I came across this animated map (The Decline: The Geography of a Recession) the other day and I thought it was interesting to see which states and counties went from low unemployment to high unemployment over time. It almost appears as a creep from the coasts to the middle of America.

That does not mean that the coasts are what caused it (although I have some beefs with “too big to fail” banks and wall street firms and their reckless attitude). However it might suggest that more people are employed in discretionary spending outlets in the coast versus middle America.

I’ve been having some discussions with friends and its been interesting to get views. Some of them made the assertion that the failure came from liberal states and cascading into more conservative states. I’m not sure I buy that.

What do you think?

–Ben