In these tough economic times, it is sometimes hard to think of a silver lining. But Richard Florida – the man who coined the term “the creative class” – proposes an interesting one: that what is bad for financial services businesses may be good for artists and psychiatrists.
Renting has seldom looked so good as now, as homeownership is increasingly associated with instability and fear.
Less than a month after taking office, the Obama administration unveiled its massive stimulus package aimed at recharging the lagging American economy – a staggering three-quarters of a trillion dollars. As the Harper administration rushes to dole out a $40-billion stimulus of its own, it’s high time to ask a simple question: Are we stimulating the right things?
There’s growing consensus this economic downturn is not only longer, deeper and nastier. It’s becoming clear this recession may prove transforming, potentially changing us personally, regionally, nationally — even globally — in fundamental ways.Once we emerge from this financial firestorm, the Tampa Bay area will have changed. And if it has not, maybe it should.
With unemployment climbing, tax collections plummeting, the real-estate market frozen and the population waning, Florida legislators convene the spring session at a pivotal moment.
In The Atlantic, economist Richard Florida takes a long view of the world economy. He says that long depressions are opportunities for the economy to reset itself. During these hard times, large numbers of people change their economic lives, taking the country into a new economic era.
This month’s Atlantic cover story posits that L.A. is one of the relatively few American places ideally situated to rise from the ashes of the recession. That’s because L.A. is a high metabolism big city with a strong creative base, urban theorist Richard Florida argues.
Lately some have been advocating that the government stop subsidizing home ownership, arguing that it locks people to a place, and when the economy goes sour people need the flexibility to go where the jobs are.