Are small town colleges going extinct?

The hosts of The Indicator from Planet Money open their latest episode with a familiar ritual: awarding prizes for the most telling anecdotes from the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, a collection of regional economic snapshots. This time, the conversation quickly moves beyond quirky labor-market tidbits to a sobering look at the accelerating crisis in American higher education, particularly the wave of small college closures that are devastating the towns that depend on them.

The Beige Book Awards: From San Francisco Wages to Luxury Taxes

The episode begins with the usual Beige Book awards, which serve as a barometer for the broader economy. The third-place award goes to the Dallas Fed, which reported that employers are encountering job candidates who are "asking for San Francisco wages"—a shorthand for workers demanding higher pay than the local market might support. The second-place award goes to the New York Fed for an anecdote about luxury real estate: following a proposed tax on high-value second homes (a "Pied-à-Terre" tax), many prospective buyers shifted to the rental market. As the hosts note, this is textbook economics—taxing something reduces consumption of it, though in this case, it could drive up rents.