Some metropolitan areas continue to have higher costs of living relative to the national average. The most important component is the extent to which higher housing costs contribute to these differences. Our Urban Reform Institute Standard of Living Index showed that more than 85% of the difference between costs in the more expensive metropolitan areas and the nation was attributable to housing (Figure 1).  read more »

The record meltdown of Meta stock earlier this month suggests turbulence in the tech world and a difficult period ahead for the company formerly known as Facebook. But even as Meta’s stock has fallen, the record profits being posted by fellow oligarchical tech firms Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon indicates that Silicon Valley’s hegemony is far from over.  read more »

It’s always been in the background of the nation’s ongoing transition to electric transportation, but now a significant reality has been brought to the forefront by some data-crunching journalists: There’s a strong regional divide in our willingness to adopt EVs.  read more »

The current crises in eastern Europe reflect more than just Kremlin mischief-making—they reflect the first fruits of an emerging world order that spans the vastness from Beijing to Berlin. Unlike the longstanding liberal status quo, with its roots in classical civilization and the Enlightenment, this emerging alternative draws upon a mélange of German geopolitics, the legacy of Chinese emperors, the Mongols, and Orthodox Russian autocracy.  read more »

Cities which rise up as centers of prosperity and opportunity are places that ensure an emphasis on learning and innovation, a culture of openness to newcomers and unorthodox ideas, a favorable environment for commerce, a relatively good quality of life for residents, and a strong sense of shared community. The geography of opportunity is always evolving, as some cities emerge as centers of opportunity while others decline, with enormous consequences for people, places, and, indeed, civilizations.  read more »

Canada has released early results of the 2021 Census, with a detailed analysis of growth in Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs). Among the 41 metropolitan areas, 77% of the population growth between the 2016 and 2021 censuses was in the suburbs, with 23% in the urban core (Figure 1). The suburbs have 78.5% of the total CMA population, with 21.5% in the urban core (Figure 2)  read more »

Roughly a half century ago, rising energy prices devastated Western economies, helping make the autocrats of the Middle East insanely rich while propping up the slowly disintegrating Soviet empire. Today the world is again reeling from soaring energy prices; but this time the wound is self-inflicted — a product of misguided policies meant to accelerate the transition to green energy.  read more »

There are lots of ways of measuring how New Zealand is doing, and none of them is perfect.

We stack up very well on measures like life expectancy, unemployment, infant mortality, and car ownership.  read more »

I recently enjoyed a podcast where the two hosts engaged in a bit of banter about real estate. One had gradually purchased a few homes in a row along the same street and compared them to the little houses in the game of Monopoly.  read more »

Enthusiasts of “the new economy” long cherished the notion that it would be different from the unenlightened, sluggish, and piggish older one. Yet our economy seems increasingly to resemble not some hippy capitalist utopia, but the deeply concentrated economy of pre-war Japan.  read more »