Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, says there is evidence that the U.S. is beginning to lose these people to other countries.

This brain drain may be the most startling economic event of the last four years, and one of the most damaging in the long run.

Florida's original book, published in 2002, said that attracting creative, motivated professionals to a city was the key to economic growth. Such people are often accused of wealth and guilty of education. His Web site has a lot of background material, much of it in the form of attrractive charts.

Florida estimated there are about 38 million such people in the U.S. and said they are young, highly mobile, and attracted to exciting, tolerant places. A shortage of them can bury an economy over the long run.

Among the likeliest locations to find such people in the U.S. are Washington, D.C., Raleigh-Durham NC, Austin, TX, and Seattle, WA. (Even when they're in red states, they often vote blue.) He said such people drive not only economic growth, but change, technology and progress.

Where is the creative class going? According to Florida many are going to Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Denmark. These countries have put in place policies aimed at attracting creative people.

Unfortunately, even a short version of Florida's article is not yet available online because of a lack of creativity on the part of the publishing industry. Seems the Harvard Business Review, which published a chapter from the book due this spring, put it behind a paid firewall.

I pointed this out to Florida, who pointed me to his Web site, adding "I agree entirely! Let me see what I can do." Good luck, Doc.