Place and young professionals

A recent DBusiness article, entitled  “Report: Metro Detroit ranks low in attracting, keeping young graduates”, cites two reports that came to that conclusion. The one I want to focus on in this post comes from the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER). Metro Detroit ranked 48th out of 51 regions with populations of one million or […]

Downtowns and economic development

In two recent Atlantic articles James Fallows writes about the renaissance in central city downtowns occurring across America and around the world. (You can find the articles here and here.)  He concludes that vibrant downtowns are an essential ingredient in city success: He writes: “Yes, you can find exceptions. But most of the time, when […]

Explaining persistent low education attainment

Insightful blog by Marc Tucker CEO of the National Center on Education and the Economy. Tucker’s topic is why America for decades has failed to reverse its standing as an international laggard in student achievement. Its not that that reality is unknown or that business, political, and media leadership hasn’t identified it as an important […]

Michigan’s 99 percent

We all know the basic story. A very high percentage of personal income growth is going to the top one percent. Which leaves little for the rest of us to enjoy a rising standard of living.  The result is a decoupling  between a growing economy and most American doing better economically. In many ways this […]

Detroit Regional Chamber on transportation

For decades the Detroit Regional Chamber has be a leader on the importance of transit to the success of the region and state. Way ahead of the rest of the business community both in the region and across the state. They have just released their principals for how state policy makers should deal with transportation […]