NYT: Two Good Articles
As always, go to Bugmenot for a login if you do not have one. However, I’ve never been spammed by the NYT, nor the Washington Post. Really, just get your own.
First off, a little international intrigue. I’m Korean and the man with the big hair and lifts scares the bejesus out of me. Economic terrorism in the form of mass counterfeiting sounds like a William Gibson meets Tom Clancy novel. In this case though, throw in a rip-off Irish Republican Army that has its economics wrong and you’ve got a case for money laundering on an international scale. Terrifying. And it only gets scarier when you realize we’re not pursuing it since we’ve got Daddy’s Little Oilman’s nuclear agenda to follow instead.
Second is a story about the shrinking middle class in world-class cities. I love a good discussion about regionalism and economics. This article kind of scared me though. I mean, who is going to live in cities? Rich people and their servants? That seems like a terrible imbalance. In a place like DC, I guess that means the wage taxes on all those VA and MD commuters is going to go up. Or the consumption taxes on dining and shopping. If it’s not middle class parents pushing for a better quality free education, then who?
The sad part is that I live in a city and I’m not about to leave Arlington for Washington, DC. At one time I would have, but now I don’t see any benefit for me in moving into the city. To encourage middle-class wealth building, I get a nice property tax break. I have a lot of the amenities of the city, but with nicer municipal services. I am hoping there is a tech resurgence in my neighborhood so I can stop commuting outward for an IT job. Hopefully Class A office rents are going to collapse slightly and make my wish come true. (A lot of government offices are leaving Arlington because someone in the government assessed that it could not be made secure enough post 9/11. Many of those 5-year leases are expiring now.)
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