Although green shoots of economic recovery are springing up, five years after the onset of the first 'great depression' of the century, serious questions remain about how a sustainable recovery can be secured for future generations.

A man who seems to possess the best answers is President Obama's former urban growth guru, Bruce Katz.

Promoting his latest book in Manchester, Mr Katz proffers not simply a solution, but a full scale 'Metropolitan Revolution' in which central governments the world over devolve economic powers to the engines of growth, the cities.

The author is vice president of the long-established and influential Washington think-tank the Brookings Institution - the body which drew up Europe's post-war recovery blueprint the Marshall Plan.

He is also founding director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, which is focused on advising political leaders on policies crucial to the prosperity of cities.

Reconstruction for today's municipal leaders means delivering a paradigm shift, from a failed era of debt-fuelled consumption to a virtuous age of innovation, production and export-led economies.

This decade, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, will prove pivotal, Mr Katz believes.

Cross-Atlantic comparisons between Whitehall's command and control model Washington's own ‘one size fits all' silo mentality are apt, Mr Katz suggests.

However, the situation in the USA is made more complicated by the fiscal and ideological gridlock that recently shut down whole swathes of public administration.

'In the US Government, it is like Elvis has left the building,' Mr Katz quips.

As central governments no longer have the resources to engineer economic change, they have simply relinquished responsibility to the cities - which are stepping up to shoulder the burden.

'The Metropolitan Revolution' provides strong examples of how and why US cities have succeeded in inverting the power pyramid in driving growth through intelligent innovation.

Denver and Los Angeles broke through staid Federal investment rules and won popular local support to invest in state of the art transport networks - in doing so sending a strong signal of intent.

In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg exploited his powerful commercial connections to crowd source the establishment, within two years, of a world-leading applied science campus.

Portland, Oregon, a city once perceived as 'weird and crunchy' on account of its hippy, counterculture background, has transformed into a powerhouse of Asian trade and green technology.

Even Detroit, the poster boy for municipal bankruptcy and urban decay, has seen a civic and economic revival led by universities, corporations and voluntary bodies.