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The Morning Grumpy – 11/13/12

All the news, views, and filtered excellence fit to consume during your morning grumpy.

1. As the economy continues to gain steam and the nation shakes off the effects of the Great Recession, patterns are emerging about which states and metro areas will be the winners and losers when it comes to job creation and housing values. In past recessions, we’ve seen that Buffalo is fairly resilient (some might say stale or static) in the face of these larger bull/bear market changes. There is some compelling data to show that New York State on the whole is performing better than most other states when it comes to economic competitiveness, coming in 16th out of 50 states. In the 1990’s and early 2000’s the states that were most competitive were the sun belt states, but that is changing. The new leaders include North Dakota, Vermont, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Nebraska while states like Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and North Carolina have fallen to the back of the pack.

As for metro areas, Buffalo is steady as she goes, coming in towards the back of the pack.

The infographic and table below display aggregate industry data for the 100 most populous MSAs from 2010-2012. To generate our ranking, we summed the overall competitive effect for each broad 2-digit industry sector (e.g., agriculture, manufacturing, health care, construction, etc.) and added them together to yield a single MSA-wide number that indicates the overall competitiveness of the economy as compared to the total economy. We calculate the competitive effect by subtracting the expected jobs (the number of jobs expected for each MSA based on national economic trends) from the total jobs. The difference between the total and expected is the competitive effect. If the competitive effect is positive, then the MSA has exceeded expectations and created more jobs than national trends would have suggested.

Buffalo lags behind Rochester and Albany in New York State, but finds itself ahead of other comparative cities like Memphis, Jacksonville, Syracuse, and Cleveland. So, what can we learn from other, more successful, metro areas? How are we measuring economic development progress in our region? What are we actively doing to market the city and region as a competitive place to do business?

2. Rep. John Boehner: “Raising taxes on small businesses will kill jobs in America. It is as simple as that.” Hmm, interesting point. Allow me to retort. Under the Clinton era tax rates (with a top marginal rate of 39.6%), small businesses grew at twice the rate than they did during the Bush Administration (after those rates were cut).

3. Could Texas become a blue state again?

“If I say to you, your life depends on picking whether the following state is Democrat or Republican, what would you pick?” Munisteri asked. “The state is fifty-five per cent traditional minority. Thirty-eight per cent is Hispanic, eleven per cent is African-American, and the rest is Asian-American, and two-thirds of all births are in a traditional minority family. And if I was to tell you that, nationwide, last time, Republicans got only roughly four per cent of the African-American vote and about a third of the Hispanic vote, would you say that state is Democrat or Republican? Well, that’s Texas. We are the only majority-minority state in the union that people consider Republican.”

If so, no Republican will never win national office again without significant changes to the party platform.

4. Democrat Kyrsten Sinema was finally announced as the winner in the race to fill a new Phoenix-area congressional district. Why is this notable? She is the first bisexual in Congress and is also an atheist. Atheism is one of the last taboos in American politics and Ms. Sinema joins Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) as the only members of Congress to openly serve as such. Do you think an openly atheist candidate could win an election in Western New York?

5. Why doesn’t MTV play music videos anymore? Here’s your answer (strong language ahead).

Fact Of The Day: There is such a thing as a ‘Trauma Handshake’ a procedure in which two fingers are inserted into the rectum in order to make sure that your brain still has control over your anal sphincter.

Quote Of The Day: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” -Viktor E. Frankl

Springsteen Of The Day: “Ramrod” – Barcelona 2002