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Originally Posted by JManc
Exactly and that's what makes New York and DC so powerful is that they attract top talent from all over. London and Paris comprise a much larger percentage of the UK's and France's population (respectively) where as the US is far far less decentralized population-wise. And Paris and London are New York and DC squeezed into one city.
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The bigger difference is that the U.K. and France are unitary states versus our federal system. Federations tend to be decentralized (U.S., Canada, Germany, Brazil, Australia, etc.), and the capital usually serves a single function as just the political center. Off the top of my head, the only federations that I can think of where the capital is also the financial and cultural center are Mexico and Argentina. Berlin has a weird status as the political and cultural center, but not the financial center.
In federations like Canada, Brazil, and Australia, the capital is a geographically isolated and relatively dull place, like it was meant to be in the U.S. (And like it actually was in the U.S. until about the mid-20th century.)