The Rise of the Efficient City

Appearing in: Wall Street Journal Smaller, more nimble urban regions promise a better life than the congested megalopolis. Most of the world’s population now lives in cities. To many academics, […]

California Suggests Suicide; Texas Asks: Can I Lend You a Knife?

Appearing in: Forbes.com In the future, historians may likely mark the 2010 midterm elections as the end of the California era and the beginning of the Texas one. In one […]

Welcome to Recoveryland: The Top 10 Places in America Poised for Recovery

Appearing in: Newsweek Like a massive tornado, the Great Recession up-ended the topography of America. But even as vast parts of the country were laid low, some cities withstood the […]

The New World Order

Appearing in: Newsweek Tribal ties—race, ethnicity, and religion—are becoming more important than borders. For centuries we have used maps to delineate borders that have been defined by politics. But it […]

The Smackdown Of The Creative Class

Appearing in: Forbes.com Two years ago I hailed Barack Obama’s election as “the triumph of the creative class.” Yesterday everything reversed, as middle-class Americans smacked down their putative new ruling […]

Toward a Continental Growth Strategy

Appearing in: The American North America remains easily the most favored continent both by demography and resources. The political party that harnesses this reality will own the political future. America […]

Suburban Nation, but Urban Policies

Appearing in: Politico Ideologues may set the tone for the national debate, but geography and demography determine elections. In America, the dominant geography continues to be suburbia – home to […]

Prosperity Index Shows That Democracy Still Works Best

Appearing in: Forbes.com With the Cold War well behind us, the real choice between systems lies in a growing variation in the form of capitalisms. Choices now range from the […]

Who’s Racist Now? Europe’s Increasing Intolerance

Appearing in: Forbes.com With the rising tide of terrorist threats across Europe, one can somewhat understandably expect a   surge in Islamophobia across the West. Yet in a contest to see […]

North America’s Fastest-Growing Cities

Appearing in: Forbes.com The U.S. and Canada’s emerging cities are not experiencing the kind of super-charged growth one sees in urban areas of the developing world, notably China and India. […]