Economics

A Tale of Two Americas

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Yesterday’s Midterms were not a victory for conservative or progressive ideology, but an assertion of the growing power of geography in American politics. It was less a national election than a clash of civilizations.  read more »

Housing Affordability in California: Part 2 — Urban Land Markets

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Harvard’s William Alonso showed that the value of residential land tends to increase from the rural uses on the urban fringe1 to centers of economic activity, such as central business districts.2  read more »

Biden, Trudeau Choose Green War on Oil and Gas Over Working Class

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Canadians, outside of dual citizens, can’t vote in America’s midterms, but the results may well shape the country’s trajectory in the years to come.  read more »

How Big is the Working Class — and Why Does It Matter?

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Americans without bachelor’s degrees outnumber college grads 2 to 1. But if you and most people you know and have ever known are college graduates, you might not realize that most Americans are not like you and your cohort.  read more »

Robbing Grandma to Pay Gaia

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Energy has to come from somewhere.

This may come as a shock to some, but if one plans to eliminate fossil fuels from the production equation, that energy creation capacity must be replaced.  read more »

Housing Affordability in California: Part 1 — The Situation

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There is probably no issue more requiring resolution in California than poor housing affordability. It is a threat to the preservation of the middle-class and the competitiveness of the state.  read more »

Europe Struggles to Catch Up to China and the US in Entrepreneurship

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Together with the USA and China, Europe is one of the three leading global economies. Yet, while Europe has a significantly larger population than the US, it is behind in economic production, and even more so in terms of highly successful entrepreneurship.  read more »

Ohio and the Battle for Populist America

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This midterm year, in which many states have to choose between non-entities and the certifiably insane, Ohio is blessed by a real political dogfight. The Senate battle between representative Tim Ryan and Hillbilly Elegy author, JD Vance, is becoming one for the ages.  read more »

Poverty Level Workers Use Cars in Commuting More than Others

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One of the principal justifications of public subsidies for transit has been to provide mobility for those with low incomes. There continues to be a presumption that low-income workers rely principally on transit for getting to work.  read more »

Our Mad Aristos

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In the past, ruling classes sought to protect the system that secured their coveted positions. But sometimes, as in the era before the French or Russian Revolutions, some in the ruling circles stopped believing in their religion, their traditions, and their state, only to be exiled, executed, or turned into what the Soviets called “former persons.”  read more »