最新研究称，稳定的法律和经济构架、透明的商业监管，让伦敦成为全球经济中最重要的城市。

A stable legal and economic framework and transparent¹ business regulation make London the most important city in the world economy, according to new research.

由万事达(Mastercard)委托撰写的这份报告，对全球50大商业中心城市进行了排名。纽约不敌伦敦，屈居第二，东京名列第三，芝加哥名列第四。这份报告进一步证实了另外几份报告的结果：金融业务比例下降、公司对严格监管叫苦不迭，威胁到了纽约作为全球首要金融之都的地位。

A report on the top 50 centres of commerce, commissioned by MasterCard, shows London beating New York into second place, with Tokyo third and Chicago fourth. It confirms what several other reports have shown: that a falling share of financial business and complaints about heavy-handed regulation have challenged New York's position as the world's pre-eminent financial capital.

这一排名结合了6项商业实力指标，其中包括财务流、业务量以及知识创造和分配。报告由一组专门研究经济、商业、城市研究和金融的学者撰写。 The index combines six measures of commercial power, including flows of finance, volumes of business and the creation and dissemination² of knowledge. It was developed by a team of academics specialising in economics, business, urban studies and finance.

这份报告并不打算对各城市经商的难易程度简单地进行一个竞争性排名，而是把各项产出标准（如金融市场股票和债券交易量）与商业投入指标（如雇用工人、开设和关闭公司的容易程度）结合起来。

The index is not intended as a simple competitive ranking of the ease of doing business in cities, but mixes together measures of output, such as the volume of financial market transactions in equities³ and bonds, with indicators⁴ of business inputs⁵ such as the ease of employing workers and opening and closing businesses.

万事达经济顾问(Yuwa Hedrick-Wong)王月魂指出："这些指标之间有多层次的联系，具有双向因果关系。"

Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, economic adviser⁶ to MasterCard, said: "There are multiple layers of connectivity between the indicators, with causality running in both directions."

为伦敦市长肯o利文斯通(Ken⁷ Livingstone)主管经济和商业政策的罗思义(John Ross)表示，监管的可预见性和透明性是伦敦明显胜过纽约之处。他指出："我们没有美国那种繁重且越来越飘忽不定的监管。"

John Ross, director of economic and business policy for Ken Livingstone, mayor of London, said that the predictability and clarity of regulation were obvious advantages for London over New York. "We do not have the onerous⁸ and increasingly erratic⁹ regulation of the US," he said.

"我认为《萨班斯-奥克斯利法》(Sarbanes-Oxley Act)并不是最糟糕的方面。我接触过的企业也这么认为。最糟糕的是监管和政策方面争斗不休且独断专行的文化。"

"I don't think Sarbanes-Oxley is even the worst aspect of it, and nor do the companies I have talked to. It is the litigious and apparently¹⁰ arbitrary culture of regulation and policy."