Now that Trump has been edged out of office, Joe Biden may emerge as the harbinger of a brighter, better blue future or as a version of Konstantin Chernenko, the aged timeserver who ran the Soviet Union in its dying days. To succeed, he will have to confront massive pessimism about America’s direction, with some 80 percent thinking the country is out of control. The Atlantic last year compared the U.S. to a “failed state,” while The Week predicts “dark days ahead.” read more »
Heartland
Can California Stop Big Tech from Decamping to Cheaper Places?
For the past half-century, California has dominated America’s tech industry. From the development of precision farming to the incubation of aircraft, space, semiconductors and computer systems, this state has emerged time and again at the cutting edge of future industries. read more »
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Are Great Lakes a Big Economic Advantage?
Denizens of the Great Lakes watershed long have looked at those five vast, deep, shimmering pools not only as an unmatched economic and cultural resource but also as the ultimate trump card. read more »
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Post-Pandemic Housing Reality, Alt Cities to CA-NYC Housing Boom
A crazy week with a *ton* of new items I'll only be able to partially get through in this post, including some followups to last week's post about California tech companies moving to Texas: read more »
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SIlicon Valley is Moving to Texas
On December 1st, Hewlett-Packard–which has been headquartered in Silicon Valley since 1939–announced that its corporate headquarters would move to Houston. read more »
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The Big Moves: Where People Are Moving
For decades, New York has been the leading exporter of people to other states, though has been severely challenged since 2000 by California. During five years around the housing bust, more net domestic migrants left California than New York. Then, for a time, California’s annual losses were not quite as severe read more »
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Let's Unite to Draw Distressed Coastal Residents
Thousands of people on the coasts are pleading for help getting out of the urban enclaves from which they once looked down their noses at us, out in Flyover Country.
How should we respond? By taking advantage of an economic-development opportunity for the ages. read more »
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After Election, We'll Still Be 'Forgotten Man'
Regardless of your politics, you have to agree that Donald Trump remembered the “forgotten man” and woman. Yet that particular class of American still seems forgotten, frankly – or deliberately overlooked. And that doesn’t bode well for Flyover Country no matter what happened in the election. read more »
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Efficiency and Effectiveness in Ohio Townships
For decades, political interests and academics have proposed measures to require consolidation of local governments under the assumption that “bigger-is-better,” and that larger governments are inherently more efficient. Often such initiatives equate efficiency with a smaller number of governments. The data indicates otherwise. read more »
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Americans Won't Live in the Pod
“No Bourgeois, No Democracy”
– Barrington Moore
Protecting and fighting for the middle class regularly dominates rhetoric on the Right and Left. Yet activists on both sides now often seek to undermine single-family home ownership, the linchpin of middle-class aspiration. read more »
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