Its the cities, stupid!

[VizagRocks]

A neat primer on what it takes to build a city, and how to fcuk it up. based on work of Jane Jacobs. Good read for our politicians, and city planners.

http://www.zompist.com/jacobs.html

• Nations are not the ideal unit for macroeconomic analysis. Cities are.
• Import replacement (manufacturing locally the items previously imported) is important for a city to develop skills needed to stay relevant.
• Attracting transplanted factories (with subsidies to big companies to anchor some of their business) is not a recipe for future success of a city.
• High technology is sexy, but it doesn't belong in a city until it can produce every piece of it itself.
• Unified currencies (like Euro, and to an extent, even US$) will be abandoned in favour of smaller currency areas.

 

[VizagRocks]

Cities would encourage the creation of small, diverse, and innovative firms. They would remove barriers to development (such as monopolies, racial or caste discrimination, and large-scale zoning), and venture capitalists would finance struggling startups.