Category: Uncategorized

“That is why this week’s release of this study by Wendell Cox and E.J. McMahon of The Empire Center is so striking. The authors calculate U.S. migration patterns between 2000 and 2008. New York, on net, lost over 1.5 million people. California lost 1.3 million. Illinois lost over half a million. Michigan and New Jersey round out the top five each losing over 400,000 people.”

Wendell on The Mercatus Center

“According to official statistics, the unemployment rate in the United States is now 9.8 percent. But those statistics understate the severity of the jobs crisis. The official statistics do not include the 875,000 Americans who have given up looking for work, even though they want jobs. When these “marginally attached” workers and part-time workers are added to the officially unemployed, the result, according to another, broader governement measure of unemployment known as “U-6,” is shocking. The United States has an unemployment rate of 17 percent.”

Michael in Salon

“Wendell Cox, an Illinois-based researcher who led the study, said New York, particularly in the New York City area, had seen home prices greatly outpace incomes compared with other states. Also, New York is among the highest taxed states in the country, he said.”

Wendell on RocEarth

“’Uncool Cities’ by Joel Kotkin argues the complete other side of the argument presented by Richard Florida. Kotkin’s argument is that a city will not grow if it only appeals to the creative class. His focus is on how cities are losing population to the suburbs. He also focuses on the important aspects of a failing city such as housing, educational facilities, transportation methods, occupation issues and the issue of safety.”

Joel on Suburban Girl in the Big City

“Urban scholar Joel Kotkin, writing in Newsweek magazine, describes the American nomad as something of an endangered species: ‘Perhaps nothing will be as surprising about 21st century America as its settledness.’”

Joel in The Chicago Tribune

“In Newsweek this month, the American urban development scholar Joel Kotkin noted a fall in American movers. Between the 1970s and 2006, the proportion of Americans who shifted house each year fell from about 20 per cent to 14 per cent.”

Joel on The Age

As a puny yet honest attempt to show you that I actually read other things than plain economics I thought that I would share this piece with you on declining nomadism amongst Americans; it is written for Newsweek by author Joel Kotkin. I am not quite sure whether he believes the aging of the population to be the decisive factor contributing to the rise of localism which he speaks about or just a factor among many. I would presume that sociologists and historians could find an explanation for this development in their distinct theoretical tool kits too without invoking the demographic evolution. Although, it is tempting to go for a nostalgic narrative here I don’t think this is appropriate. To me, an increase in physical localism could go well hand in hand with an ever greater degree of global integration and social mobility in the non-physical sense.

Joel on IStock Analyst

“There’s been a missed opportunity here in showcasing the kind of youthful, optimistic, hopeful energy that greatly Obama benefited from during the campaign,” said Morley Winograd, a fellow at the Democratic think-tank NDN and co-author of the seminal book “Millennial Makeover,” an analysis of how the wired and online networked Millennial Generation is impacting politics. “But of course it does not at all mean that the opportunity has gone away.”

Morley on The Huffington Post

“You want people working. You don’t want them sinking deeper and deeper into depression,” says Michael Lind, policy director of the economic growth program at the centrist New America Foundation (NAF). Furthermore, he said in an interview, “Employers want to hire people who’ve been working recently. The longer you’ve been unemployed, the less attractive you are.”

Michael on Politics Daily

Joel on The Marriage Debate