Joel Kotkin

'If New York City is a business, it isn't Wal-Mart,' Mayor Bloomberg once sneered. Maybe it should be.

Fewer Americans are relocating than at any time since 1962. That's good news for families, communities ... and even the environment.

The notion of a populist outburst raises an archaic vision of soot-covered industrial workers waving placards. Yet populism is far from dead, and represents a force that could shape our political future in unpredictable ways.People have reasons to be mad, from declining real incomes to mythic levels of greed and excess among the financial elite.

California has come back before, but 'hysterical greens' aren't helping.

American society is based on the idea that 'anyone' can reach the top. But the gap between rich and poor is growing, and the ladder seems to be disappearing.

Sorry, city sophisticates, but the metropolis of the future may prove far less intensely urban than you hope. For all the focus on trendy downtowns and skyscrapers, the real growth in jobs and population is likely to take place on the periphery.