The Growth Ponzi Scheme -- or why the State Street Chain Ghetto and Summit Springs suck.

It's not a perfect analogy, but I'm sticking with it; urban "leadership", suburban thinking.

One fundamental fact about Jeff Gahan's unnecessary infrastructure expenditures is that future maintenance costs aren't considered amid the self-congratulatory stroking of his personality cult.

For once Deaf Gahan is right: The hilltop Fairfield atrocity is a "perfect fit" with maximum pay-to-play monetization.

The articles were written by Charles Marohn and published at Strong Towns.

The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part 1

The underpinnings of the current financial crisis lie in a living arrangement—the American pattern of development—that does not financially support itself. 

The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part 2

If you want a simple explanation for why our economy is stalled and cannot be restarted, it is this: Our places do not create wealth, they destroy wealth. 

The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part 3

Our development pattern is not productive enough to sustain itself.

The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part 4

Our national economy is "all in" on the suburban experiment. We cannot sustain the trajectory we are on, but we've gone too far down the path to turn back.

The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part 5 (finale)

How did we build such an amazing place before the home mortgage interest deduction? How did we accomplish this before zoning? What created this place before we had state and federal subsidies of local water and sewer systems?

We began writing about the Growth Ponzi Scheme in 2011 with a prominent series of articles that outlined the way American cities, towns and neighborhoods were growing themselves into insolvency.  Since then, the Growth Ponzi Scheme has been discussed in numerous publications. The term, as we've defined it, continues to be widely used and cited.