Paul Ryan photo by Gage Skidmore

The End of the ‘Libertarian Moment’

Departing Speaker Paul Ryan may have been personally a cut above his critics on the right and left, but he ended up the victim of his own ideology. Now intellectual right-wingers fear that the much anticipated “libertarian moment” has come and gone.

Suburbs Could End Up On The Cutting Edge of Urban Change

Americans continue to do what they have done for at least a half century – spread out, innovate and, in the process, re-create the urban form. Overwhelmingly, suburbs are where most growth is happening. Since 2010 suburbs and exurbs have produced roughly 80 percent of all new jobs.

Suburbia booms as out-migration from megacities accelerates.

What the Census Numbers Tell Us

by Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox — Population growth in New York, L.A., and other big coastal centers lags that of more affordable midsize metros, where Americans are moving. The most recent Census population estimates revealed something that the mainstream media would prefer to ignore—out-migration from big cities, including New York.

Daly City, California

Landless Americans Are the New Serf Class

For the better part of the past century, the American dream was defined, in large part, by that “universal aspiration” to own a home. As housing prices continue to outstrip household income, that’s changing as more and more younger Americans are ending up landless, and not by choice.

Is This the End for the Neoliberal World Order?

Whatever his grievous shortcomings, President Trump has succeeded in one thing: smashing the once imposing edifice of neoliberalism. His presidency rejects the neoliberal globalist perspective on trade, immigration and foreign relations, including a penchant for military intervention, that has dominated both parties’ political establishments for well over two decades.

Southern California's newport Harbor

Southern California Needs A Better Marketing Strategy

by Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky — Largely invented, a semi-desert far from the metropolitan heartland of the nation, Southern California has relied on a combination of engineering genius and marketing bravado. The constructed infrastructure has become creaky, but still functions.

California’s Housing Crisis and the Density Delusion

by Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox — Once seen as a human-scale alternative to high density cities of the past, California’s cities are targeted by policy makers and planners who claim ever greater densification will help relieve the state’s severe housing crisis.

Public domain photo of roughnecks at an oil well, by NIOSH

Where Small Town America Is Thriving

by Joel Kotkin and Mark Schill — Big city America has long demonstrated a distaste for its smaller cousins. While many of these smaller communities are in demographic decline as the ambitious young go elsewhere, smaller communities are far more diverse — and have far greater potential — than is commonly believed.

Senate Chamber at the California State Capitol

Left and Lefter in California

by Joel Kotkin — The California Democratic Party’s refusal to endorse the reelection of Senator Dianne Feinstein represents a breaking point both for the state’s progressives and, arguably, the future of the party nationwide.

The Evilution of Silicon Valley

How Silicon Valley Went From ‘Don’t Be Evil’ to Doing Evil

Once seen as the saviors of America’s economy, Silicon Valley is turning into something more of an emerging axis of evil. “Brain-hacking” tech companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon, as one prominent tech investor puts it, have become so intrusive as to alarm critics on both right and left.