What happens to cities when the bulk of economic activity does not have to performed in cities? From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:
This is why those who understand these dynamics are getting out, even though the city was their home.
A correspondent who prefers to remain anonymous sent me this account of the “doom loop” that is playing out in many American cities. The correspondent makes the case that the Doom Loop is not limited to specific cities, but is a universal dynamic in all US cities due to the core causes of the Doom Loop: financialization and the multi-decade decay of cities’ core industrial-economic purpose / mission.
I have edited the text slightly, with the correspondent’s approval.
The context of the Doom Loop is the process and politics of this decay are the second-order results of central bank easy money (free fiat). That led to financialization becoming the city’s core function and the subsequent loss of the city’s previous mission. The people living in cities just haven’t gotten the message yet.
As such, there is no reversing the process until the centralization of capital itself is reversed.
The typical media articles on metropolitan “doom loops” make it seem like not every city is headed down the path. Now that financialization does not require a physical presence, every city above a certain size will share the same experience. There will be local variations which impact the trend, such as a potential utility as a large pool of voters (i.e. a vote farm), but the decline is part and parcel of financial ‘virtualization.’
It is inevitable.
Even hosting one of the twelve central reserve banks won’t save you.
The curse of the ancient cities a good heavy metal song.
Nothing is grown or flowering except some parks here and there.
They don’t even look good compared to those evil YT Pypo places like Paris or Moscow.
Streisand Pypo who need Pypo should play on loudspeakers there.
The Eastern Bloc particle board sardine apartments are springing up like mushrooms locally and we need to plant some more Magic Soil soon to accommodate the glorious lifetime CPUSA (D) voting newcomers.
The crapital city blob is all full and now expanding in every direction, a bud of twenty years moved 50+ miles away to escape the Fundamental Transformation that no one was asking for.
It will get out there…eventually.