Notes From All Over, Part 3 -- January 15, 2020

Income: For the first time in 26 years, all US metropolitan areas enjoyed income gains -- Bloomberg.

Americans in every U.S. metropolitan area experienced economic prosperity in 2018.

For the first time in 26 years, no metro area saw per-capita incomes fall that year -- the latest available data -- and it was only the fourth time since 1970 that every U.S. urban region experienced prosperity.

Americans in fewer than 6% of metropolitan areas have experienced uninterpreted gains in personal income since 1970. In contrast, as the country began to recover from the Great Recession in 2009, residents of 84% of metro areas saw incomes decline. A large number of areas saw significant decreases in 2013 and to a lesser extent in 2016.

Metros that haven’t experienced per-capita income drops in recent years include Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh. The nation’s capital is buffered from sector-based recessions by a federal government that pulls tax revenue from a variety of sources and geographies. The Pennsylvania city, meanwhile, has emerged as a health care, education, and technology hub even as its population declines.

The most notable thing that came out of the Democrat presidential debate last night: Joe Biden wants to raise payroll taxes. Payroll taxes are the most regressive taxes. Will affect blue collar workers disproportionally. 

Nothing like the threat of a war to learn geography: