Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
How the financial crash will reshape America
by Warren
According to the cover of the Atlantic, the economic crapstorm we’re currently weathering is going to not only throw piles of people out of work and cause general misery, it’s also going to remake America’s geography. Richard Florida, who you might remember from his book “The Rise of the Creative Class,” asserts that regions like the Sun Belt, which experienced massive growth during the housing bubble, will be in dire shape in years to come, as will old industrial cities like Detroit. New York might take less of a beating, due to the big influx of creative types and industries other than finance, though frankly I think Florida might be overstating his case in that instance. Strangely, though the cover says “Toronto wins,” due to multiculturalism and a diversified economy (oh yeah, and Canadian banks are a hell of a lot better off than American banks), there’s barely any mention of the city in the article itself.