Richard Florida

The New York Times asks artists how the recession is affecting their lives and work (h/t: Alison Kemper). More »

Over at Economix, Catherine Rampell points to this map from MapScroll which recreates the UN Human Development Index for U.S. states. More »

Robert Frank notes some belt-tightening over at Richistan. "Fire-sale auctions of mansions, yachts, sports cars and other trappings of wealth have become increasingly common as the rich become less rich. ... Whether unable to pay their bills or loath to appear lavish at a time of national thrift, many millionaires and billionaires are unloading their baubles. In a twist on the estate sales of deceased celebrities, "living estate sales" have become increasingly… More »

Stephen Walt spells out the advantages of tolerance, openness, and cosmopolitanism from the realist respective [thanks to Jon Rauch for the pointer). He goes to great pains to point out that he is talking about cosmopolitan openness not just ethnic assimilation. More »

Young girls are creaming the boys in science, up north in Canada. Five years ago, boys made up 55 percent of the competitors at the annual Canada-Wide Science Fair, a national competition where youth in grades 7 to 12 compete against other regional representatives. After a steady decline, this year boys are in the minority at 44 percent. Girls are also claiming the lion's share of prize money available each year: Eight of the last nine overall winners have been… More »

It's clear that the economic crisis is having uneven impacts on different types of workers and different kinds of communities. Highly educated people and highly educated places are holding up much better than others. But among the most stable places in the current downturn are college towns. More »

The 2009 Child Well-Being Index examines the impact of the economic crisis on America's children. More »

Living through the current economic downturn, none of us take economic prosperity for granted anymore. We're aware now, more than ever, of how important it is to cultivate the things that contribute to long-run economic growth and sustained prosperity as well as to regulate and cope with those which can come to jeopardize that prosperity. Economists mainly agree that there are two things that power long-run economic growth. Thanks to the Nobel-prize winning work of… More »

Patrick points to the Economist's synopsis of this new study of the relationship between living abroad and creativity. Creative people are curious by nature. There is a also a close connection between creativity and experience-seeking - in psychology-speak, open-to-experience personalities; and open personalities are more likely than others to move. Creative people constantly - and chronically - seek out new experiences, they are also frequent movers. That said,… More »

Housing starts dipped to record lows in April. Just 357,000 single family homes were started last month, while total starts feel to 458,000 - an all-time record low. Calculated Risk charts the trend. More »

Here is a great interactive map of how stimulus dollars are being spent across the country. Lots of road construction and bridges are on the agenda. Click on the map for more details - you can mouse over the various cities and also drag 'n' drop to view by state. More »

Mark Thoma points to San Francisco Fed research on the lasting effects of the past decade's run-up in consumer debt and current "deleveraging" on the U.S. economy and American consumers. More »

Ed Glaeser asks: "If the world is so flat, then why are cities growing so quickly, especially in the third world?" He explains:In the developing world, urbanization has often taken the form of exploding populations in megacities. Mumbai's population increased to 19 million in 2007 from 10.8 million in 1985. Bangalore, the urban symbol of the flat world, has had its population double over two decades, to 6.8 million today from 3.4 million in 1985. The growth of… More »

Is the Phoenix housing market starting to turn the corner? The LA Times thinks so (pointer via Planetizen): Phoenix's housing bust has turned into a quasi-boom, a sign that its market may have hit bottom and a sneak preview of what a national housing recovery could look like. More homes are selling than at any time since 2006. Prices are slowly stabilizing. Buyers are once again finding themselves in frantic bidding wars -- only this time over foreclosed houses… More »

While many restaurants and restaurant chains are getting killed by the economic downturn, P.F. Chang's is up, up, up according to Slate's Dan Gross: "P.F. Chang's China Bistro, whose two restaurant chains--P.F. Chang's and Pei Wei Asian Diner--are staples of upscale malls and mixed-use developments, said that same-store sales fell a bit but profits produced at its 350 outlets rose 38 percent from the first quarter of 2008. Operating margins--the holy grail of any business--at P.F. Chang's 190 stores rose from 12.8 percent to 14 percent, largely because of 'incremental operational improvement opportunities.' The stock has doubled since November." More »

Business Week's Michael Mandel crunches the numbers and turns up some disturbing results. While recession has hit hardest at blue-collar workers, it is taking its toll on professional jobs as well. Unemployment for professionals overall increased by roughly four percent between August 2008 and April 2009. But the recession is hitting much harder at certain types of professionals. Computing and mathematical jobs (heavy on software engineers, computer scientists, and… More »

Investment in single family homes has done some serious cliff diving. More »

The Seattle Times Jon Talton suggests the coffee-maker's ongoing financial problems may be an "artifact" of deeper economic troubles: "What if Starbucks is an artifact of an economy that's not coming back? A time of rising, if fleeting, American affluence as we moved from dot-coms and telecoms, to day trading and house flipping, all based on the biggest run-up of debt in the history of the world. For this venti, triple-shot America, it might have been… More »

Rebecca Wilder calculates housing bubbles - measured in terms of the price-to-rent ratio - for the UK, Ireland, Spain, and Germany as well as the U.S. (pointer via MarkThoma). America's bubble looks downright mild compared to Ireland, the UK, and Spain. More »

New York and London are consolidating and strengthening their positions atop the global financial system, according to the FT's John Pender. The latest edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) shows these two leading centers to be considerably more "resilient" than others, ranking as the world's only "truly global financial centres." The GFCI, which is based on surveys of financial experts and professionals, rates financial centers on a point basis.… More »