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"Globally, geographic mobility is increasing. A recent UN Development Program report goes so far as to call for even more migration. Ironically, Joel Kotkin sees a countertrend emerging in the United States."

Joel on Burgh Diaspora

"I think this is doomed. ... In the U.S., discretionary regulation tends to be corrupted. I want structural separation between retail banking and casino banking, where retail money couldn't be used to finance the proprietary trading."

Michael Lind on Bubble Meter

""They have done everything they can to build a good business location," says noted California writer, demographer and lecturer Joel Kotkin about the community of Ontario, Calif. "They have built the infrastructure." In addition to a thriving logistics scene, the environs of LA/Ontario International Airport also include such developments as the Ontario Airport Towers, above, developed by PGP Partners and Deutsche Asset Management."

Joel on Site Selection

"Fortune, of “America’s Most Livable Cities” fame, recently published a protest of all such rankings. Urbanist Joel Kotkin says he prefers cities of “ambitious migrants, families and entrepreneurs” to those promising “safety, sanitation or homogeneity.” Or advanced degrees, let’s say. Kotkin finds an urban standard in 17th-century Amsterdam, which Rene Descartes described as “an inventory of the possible.” Whatever its failures, Las Vegas passes that test."

Joel on Las Vegas Weekly

"The minimum wage in the United States today is far below what it was a few decades ago, thanks to inflation. At the same time, in the last generation wages have stagnated while roughly half of the gains from economic growth have gone to a tiny number of rich Americans. Many conservative economists and business executives argue that companies cannot afford high wages for ordinary workers. Aren't high salaries and bonuses costs as well? "

Michael on The Daily Doubter

"Wendell Cox, Joel Kotkin, James Heartfield, and Mark Pennington have devastating presentations on the effects of smart growth on housing (the Antiplanner talks on this subject as well)."

Joel and Wendell on The New America Foundation

"'They came here, they educated their kids, they had a pool and a house. That was the opportunity for a pretty broad section of society,' says Joel Kotkin, an urbanist at Chapman University, in Orange County. This was what attracted immigrants in their millions, flocking to industries – especially defence and aviation – that seemed to promise jobs for life. But the newcomers were mistaken. Levine, among millions of others, does not think California is a utopia now. 'California is going to take decades to fix,' he says."  read more »

"Twitter allows just 140 characters per 'tweet,' including spaces and punctuation. After a Republican member of Congress was ridiculed for tweeting during the State of the Union address this past February, Twitter usage exploded 3,700 percent in less than a year. By the time you pick up this article (or read it online), monthly U.S. Twitter users will outnumber the population of Texas—or possibly California."

Rick Cole on California City News

"Joel Kotkin predicts a move toward the political center due to California's economic woes and realization that 'California's experiment with ultra-progressive politics has gone terribly wrong.' New Geography"

Joel on LA Observed

"But oddly enough, that’s only a minor matter. Bigger questions are also at issue. And for a consideration of those questions, one might turn to Michael Lind, the former neoconservative who stepped back and decided all that stuff was nonsense, then gave us Up From Conservatism: Why the Right is Wrong for America (1996) and Made in Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics (2004). He likes rethinking things, even if no one else does."  read more »