Assorted Links Tuesday

Small Town. Big Housing Crisis: We need to address the big-picture, national factors pushing housing costs up and up. But we also need the messy, local, improvised responses—and not just in a Silverton or Mancos. Big cities should be doing the messy stuff, too. It's just that big cities have more ability to use debt to delay the day of reckoning.

How this engineering company found its new production plant in Arizona over Zoom: A Swedish medical business was looking to expand operations in the U.S., but the pandemic hindered its site search. So they made it entirely virtual.

How COVID-19 permanently digitized site selection: Digital-only site selection for big location expansions without f2f visits isn’t just news for economic developers, it’s also news for a business audience.  Part 1 again. and Part II

The biggest kink in America’s supply chain: Not enough truckers.

A pot roast can set you back $100 as meatflation hits shoppers: Inflation’s next victim might be your Sunday dinner.

How to think about the Covid recession: This was a recession like no other in recent memory. The pandemic downturn was driven by all those industries that are supposed to be recession-proof — trips to the dentist, electricity usage in offices and malls, and so on. And the normally countercyclical education sector had big enrollment drops despite the bad economy.