31 Things Economic Developers Need To Know This Week
The stories that Dane thinks you need to see from this week. July 7, 2022 edition.
Welcome to the "make you a smarter economic developer" newsletter! Thanks for spending a few minutes with us this morning.
This week we have 31 stories, graphics, and charts that I think you'll find informative, useful, inspiring, and perhaps even humorous. Some are economic development related directly, some only indirectly.
Also, because of the holiday week, this week's edition is shorter than normal. Our full length issue will be back next week.
As always, if you find something great, please send it to me.
- Dane
1) 67 - Economic Development and Developers in the News - Econ dev news from 163 economic development executives and organizations in 24 states, Canada, Australia, and Puerto Rico.
2) Podcast Episode 55 - Economic Development in Suburban Chicago with Kevin Leighty - Dane talks with Kevin Leighty, Economic Development Director in the Village of Oswego.
3) 53 New Economic Development Jobs Last Week - 53 new econ dev jobs in 22 states.
4) 28 Things Economic Developers Need To Know Last Week - The stories that Dane thinks you need to see from last week. June 30, 2022 edition.
5) Andy Portera: Do you want to make your community a better place to live & work, but are not sure where to start? Here is what we would do (and have done).
6) Ocean frieght rates are dropping (like a rock tossed into the sea):
Another meaningful drop in weekly ocean freight rates. Down almost 40% from the highs now: pic.twitter.com/fag2VXKQHQ
— Conor Sen (@conorsen) June 30, 2022
7) Arbitrary Lines is a new book by M. Nolan Gray on “how zoning made America’s cities unaffordable, inaccessible, segregated, and sprawling.” Looks good.
8) Sounds about right to me:
My strongest political belief isn't really liberal or conservative. It's that most people, laws, and institutions in the modern US are absurdly risk-averse, and that we're all suffocating in the name of 'safety'.
— Alyssa Vance (@alyssamvance) June 21, 2022
9) American factories are making stuff again as CEOs take production out of China:
Executives in the US have been using the buzzwords onshoring, reshoring or nearshoring at a greater clip this year than they did in the first six months of the pandemic.
That’s according to a Bloomberg review of earnings call and conference presentations. More importantly, there are concrete signs that many of them are going beyond just talk and acting on these plans.
10) The pandemic has changed the geography of the American economy. By many measures, red states -- those that lean Republican -- have recovered faster economically than Democratic-leaning blue ones, with workers and employers moving from the coasts to the middle of the country and Florida.
11) The happiness data that wrecks a Freudian theory: In a five-decade study involving more than 2,000 participants, researchers found that success doesn’t, in fact, make people unhappy.
12) Can dual-use solar panels provide power and share space with crops? Companies like BlueWave are betting on it. But the technology has its critics.
13) The lost glamour of the department-store restaurant: Pot pies and fanciful desserts made shopping delicious.
14) If the US is in a recession, it’s a very strange one: Economic output is down but the job market is strong, unlike in previous recessions.
15) The growth in US home prices by state since 1991:
