May 7, 2026 #Investing #Markets #Finance
The residents of Allentown are still sore about that Billy Joel song. And while it's true the Pennsylvania city became synonymous with deindustrialization after the steel industry began its decline in the 1970s, it should be known for more: In the 1950s, some of the first mass-produced transistors were made in the city, the precursor of today's semiconductors. The city is a unique logistics and e-commerce hub — it's a day's drive from nearly 40 percent of the US population. In today's episode, recorded in Madrid at the Citylab conference, we speak to Mayor Matthew Tuerk about the city's grand strategy for building back and sustaining its manufacturing base, implementing industrial policy on a local level, how rezoning has changed in the last decade, the political puzzle of data centers, recruiting companies to come to Allentown, de-risking the American supply chain, and our favorite new category of industry — weight-gaining industries.