City Makers: American Futures

Big business

• In Which Warren Buffett Agrees With Me (or Perhaps Vice Versa)

  When I was living in and reporting from China, I spent a lot of time trying to hammer this point…

  • James Fallows
  • Feb 28, 2016
  • Notes

• The Dilemmas of Maker Culture

  Thinking through the consequences of the proliferation of powerful tools and technologies

  • John Tierney
  • Apr 20, 2015

• How Makerspaces Help Local Economies

  New technologies like 3-D printers and laser cutters have boosted entrepreneurial activity in American communities.

  • John Tierney
  • Apr 17, 2015

• California's Centers of Technology: Bay Area, L.A., San Diego, and ... Fresno?

  How would you build a high-tech center in a vast farming zone? You might start by applying tech solutions to farming problems of water use and sustainability in all forms.

  • James Fallows
  • Mar 14, 2015

• When 'Collaboration' Is More Than a Buzzword

  The story of a business partnership that stands to boost the economy of Columbus, Ohio, and the surrounding region

  • John Tierney
  • Oct 17, 2014

• Heavy Industry in the Mississippi 'Prairie': Why Are These Factories Here?

  "Live every second as if your ASS is on fire," and other words of wisdom.

  • James Fallows
  • May 30, 2014

• Theories of History: Joe Max Higgins and the Golden Triangle of Mississippi

  "When Eurocopter came here, people started walking upright a little bit." Why has this part of Mississippi pulled ahead of some others?

  • James Fallows
  • May 23, 2014

• The New Industrial Belt: The Deep South

  Does America still "make things?" Come take a look ... in Mississippi.

  • James Fallows
  • Apr 25, 2014

• The Seas? The Skies? The Transformation of a Company Town, Part 2

  One economic titan has fallen, another has taken its place, but a city wants to expand its options.

  • James Fallows
  • Apr 11, 2014

• The Transformation of a Company Town: St. Marys, Part 1

  What happens when the company shuts down?

  • James Fallows
  • Apr 7, 2014

• Why Do Tech Companies End Up Where They Are?

  "You get some clusters, and some stand-alone firms far from anyone else.  But rarely anything in-between."

  • James Fallows
  • Jan 7, 2014

• Luck? Planning? Karma? The Elements of a Small Town's High-Tech Success

  A software company grows in an unlikely setting. "Why here?" we ask the founders.

  • James Fallows
  • Jan 5, 2014

• A 4th-Generation Orange Farmer, on Why He Sticks With It

  "I was born in the grove. I was raised in the grove. I developed an intense dislike of farming in the grove." Yet after 20 years around the world he has come back.

  • James Fallows
  • Dec 20, 2013

• Inside the Packing House

  Viewing an ordinary fruit with new respect.

  • James Fallows
  • Dec 19, 2013

• Reports From the Road: Hangar 24 and a Student-Run Farm

  The variety of America, chapter 12,825

  • James Fallows
  • Dec 17, 2013

• Small Town, Big Tides, Bigger Ambitions: Ocean Renewable Power in Eastport

  "We like to think we are the Kitty Hawk of hydro-kinetic power."

  • James Fallows
  • Nov 1, 2013

• Notes Cheering and Otherwise, From an American Frontier

  Where the country first sees the sunlight each day.

  • James Fallows
  • Oct 23, 2013

• Back on the Bright Side: Silicon Valley in Vermont

  Why did this company end up on the shores of Lake Champlain, rather than on the San Francisco Bay or Puget Sound?

  • James Fallows
  • Oct 6, 2013

• Burlington Makes, the World Takes: The Story of NRG Systems

  • James Fallows
  • Sep 25, 2013

• If You Thought a Profitable Newspaper Was Surprising, How About This: A Pleasant Airport

  More strange tales from the North Country.

  • James Fallows
  • Sep 23, 2013

• More Stories