Thread by @Noahpinion

In today's @bopinion post, I criticize Trump's Opportunity Zone program, and suggest two better alternatives:
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

Donald Trump is a real estate developer, so maybe it's natural that his idea of a place-based economic policy is "give money to real estate developers".

At least some of the Opportunity Zones appear not to be deeply distressed "stuck" places in need of a boost, but up-and-coming areas that are already getting a boost from market forces.

I.e. places that didn't need govt. help, but where real estate developers can make a buck.

Bill Clinton's Empowerment Zone program, which focused on truly poor, truly distressed areas, and which gave companies incentives to employ more locals, had a big positive effect.

This program should be renewed. It worked well.

But actually, there IS good reason to use govt. policy to boost college towns.

This should be the second pillar of U.S. place-based economic policy: the creation of highly productive towns through research spending and boosting of universities.

To reinvigorate America's declining regions, we need both types of programs:
1. Employment incentives in poor areas
2. Research spending in college towns

Those policies, together, would have a far, far bigger impact than Trump's tax giveaways.

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