Next time someone tells you, "Eh, this recession hasn't sucked that much in Miami," whip out this interactive economic graphic report that the Brookings Institute just published. The think tank's conclusions are stunning: Of 200 global cities they analyzed, Miami's economy was harder hit by the recession than all but 17 others, barely topping Moscow (and losing out to St. Petersburg ... the Russian one, not the Florida Gulf coast town.)
Brookings cites a 5 percent drop in Miami's income and a 6.3 percent plunge in employment. At least Istanbul had it worse?
Brookings report analyzed economic data from 2007 until 2010 -- the heart of the global recession. In general, they found developing cities from African to Latin America weathered the storm -- and even grew -- much better than old-world towns in the Americas and Europe.
Thanks to our massive property bubble and cratered tourism industry, Miami was among the worst of the worst on this continent.
California cities including San Francisco and L.A. as well as Atlanta joined Miami as the worst-hit U.S. towns.
But all is not doom and gloom for Miamians who read Brookings reports!
In their look ahead at 2011's economic data, Miami jumps all the way to 133rd in the world. Take that, Budapest!
The Magic City's employment has moved into positive growth, albeit just .8 percent, while income is at least nearly stagnant at .5 percent growth.
Time to start re-inflating that property bubble, boys.
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