Articles - Joel Kotkin

The Age of Amnesia

July 17, 2019/in Politics /by Joel Kotkin

We live, as the Indian essayist Saeed Akhter Mirza has put it, in “an age of amnesia.” Across the world, most notably in the West, we are discarding the knowledge and insights passed down over millennia

Public Domain

The Great Conservative Suicide Pact

July 16, 2019/in Politics /by Joel Kotkin

Call it a conservative suicide pact and you won’t be far off. Conservative free-market fundamentalists with disproportionate influence on GOP policy are advancing plans that would divorce capitalism from the small property owners whose pieces of property secure the system’s popular support.

The Dangerous Rise of the Woke Corporation

July 15, 2019/in Politics, The Economy /by Joel Kotkin

It would be comforting if Nike’s decision to ditch its “Betsy Ross” flag sneakers was exceptional, but, sadly, it is not. Increasingly, many of our most powerful companies eagerly kowtow to the purveyors of political correctness — such as those who compared the revolutionary banner to the Nazi swastika flag or that of the Confederacy.

California Can’t Afford to Be an Economic One-Trick Pony

July 8, 2019/in California, The Economy /by Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky

For the past decade, the soaring stock prices and nosebleed valuations of Silicon Valley’s IPOs and tech sector unicorns has been a boon for California, helping create a record budget surplus of almost $22 billion. Yet this bonanza has occurred just as the state’s overall job creation, once among the country’s leaders, has slowed to a more middle of the road status.

Reparations and the Racial Republic

July 2, 2019/in Politics, The Economy /by Joel Kotkin

America was conceived with the highest ideals about humanity — “all men are created equal” — but operated also as a racial republic, where rights were delineated by race, leaving only white males with the full set of powers.

Judenrein Europe

July 1, 2019/in Politics, Religion /by Joel Kotkin

In 1920 Europe was home to over half of world Jewry and many of its most creative, dynamic communities; today it contains barely 10% of the world’s Jews. Europe will not become completely judenrein in the near future. But the signs of decline are everywhere and the endpoint to which they lead appears inescapable.

The Rise of the Intolerant Left

June 27, 2019/in Politics, The Economy, Urban Affairs /by Joel Kotkin

In the past, the right, notably the segment affiliated with religious belief, was closely associated with censorship and control of thought. Today, enforced orthodoxy derives primarily from the left, emboldened by near total control of the media, university curricula and cultural products.

China’s Urban Crisis

June 24, 2019/in Urban Affairs /by Joel Kotkin

The scale of China’s urban migration is staggering; however, authoritarian planning, rising class tensions, and sophisticated population surveillance cast a shadow on the country’s rapidly growing cities.

What Do the Oligarchs Have In Mind For Us?

June 24, 2019/in Politics, Urban Affairs /by Joel Kotkin

The recent movement to investigate, and even break up, the current tech oligarchy has gained support on both sides of the Atlantic, and even leapt across the gaping divide in American politics. The immediate concerns relate to such things as the control of key markets by one or two firms, the huge concentration of wealth accruing to the tech elite and, increasingly, the oligarchy’s control over and manipulation of information pipelines.