There are pleasant hamlets where the radiant warmth of sunshine smiles down and sprinkles daily blessings and abundance. There are other places where the sun no longer shines. Remnants of past jollies cast shadows of decay. Sources of prosperity have rusted over like an old tin garbage can.
Scranton, Pennsylvania, hitched its wagon to the wrong horse nearly a century ago. But it took nearly 50-years for this to become apparent. Sometimes the source of an economic boon is ultimately the cause of demise.
For Scranton, the blessing of an abundance of anthracite coal brought unhindered growth and prosperity to the city from the turn of the 20th century until about the end of World War II. By the mid-1930s, the city’s population had expanded to over 140,000. Nearly double today’s population.
But, alas for Scranton, the world is dynamic. It is ever changing. Too much of a good thing leads to over dependence. Or, as Hyman Minsky observed, stability leads to instability. Continue reading
