Jim Russell

National pride, not economic dislocation, fuels the current wave of right-wing populism.

By measuring place, the Distressed Communities Index does a poor job of assessing people.

Tour the psychogeography of Rust Belt shame.

An abundance of digital data predicts where the jobs will be.

The economy we measure isn't the economy we have.

Henry Ford and Detroit radically changed the economic geography of the world. Now, Jeff Bezos and Seattle are poised to do the same.

If New York City is your adolescent self, then Los Angeles is what you aspire to.

California is a fortress of gentrification.

The decline of the Southern drawl maps the diffusion of knowledge production in the United States.

A sweet spot in the Technology Readiness Level attracts private industry.

A metro only exists for those who can afford to commute.

Wage convergence is hitting many industries, including higher education as well as oil and gas.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Regions where Millennials are renting don't look like where they will buy homes.

Focus more on people, less on place.

With a focus on why people leave, we ignore at least half of the migration story.

The ontology of refugee is the problem, not the solution.

Nations—and even cities—don't globalize. Globalization spreads block by block.

Houston has a de facto zoning problem.

Get ready for an unprecedented economic boom in the United States.

In 2006, the digital economy underwent a dramatic transformation that changed the map of talent migration.

Journalists have replaced teachers as the curators of expertise.

In order for tech workers to cash out on home equity, Proposition 13 forces them to move to another state.

With the homeland as neither nation nor state, Puerto Ricans twist in the wind of political whimsy.

From 2000–2013, Atlanta has fallen further behind other large metros in growing its population of college-educated young adults.

Communities might roll out the red carpet for the foreign-born, but the more welcoming disposition doesn't do the trick.

Out of necessity, old habits die easily for migrants.

A shrinking population isn't the end of economic expansion.

The later the economic boom, the greater the municipal area.

Winning the demographic lottery is nothing to crow about.

Better to develop people and have them leave than to attract and retain college graduates.

Migration analysis places too much emphasis on push factors and not enough on the pull of opportunity.

Changing zoning regulations is an inefficient way to address the housing affordability problem.

The young and well educated are moving to the largest cities. They don't care about a lower cost of living or cool amenities.

The pull of opportunity, not the push of expensive real estate, drives migration from California.

Almost 50 years ago Dr. Paul Ehrlich published a book called The Population Bomb. Today, demographic hysteria concerns too few people.

Pittsburgh is the best place in the United States to flip property. What explains the real estate boom?

Jobs don't follow talent. Jobs follow knowledge production.

The tech talent apple doesn't fall too far from the university tree.

In a virtuous circle, migration and innovation make the world go round.

You go where you know. You went to the wrong college and spent too much money.

Half of the world lives in a country where the number of births fails to replace those who die.

Attract one person and an entire village will follow.

Workers of the world unite and retire.

Zero manufacturing employment: Coming soon to a regional economy near you.

Decreasing the cost of health care is economic development.

A few decades ago, Silicon Valley beat out Boston for tech dominance. Today, Boston is emerging as the epicenter of a new economic era.

I'd like a dollop of ketchup on that paradigm.

Free-range kids are economic development.

In Europe, women are valued for their fertility, not productivity.