal touch to our issue.

International Study Program (ISP) 2007

In the second major update of our blog, we are delighted to bring you our full coverage of Stern's International Study Program. An earlier generation of IBA leaders created ISP for the Stern community, and we now enhance that experience by prodiving students an opportunity to learn more about the cities they are travelling to in 2007. This is a one stop guide to Berlin, Hong Kong and Santiago de Chile, written by our very own Sternies.

It is also our pleasure to feature an interview with Dean Choi, who talked to us about the origins, mission and future outlook of ISP.

In a vivid essay comparing this year's ISP destinations, Vince Lau takes us from age-old European cathedrals to happy hour in Tokyo. Read "The Red Cape."

To our esteemed Juniors: please look out for IBA's ISP Travel Guide, which will give you detailed travel information for ISP cities of 2007. It is being written by our Seniors, with all the tips and tricks on what to do and where to go once you are an ocean away from 40 West 4th.