Newgeography.com - Economic, demographic, and political commentary about places

A newspaper headline “Fleeing locals ease population pressure on New South Wales” highlights a trend over the last few years. Since 2002 the Australian state of New South Wales, the country’s most populous with over seven million residents, has been losing its residents to other states at some 20,000 per year.  read more »

Can housing costs get so high that they repel new migrants, and stunt a metropolitan area’s economic growth?

For potential migrants looking for a job, metropolitan areas—and in particular large metropolitan areas—are the places to be. People move in because that's where the jobs are. More than 93% of non-farm jobs in the U.S. are in the 100 largest metropolitan areas. The biggest 15 metro areas account for 34% of the nation’s jobs. Big places also have the benefits of cultural amenities, educational institutions, and impressive retail and restaurant environments.  read more »

Financial reform might irk Wall Street, but the president’s real problem is with small businesses—the engine of any serious recovery. Joel Kotkin on what he could have done differently.  read more »

The ten story of mural of LeBron James is coming down in Cleveland. This one hurts. James wasn't just the latest embodiment of Cleveland's hopes, he was a local kid who, unlike so many, had stayed home in Northeast Ohio. His joining of the Cleveland exodus at a time of severe economic distress prompted Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert to pen a now infamous open letter to fans:  read more »

Class, the Industrial Revolution’s great political dividing line, is enjoying Information Age resurgence. It now threatens the political future of presidents, prime ministers and even Politburo chiefs.

As in the Industrial Age, new technology is displacing whole groups of people — blue- and white-collar workers — as it boosts productivity and creates opportunities for others. Inequality is on the rise — from the developing world to historically egalitarian Scandinavia and Britain.  read more »

In a time when many European nations are burdened by high debts and difficulties to get spending under control, the Swedish economy is amongst the most well managed in Western Europe.

The nation’s GDP fell dramatically, by more than four percent, when the financial crisis struck. This decline was twice the average of the OECD-15 countries. Despite this, Swedish employment actually increased between the last quarter of 2006 and 2009.  read more »

Anyone who challenges the notion that the long predicted exodus of people from the suburbs to the city has been wildly overstated is sure to generate some backlash from urban boosters. Alan Berube of the Brookings Institution contends in a New Republic column that "head counts" better reveal city trends than property trends or the massive condo bust.  read more »

It’s only been a couple of years since a red-hot real estate market had our city riding high. The market turned out to be a bubble, of course, and it eventually burst. Gone is the giddiness that comes when folks convince themselves that real estate or high tech stocks or any other trend or commodity can defy gravity and continue upward forever.

Yet giddiness isn’t the only thing that’s been lost. Ideas have disappeared from the political landscape of Los Angeles.  read more »

A year ago we were hearing all about green shoots. Analysts claimed to find them everywhere.

Today, we never see the term. In fact, there seems to be a growing malaise. By the end of June the first quarter’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimate was revised downward a full half a percent, to 2.7 percent. Pundits are depressed.  read more »

Some 40 million Americans are now over age 65, and about 6 million are over 85. In the land of Denny’s, anyone over 55 can order the senior platters. Would I be right in guessing that 30 million American children spend part of their time looking after their parents?

Like many baby boomers, I spend a considerable amount of my time in the company of my ninety-something parents. That involves fixing meals, opening car doors, reading Maureen Dowd aloud from the newspaper, adjusting hearing aids, listening to doctors, cleaning out the garage, and cajoling them to eat more or less food.  read more »