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The Economist (June 22)

2019/ 06/ 24 by jd in Global News

Already “one in five Americans calls Texas or California home.” The behemoths are now “the biggest, brashest, most important states in the union, each equally convinced that it is the future.” But their vision is “heading in opposite directions, creating an experiment that reveals whether America works better as a low-tax, low-regulation place” or a “high-tax, highly regulated one.” Given Washington dysfunction, “the results will determine what sort of country America becomes almost as much as the victor of the next presidential election will.”

 

Baltimore Sun (May 1)

2015/ 05/ 02 by jd in Global News

“Looking back over the protests of the last week, both peaceful and violent, it is clear Baltimore has reached a crossroads…. What happens next may well determine whether the world comes to view Baltimore as a city that is succeeding in its effort to renew itself or one doomed to perpetual strife and social dysfunction.”

 

Detroit Free Press (December 3, 2013)

2013/ 12/ 03 by jd in Global News

Detroit became the biggest municipality—in fact the biggest public entity of any type—to file for bankruptcy in the U.S. after a federal judge approved the city’s application. With estimated debts of $18 billion, the city is hardly functioning. It takes nearly an hour for police to respond to calls, versus about six times longer than the national average. For many, the bankruptcy filing marks the first painful step to a comeback. Detroit’s Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr hopes to achieve improvements in basic services and the removal of 78,000 blighted homes and structures within three years. “That may sound like elementary stuff to people who are used to living in less-dysfunctional cities. In Detroit after decades of distress, however, it’s what dreams are made of.”

 

The Economist (March 16)

2013/ 03/ 17 by jd in Global News

America’s “debt is rising, its population is ageing in a budget-threatening way, its schools are mediocre by international standards, its infrastructure rickety, its regulations dense, its tax code byzantine, its immigration system hare-brained—and it has fallen from first position in the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings to seventh in just four years.” But “dysfunction in Washington is only one side of America’s story…. There is also another America, where things work.” The successful side of America can be seen in the improving performance of the real economy where “businesses and politicians are not waiting for the federal government to ride to their rescue.”

 

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