Obama Thanks Himself—for a Slow, Partial Recovery

Phil Longman's article, "Bloom and Bust" was mentioned by David Dayen in a piece in The New Republic about slow wage growth after the Great Recession and its relationship to the regional inequality that Phil discussed. 

My suspicion is that if you examined this further, you would find the growth concentrated in a just a handful of metro areas—New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, D.C.—that are pulling away from the rest of the nation. Phillip Longman chronicled this phenomenon of regional inequality last year for Washington Monthly. The rise of just a few high-performing sectors clustered in certain areas and takeovers of local businesses by national conglomerates has hollowed out much of the country. It’s also unsustainable, as the high cost of living that accompanies these well-performing areas super-charges inequality and makes it impossible for middle-income Americans to live there.