I highly recommend you check out Richard Florida's new piece in this month's The Atlantic.

You probably know of Florida from his now-classic book, "The Rise of the Creative Class."

His new article picks up a theme that I see more and more often in the past few weeks: that the current economic crisis is accelerating major changes that were already in place before the recession, but now are happning very quickly.

Our economy built on excessive consumption funded by the savings of other countries is coming to an end. And the potential effects on our living standards, the environment, energy, and education could be huge. Thomas Friedman in this week's New York Times argues we are about to experience an "inflection point" of historic proportions not seen since World War II.

More specifically, Florida argues that the economic crisis will forever change the geography of America's economic landscape. Cities like Detroit may be done for good, while new regions like the "Char-Lanta" Corridor and the Research Triangle will increasingly be magnets for talented people.

In all this doom and gloom, it's heartening to think that our current pain may lead to better long-term solutions for our world. As the economist Paul Romer says, "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste."

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200903/meltdown-geography