

Things America's Strongest Cities Have in Common - all
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/09/5-things-americas-strongest-cities-have-in-common/62713/

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aspir
These are extremely insightful, but cheap labor (#5) should be moved up to #1.
It could possibly stand alone. I know a lot of budding entrepreneurs and
hackers who can survive on 20 hours a week at a typical job, which frees up so
much time for work. I guarentee that each of these areas has done some sort of
government speding other than the military, education, and life sciences
sectors to boost it as well.

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enjo
That's more cost-of-living than cheap labor is it not? When they're talking
about cheap labor I suspect their not really talking about professionals
either. The Baton Rouges, Little Rocks, and yes Oklahoma Cities of the world
also have a much lower rate of college education in common. They have large
swaths of blue collar workforce willing to work for cheap. I know, for
instance, that a couple of overseas car manufacturers have opened up plants in
Arkansas for this very reason.

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aspir
I think you are correct with that one. I was thinking cost to maintain as a
freelance or entrepreneurial hacker rather than traditional laborers.

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allwein
The list is also missing Pittsburgh, which has been doing great throughout the
recession for the Eds and Meds reason as well.

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enjo
I was surprised not to see Denver on the list. Unemployment in the Denver
metro has been pretty good throughout. I can't imagine more money has been
spent in Medical than at CU's new medical center (it's an enormous complex
that is nearly constantly expanding).

Cost of living is higher I suppose. It certainly doesn't line up with my
actual experience. I have extensive ties to Little Rock, and I just don't see
any way that it's anyone can consider it a "stronger" city in any possible
measure. Unemployment has been sky high, and continues to be a real challenge
there (I have 5 or 6 college degree holding friends that have unemployed for
more than 12 months). In Denver everyone I know has a job.

I'd love to see more about their methodology.

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run4yourlives
The fact that Buffalo is #4 really causes me to question the algorithms
employed.

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Qz
Where did you get #4? The list is alphabetical.

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run4yourlives
The fact that it is on the list at all is enough. Buffalo, with all due
respect, is a hole.

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prodigal_erik
Insurance was insulated from the global meltdown? I thought AIG was ground
zero. Were they just one big outlier?

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rdl
AIG failed due to AIG Financial Products, which sold overly-cheap high risk
derivative Credit Default Swaps on mortgage-backed securities, not due to
their core insurance business. CDSes are insurance of a sort against default
risk, but they didn't involve actuaries, a real risk model for pricing, etc.
All the other parts of AIG were actually doing quite well.

