In late June, the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program released a geographic analysis of 'foreign direct investment' (FDI) in US cities from 1991 to 2011. The chief purpose of the report is to encourage cities to think about FDI with greater sophistication - not as a golden ticket to generating new jobs, because it doesn't reliably do that, but as one component of a balanced economic development strategy. Three North Carolina metro areas receive special attention in the report.
