Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

[mmr]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123743043403180645.html

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WSJ: US Migration Falls Sharply

"Migration around the U.S. slowed to a crawl last year, especially for this decade's boom towns, as a weak housing market and job insecurity forced many Americans to stay put.

Demographers say the dropoff in migration, shown in Census data to be released Thursday, is among the sharpest since the Great Depression. It marks the end of what Brookings Institution demographer William Frey calls a "migration bubble."

As asset values rose fairly steadily in the past decade, Americans young and old moved around the country in search of jobs or better weather. In many cases, people living in higher-cost housing markets such as San Francisco and New York cashed in their real-estate winnings and moved to outlying counties, or to states like Florida and Nevada, hoping to find a cheaper house and pocket the difference. Now, "people are hanging tight; they're too scared to do anything," said Mr. Frey."

...

"Economists say the housing-centric economies will need to reduce their stock of unsold homes before any meaningful economic recovery takes place. That's hard to do when fewer people are moving there."

[snakela]

Re: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

whaaat? But Jim Cramer said housing has bottomed!

[Sharky]

Re: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

I haven't seen any hard numbers, but would suspect a slowdown in people moving to the US as well -- both legally and illegally. I imagine that will have an impact on home prices too.

[petertribo]

Re: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

How about people being wiped out finanically and then going into the Underground Economy avoiding the System chasing them down. Somwhat like the story a while back where Asians who were in financial trouble were fleeing Dubai.

An interesting element here might be that American citizens may find it more financially beneficial to join illegal immigrants in the Underground. This is a Failed State element in the USA where the Governments are unable, for one reason or another, to enforce its Citizenship Laws. A pretty glaring failure for a so-called Superpower. How are you going to run a Complex Economy when you cannot even defend your borders or enforce employment laws?

[D-Mack]

Re: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

I haven't seen any hard numbers, but would suspect a slowdown in people moving to the US as well -- both legally and illegally. I imagine that will have an impact on home prices too.

I saw some docus showing people from Europe buying homes with an exchange rate of $1-1.50€ or above in 2008

[ASH]

Re: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

How are you going to run a Complex Economy when you cannot even defend your borders or enforce employment laws?

Cannot or do not? I thought failure to enforce immigration laws at the low end of the wage scale results from the divergent interests of capital and labor, rather than the impotency of the state.

[strittmatter]

Re: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

I haven't seen any hard numbers, but would suspect a slowdown in people moving to the US as well -- both legally and illegally. I imagine that will have an impact on home prices too.

This guy has some some numbers:

http://www.newgeography.com/content/...ing-demography

Immigration dominates the news, but there is also emigration, and the difference between these is 'net' international migration. Data on immigration and emigration are not very certain or reliable, as people leaving don’t have to tell anyone, and many entering are equally reticent. Yet there is a clear pattern from the map of the 416 counties. Overall the areas of net loss tend to be the same as for losses in overall population.

Richard Morrill is Professor Emeritus of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Washington. His research interests include: political geography (voting behavior, redistricting, local governance), population/demography/settlement/migration, urban geography and planning, urban transportation (i.e., old fashioned generalist)

Lengthy article but has a lot of charting/trending info.

[petertribo]

Re: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

Cannot or do not? I thought failure to enforce immigration laws at the low end of the wage scale results from the divergent interests of capital and labor, rather than the impotency of the state.

The impotency of the state can arise from the State having to choose between options, like 180,000 troops in IRAQ and running an Afghan War with 30,000 or so more troops plus all the mercenaries as opposed to defending its own borders. I think the impotency of the USA is becoming more pronounced by the day in multiple areas.

I do agree there may be a capital/labor component partly explaining the lack of enforcement of employment laws and the border problem. I am surprised, however, that if that is true, there has been no evidence or leaks similiar to what we have seen in other areas.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

The Republicans are still trying to blame illegal immigrants for the disaster and bankruptcy of the US caused by their own Republican policies: like endless wars, like endless military spending, like "deficits don't count" , like zero interest rates, like the housing bubble, like inflationary Fed policy thanks to Republican, Alan Greenspan and Bush's-choice, Ben Bernanke, like "markets self-regulate", like the prison empire (gulag) and drug war of George Bush, like nation-building adventures, like wasting money on the archaic and worthless education curriculum in the U.S. (based upon phonics and English-only, standardized timed-testing, penmanship, cursive, flag-worship, Constitution-worship, white history, etc.).