photo credit: MAZZALIARMADI.IT via Flickr cc

There is virtual unanimity that most of the developed world has been suffering from an economic slowdown in recent years. Much of the policy debate, along with focus of the media and public, has been at the macroeconomic level. The result has been a preoccupation with the size of the stimulus and the adequacy of the federal deficit, or alternatively tax cuts at the federal level in the United States, and the fate of the Euro in Europe. The implication for cities, regions and states aspiring to improve their economic performance is that it is largely not in their hands but rather at the level of macroeconomic and monetary policy makers.

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