A Top Ten That Matters
Seems like every week there is another top ten list that folks claim Michigan should be on. Many are tax rankings. Some measure how “business friendly” states or regions are. Only problem with these lists is being on the top ten almost never means that you have a prosperous economy. When it comes to inputs […]
Books To Read III
When it comes to what we call preparing talent – teaching and learning – the books that best help me understand the big picture are: Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn and Curtis Johnson. For those interested in how education should look in the future this is the best book I have read. It […]
The Limits of State Policy
Hal Wolman, formerly of Wayne State, now at George Washington, was in town this week. He is working on a national project to try to figure out what characterizes resilient regions – those that recover from big economic shocks. I participated in a meeting he convened of a small group of “old hands” on the […]
No Time to Backtrack on High School Standards
Amber Arellano’s Detroit News editorial on high school standards is highly recommended. (Get it here.) As she argues reducing the standards, particularly in math, – as many educators are pushing for – would be a big mistake. The new graduation standards are one of the few accomplishments of Lansing policy makers in the last decade […]
Books to Read II
More book recommendations. As you know we have concluded that retaining and attracting talent – particularly young college graduates – is one of the keys to growing the Michigan economy. Two books cover the topic best: Who’s Your City by Richard Florida. We believe that human capitol is now the driver of the economy. Florida […]
Higher Education Is A Priority
Lansing State Journal – Michigan Must Ready Itself for Jobs Recently the Lansing State Journal ran a terrific editorial about the future of the mid Michigan economy. You can find it as an attachment below. Its message is applicable to the entire state. Its quite simple: job growth and particularly good-paying jobs from today forward […]
The Higher Ed Challenge
We believe Michigan’s higher education system is one of our best assets for rebuilding a prosperous Michigan. Its kind of hard to imagine how we could build in the last century one of the best public higher ed systems on the planet, and then when it matters most disinvest in it. Not smart! But higher […]
Michigan’s Transition to a Knowledge-Based Economy – Annual Progress Report
Michigan Future has completed the second annual report on Michigan’s transition to a knowledge-based economy and what we found is stunning – the trends we have written about in our previous reports have accelerated in the downturn.
Books to Read
I’m often asked to recommend books to read. When it comes to understanding the economy the two books that have helped me the most to understand the nature of the fundamental change we are going through are: The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. It still is the best book I know of to understand […]
Minnesota and Alabama, Part II
I previously wrote about Minnesota and Alabama having virtually the same unemployment rate at the time we published our last report. That had been true from 2006-08. But with the same unemployment rate, Minnesota had per capita income more than $8,000 higher. From our perspective it is clear that Michigan needs to move in the […]