California’s Choice – Growth or Decline

Appearing in: Orange County Register I’ve been friends with Charlie Sena for almost two decades. Charlie, a longtime entrepreneur, Democratic political operative and fundraiser for former Gov. Gray Davis, recently […]

Inland California Needs to Get in the Zone

Appearing in: Orange County Register California’s dream is shrinking inexorably, and only radical steps can prevent the condition from becoming permanent. Compared with previous economic expansions, fewer state residents and […]

Watch What You Say, The New Liberal Power Elite Won’t Tolerate Dissent

Appearing in: The Daily Beast In ways not seen since at least the McCarthy era, Americans are finding themselves increasingly constrained by a rising class—what I call the progressive Clerisy—that […]

Shaking Off The Rust: Cleveland Workforce Gets Younger And Smarter

Appearing in: Forbes In virtually every regional economic or demographic analysis that I conduct for Forbes, Rust Belt metro areas tend to do very poorly. But there’s a way that […]

Pandering to the Minority Vote

Appearing in: Orange County Register As they approach what could be a troublesome election season, Democratic party strategists have targeted two issues – inequality and race – as their primary means to […]

The Cities Winning The Battle For Information Jobs 2014

Appearing in: Forbes In the town of Verona on the rural fringes of Madison, Wisc., there’s a Google – like campus that houses one of the country’s most rapidly growing tech […]

Three-headed Democratic Party

Appearing in: Orange County Register As they face the midterm elections with the wind in their faces, Democrats increasingly stake their collective political future on the issue of inequality. The […]

Taking a Back Seat to Texas

Appearing in: Orange County Register The most important news recently to hit Southern California did not involve the heinous Donald Sterling, but Toyota’s decision to pull its U.S. headquarters out […]

Reversing American Decline

Appearing in: New York Daily News Across broad ideological lines, Americans now foresee a dismal, downwardly mobile future for the country’s middle and working classes. While previous generations generally did […]

The Best Small And Midsize Cities For Jobs 2014

Appearing in: Forbes In the classic television show “The Honeymooners,” many jokes were wrung out of bus driver Ralph Cramden’s membership in the International Brotherhood of Loyal Raccoons, headquartered in […]