Will Chicago be America's future business center?

Most countries have a city were the majority of coporations and businesses form a commercial center. In England, it is London. In Italy it is Milan and in Switzerland, it's Zurich.
With so many people and businesses moving to Chicago and so many New Yorkers moving into New Jersey and PA, could Chicago take its place as the financial headquarters of the US?
The main obstacles I see are the location of the federal resereve and the major stock exchanges, but they can be moved and New York would have room to expand for new business and immagration.

I can't see it happening. It is not an unprecedented event (Toronto overtook Montreal as Canada's financial capitol), but it would require a major political upheaval (ie: Quebec separatists) to cause such a transformation.

It is going to take a major calamity to dislodge NYC from the top spot.

It would require the near destruction of New York for that to occur. Even then, I can think of other cities that would more likely fill that spot.

never

No, I do not think that will ever happen as it makes no commercial sense. New York is the financial center of North America, and one of the most influential Financial Center in the world.

No, I don't think so... Chicago is a nice clean city that is very rich in culture and arts but there are some draw backs...

1) It is surrounded by rural conservatives... that never attracts business to anything except Wal-Mart.

2) It is not close to any other countries except Canada - so unless we plan to start doing most of our business with Canada...

3) The educational institution in Chicago is Arts and Medicine... advertising and hospitals - that's all you get.

Hope that doesn't crush your hopes for the Windy City any more than the last few Cubs games.

Well I was born and raised in Chicago, and things have changed a lot in the city. But most of the people who actually live in the city are not from Chicago. Most people that grew up here prefer to more to New York or LA, because of the better jobs. Not to say that you can't earn a decent living here. I don't see Chicago being a "bigger" hub for companies outside of what it is now. I think after Sept. 11 people are driving themselves crazy with fear and feel that city can't be affected by terrorism or natural disasters...etc.

Take a look at the recent Economist survey of Chicago.

"Chicago was essentially founded and run by businessmen in the 19th century...Their readiness to put their money where their mouth was resulted in a number of really quite big projects, such as reversing rivers, building bridges, draining swamps and jacking buildings up out of the swamp in order to get the city working...The dividends that are now being paid result really from a lot of decisions that were taken over 100 years."

Concerning business:

The city successfully enticed the HQ of Mittal Steel and Boeing.
Close to a global gateway: O'Hare
Also it has "dominance of its exchanges in the world trading of futures and derivatives", like the Chicago Merchantile Exchange, already the world's largest futures and deritivate exchange.

So yes, it has the potential to become America's future business center.