Paper Belt

The Paper Belt is an informal analogic term referring to the four metropolitan areas where several important industries and political infrastructures converged during the post-war era: Boston (education), New York City (publishing, finance), Los Angeles (media, Hollywood) and Washington DC (politics, law).

It came into attention after Balaji S. Srinivasan's talk titled Silicon Valley’s ultimate exit. In the context of the talk, the term was used as a contrast with the emerging influence-structure of Silicon Valley.