Global Squeeze: The Coming Crisis for First-World Nations Richard C. Longworth McGraw-Hill 1998 [ I recently posted part one of a look back at Richard Longworth's 1998 book Global Squeeze, which correctly predicted massive job displacement from China’s entry into the global trading system, describes how developing world countries would move up the value chain, predicts the erosion of middle-class standards of living, the rise of the gig economy, and the deterioration in race relations. He puts his finger on the nationalism vs. globalism … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2017
Breaking Up the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a dysfunctional mess, as everyone knows. Last summer the Manhattan Institute commissioned Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation, the libertarian think tank, to write a report on how to reform the agency. I sat down with Poole last summer and recorded a podcast discussing his ideas. We talk about what the Port Authority is, why it has problems, how to break it up, what to do about PATH (a subway between New York and New Jersey) and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and ideas for … [Read more...]
How Richard Longworth Predicted 20 Years Ago That Globalization Would Cause a Social Crisis
Global Squeeze: The Coming Crisis for First-World Nations Richard C. Longworth McGraw-Hill 1998 Whenever we see the reality of momentous shifts in society, it's always good to go back and take a look at the people who saw it coming far away. Generally speaking, there were usually people who understood what was happening in advance. For example, Daniel Bell wrote his book The Coming of Post-Industrial Society in 1976. There were probably even other earlier books touting the same theme. One person who clearly saw the challenges that … [Read more...]
What Will President Trump Mean for New York City?
I was a guest on WNET/Thirteen, New York City's PBS station, last week talking about what President Trump will mean for New York City, and his tense relationship with Mayor Bill de Blasio. If the video player doesn't display for you, click over to watch on channel Thirteen's web site. … [Read more...]
Driverless Cars and the Future of American Infrastructure
Economists seem to generally agree that the case for highway expansion in the United States is pretty poor. The returns to new highway construction have dramatically declined since the 1970s. It's also the case that there are far fewer projects with national significance today than in the past. Because of this, the focus on public sector investment in highways should be on maintenance rather than expansion. My new Manhattan Institute report takes this basic analysis and adds two additional factors that augur for focusing on … [Read more...]