"Jobs where empathy and "emotional intelligence" can be considered requirements, often personal service and "high touch" interactive positions, have by and large been immune to the creeping mechanization of the workplace. And here's the twist: most of these empathy-driven jobs are performed by women." This is a sci-fi bro movie waiting to happen.

Realosophy argues for taxes that reduce speculation in the condo market. I agree - the measures that Flaherty has taken to reign in the housing market all make it harder for actual people to buy the land they want to live in.

Has this really been sitting in my instapaper queue for a year? Anyway, he argues that a fundamental shift in the economy was the root cause of the depression as well as our current "recession".

(<a href="http://waxy.org">via</a>)

a series of graphs that will make you upset about income inequality in the US. (<a href="http://funkaoshi.com">via</a>)

on the Irish economic crisis. Nutshell: the decision to bail out private debt with public money was disastrous

Pitchfork Reviews Reviews on the economic underpinnings of chillwave music

fascinating. They kept their manufacturing & emphasized local growth over global expansion.

poor old Ireland.

I struggle with what to add here - perhaps some warnings that these 'decline of empire' pieces are becoming as generic as the Detroit ruin porn that prefigured them by a couple years. The authors have clearly been reading their Matt Taibbi, too. But nonetheless the piece effectively crystallizes a number of saddening trends, and signifies that in the world's eye, the US is transitioning from capitalism's hero a mere decade ago to its greatest victim.

I remember a book in the mid-90s calling L.A. "the capitol of the Third World" because of its lack of a middle class. Sounds like it went national.

An essential series of articles about the growing gulf between rich and poor in the US. Income disparity is now worse than it was in 1915, and the US has lower class mobility than the UK. "ncome distribution in the United States is more unequal than in Guyana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and roughly on par with Uruguay, Argentina, and Ecuador. Income inequality is actually declining in Latin America even as it continues to increase in the United States. Economically speaking, the richest nation on earth is starting to resemble a banana republic."

looks at the decline of US manufacturing from the point of view of Silicon Valley. Obviously related to the shrinking cities kick I've been on lately: the cities shrinking are the industrial centers, and the jobs have moved to Asia. There is something cruel about the idea of a North American economy with no manufacturing ("we used to make shit in this town" - The Wire). via <a href="http://funkaoshi.com>Funkaoshi</a>

could need a federal bailout, as it's "too big to fail". (via <a href="http://funkaoshi.com">funkaoshi</a>

As bad now as it was in the twenties. Canada's not much better.

The National Post covers Broken City Lab, the artists I'm following doc-style. They actually got the cover of the NP's Arts Quarterly, which is pretty cool.

"Secure a spot in a Trade School class by meeting one of the teacher’s barter needs.”

The Guardian's Big Detroit Article is a lot better than Time's was

sounds like an Onion article.

CIBC economist has some surprisingly optimistic peak oil theories

question is (in my mind): are there enough jobs in the local "creative economy" to support a city? How about all cities? (seeing as this is a form of the Richard Florida formula that's prescribed to every city nowadays)

optimistic but nonetheless fascinating vision of Detroit as "the Cuba of the rust belt"

a proposal of antitrust measures that limit the size of corporations relative to that of their markets. Couldn't agree more

when neither term is defined.

basic income guarantee

"it's not so simple"

$2,000 Indian car

via the funk

Niall Ferguson interview

"If President Obama is looking for smart government, there is much he, and all of us, could learn from our quiet—OK, sometimes boring—neighbor to the north"

influence of question phrasing on poll results. Also, US stimulus plan is widely supported.

the budget.

I'm still fascinated by Detroit's return to nature. Here are some great articles about it from the POV of one city block

Krugman: scrap the tax cuts and don't concentrate so much on short-term job gains

krugman

the recession, that is

1999 - "the most sweeping banking deregulation bill in American history, lifting virtually all restraints on the operation of the giant monopolies which dominate the financial system."

whoa... US no longer world's largest economy

on what has value in the age of digital copies

8 weeks of 60 hrs / week = same work done as 8 weeks of 40 hrs / week

about how there's no money in recorded music anymore (still plenty in live shows, though)

$CDN = $USD

pretty sad