David Friedman

Rebuilding the Middle Class

Articles — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:33:00 -0500

Over the last 20 years, the United States has regressed into what one economist calls a "plutonomy" -- a society in which the largest economic gains flow to an ever smaller portion of the population. According to recent economic statistics, from 1999 to 2004, the inflation-adjusted income of the bottom 90% of all U.S. households grew by 2%, compared with a 57% jump for the richest 10%. Incomes rose by more than 87% for households annually making $1 million and more than doubled for those that take home about $20 million a year.

Most disturbingly, workers losing the most economic ground… more

David Friedman

Operations — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 23:55:00 -0400

Former Senior Fellow

David Friedman was a New America Senior Fellow from March 2000 through March 2007.Friedman is an attorney, political scientist, economic development specialist, author, and columnist. In addition to his law degree, he holds a Ph.D. from MIT in international politics, where he won an award for the “Best Dissertation in Comparative Politics” from the American Political Science Association. As a writer, he is best known for his 1988 book on Japanese economic development, The Misunderstood Miracle. He is currently a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times, and has published in The Washington Post,… more

A Prescription for the Blue-Collar Blues

Articles — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Expanding the number of quality blue collar jobs in Los Angeles will be Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa's most difficult economic challenge. Since 2001, our region's manufacturing employment has declined by nearly 20%, mirroring the loss of 2.6 million goods-producing positions in the nation as a whole. That's very bad news for cities like L.A. that are home to enormous numbers of working and middle class families.

As Villaraigosa prepares to take charge of a city about the size of Singapore or Ireland, what can he do to reverse the manufacturing sector's decline? Despite years of debate, our national leaders can't decide… more

How Can Villaraigosa Succeed?

Articles — Mon, 30 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Immediately after his landslide victory, more than a few editorials wondered if Los Angeles Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa would inevitably govern in accordance with the new, Chablis-liberal ideology that has infected so many of our nation's cities. Antonio Villaraigosa is garnering attention across the nation. But he'll find that Los Angeles' problems are unique.

I prefer to think that he will use his mandate to accomplish something that none of the overhyped "models" of urban revival have been able to achieve. Unlike the mayors of supposedly hip, high-tech Boston, San Francisco, or even Pittsburgh, Villaraigosa cannot hope to lead Los Angeles forward… more

Top 25 Cities For Doing Business in America

Articles — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Frank Sinatra never wrote a song about Newark or Green Bay, nor has Madonna ever bought a house in either city. But these are among the unexpected places where businesses are adding jobs most rapidly and many people are moving in search of new lives, creating tremendous opportunities for entrepreneurs.

The Top Cities in America for doing business are not at all where most people think, and there's good data to back that up. This year Inc. publishes an exclusive Top Cities list, using a brand-new methodology that we believe to be the most objective, reliable system used anywhere for… more

2004: An Economic Odyssey

Articles — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Most telescope enthusiasts know the difference between a clear sky and good seeing. After rain or wind, for instance, the air looks crystalline and the stars as bright as can be. Yet, it's often at just those moments that the atmosphere is secretly bubbling with turbulence, smearing what should be magnificent images of Saturn or Jupiter into an eyepiece of flickering, ghastly mush.

It seems uncommonly hard to decide this year whether our vision of the economy is blessed with confident clarity or distorted by quiet illusion. To be sure, most observers think it a safe bet that the future… more

Stop Politicking, Fix Trade Policy

Articles — Sun, 07 Dec 2003 00:00:00 -0500

Early on, the Bush administration seemed willing to break with years of indifference and think seriously about America's hugely unbalanced, unfair trade relationships. Instead, it played electoral politics. As a result, U.S. trade policy critics were handed all the ammunition they needed to compel President Bush last week to rescind the steel tariffs he imposed in 2002. The tariffs, scheduled to be in effect for three years, were designed to protect the ailing U.S. steel industry from cheap imports while it regained its economic strength. The whole sorry episode is a model of political miscalculation.

A reassessment of U.S. trade… more

San Fran Becomes Playground for Elites

Articles — Mon, 29 Sep 2003 00:00:00 -0400

A sportswriter shocked by the recent shooting of a Giants fan in the parking lot outside Dodger Stadium inadvertently touched on one of California's most important, yet underreported demographic trends.

"It used to be the fans in San Francisco who were fools," wrote the L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke. "The battery throwers? The Tom Lasorda haters?... And while construction of a pricey new San Francisco ballpark eliminated some of those Candlestick cretins, the Dodger Stadium crowd has simply grown angrier and more frustrated."

In one respect, his lament is unquestionably true. In the late 1990s, when the Giants still played in decrepit Candlestick,… more

Note to the Candidates: Sky May Not Be Falling

Articles — Sun, 28 Sep 2003 00:00:00 -0400

At no time in the last several years have California's jobs data, the key to measuring the state's economic health, been less reliable. Statistical inaccuracies inevitably crop up during volatile periods, such as a recession or a recovery, because the numbers are based on surveys that frequently lag behind realities on the shop floor. But these inaccuracies have been magnified by new, untested survey methodologies whose latent errors have not been fully identified, let alone corrected.

This is no esoteric matter. The target of the recall and the replacement candidates have been making strong statements about the condition of the state… more

California Caprice

Articles — Sat, 20 Sep 2003 00:00:00 -0400

We had just finished a ride down the South Bay beach bike path, huffing and puffing through the route's uniquely California mosaic. Behind us were the USC frat-like boys and girls of Playa del Rey, the inner-city flavor of Dockweiler State Beach, the always-puzzling encampment of Winnebagos at the very foot of the massive Hyperion sewage plant, and the body-wrapped opulence of Manhattan Beach.

My friend, a prominent Los Angeles lawyer and cast-iron liberal, was talking about the recall election. He wanted to vote for Cruz Bustamante. But he worried that a last-ditch appeal to a famously activist Ninth Circuit… more