What recession? What housing bubble? What unemployment? If you live virtually anywhere in the United States, or for that matter anywhere on this planet, you wouldn’t be asking such questions. But there is one city in our great land where none of these problems exist.
In that city the unemployment rate is 5.9%, about half the national average. Employment in fact rose by 84,000 over the past year. In that city incomes are high and rising. In that city housing values rose while homeowners in the rest of the nation are struggling with foreclosures. This city’s largest employer increased its labor force by nearly 20,000 since the start of the Great Recession in the fall of 2008.
I recently toured a $3.5 million townhouse for sale in this city. I asked the agent whether that was a steep price in a depressed housing market. The agent assured me that “this” city wasn’t a depressed market, and that the selling price would be pretty close to the asking price. Construction in this city is booming. New office buildings and condos are rising like mushrooms along the city’s skyline.
Where is the marvelous city? Where, during what is an international economic catastrophe, is the economy booming? Where is it that stories of economic dislocation and joblessness come from the headlines of out-of-town newspapers?
This city of miracles, joy and happiness is our nation’s capital, Washington D.C. Yes, the primary industry in this city is not only recession-proof, but it prospers and grows during bad times. Unfortunately, it’s growing on the pain of the rest of the nation. It’s growing on the tax dollars of the people in the “fly-over states,” in “rust belt,” and in “the New South.” It’s growing because of the Great Recession and it’s growing despite the Great Recession. It’s growing like cancer cells grow, by stealing resources from neighboring cells. Unless checked, the cancer thrives and the body dies. Cancer cells do not make a body healthy. A strong, vibrant, thriving Washington D.C. is not a good sign.
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