Candidate question: How are you going to pay for it?
Terrific column by editorial page editor of The Detroit News Nolan Finley entitled Where’s the damn money?. Finley writes: Pithy slogans won’t fill a single pothole. Nor will shirking from the reality that the state’s decades-long neglect of its infrastructure can only be fixed through either steep spending cuts elsewhere or significant tax increases. Keep that […]
Not much of a job ladder for low-wage workers
Really interesting research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on low-wage workers moving up to better-paying jobs. (You can find the research here and a summary article on the research here.) The report’s core findings: Using data covering the expansion following the Great Recession (2011-17) and focusing on short-term labor market transitions, we […]
Inclusiveness isn’t just a feel-good notion; it’s an economic imperative
In researching my recent report for Michigan Future about how metropolitan Minneapolis became one of the wealthiest and most livable regions of the country, one issue was repeatedly cited to me by business and community leaders: the need to become more inclusive. That’s not something you hear much about from metro Detroit’s business leaders, who […]
The 99 percent in Michigan and Minnesota
Important new report from the Economic Policy Institute on the continuing pulling away of the top one percent from the bottom 99 percent. The big picture story is as EPI writes: Examining the growth of income over the past century, we find growth was broadly shared from 1945 to 1973 and highly unequal from 1973 to […]