Posts Tagged ‘housing’
Growth for the Sake of Growth
I caught an article on the New York Times today that really illustrated an important idea. Growth for the sake of growth doesn’t get you anywhere. The article takes a look at the Florida economy, and explains that after generations of a “growth-driven” economy, the population in Florida has begun to level out, and it’s taking [...]
Toll Impact
The Urban Land Institute and Earnst & Young recently released their annual infrastructure report. Infrastructure 2009 featured some really fascinating analysis of our national infrastructure, and made some strong recommendations. Chief among these is to shift the cost of infrastructure to users as much as possible. They explored a lot of ideas, but the two [...]
ULI-Houston Mayoral Candidate Forum
Today I had the chance to attend the ULI-Houston Mayoral Candidate Forum. Since this was a members-only event for ULI, most of Houston didn’t get to be there (which is a shame, really, because it was a great event!). So, knowing my readers would probably have appreciated knowing what was discussed, I took the best [...]
This is called Capitalism.
Forbes had a great story from January that I just found, and I thought it was worth sharing: Where US Home Sales are Rising. The key quote comes right at the beginning. Something funny’s happening in Las Vegas. Home sale prices from last year are down 28%, but home sales are up 15%. The reason? [...]
When the economy is built on housing
THIS is why we need to forever move past the idea of housing as an economic engine. An extreme case, but an illustrative one, the New York Times today tells the story of the suburban area surrounding Fort Meyers, Florida. The area got its start in the 1950s when a Chicago pest control baron, Lee [...]
Craving another fix?
This, from Clusterstock.com, was excellent: The Republicans have so little power in Washington right now that they’re grasping at the thinnest reeds in hopes of influencing the final stimulus bill. It’s going to be real tough to add substantially more tax breaks to the package, especially since so many people are convinced that we got [...]
Peter Newman Presentation at Houston Tomorrow
I attended Peter Newman’s presentation at Houston Tomorrow last night. It was an interesting talk; I didn’t find any of it to be shockingly original information, but it was a great overview of the situation we’re in right now and how the city can be made better. There are two critical points Newman illustrated. These [...]
The end of arrogance?
Fascinating article from Germany, it’s a long read, but the outlook echoes what’s happening on the street. The banking crisis is upending American dominance of the financial markets and world politics. The industrialized countries are sliding into recession, the era of turbo-capitalism is coming to an end and US military might is ebbing. We’re drifting [...]