Lets hope this isn’t “back”
Michigan elites––corporate, elected officials and the press––increasingly claim that Michigan is back. Thanks in no small part to the huge federal bailout of the domestic automobile industry and the financial system, corporate Michigan is enjoying skyrocketing profits, stock prices and top executive compensation. So without question Michigan elites are doing very well indeeed. The rest […]
Cities and schools
Included in my standard presentation is this quote from Harvard economist Edward Glaeser: In the long run, America will be richer than China only by having smarter citizens, and that requires the skills that come from schools and cities, not dispersed factories. It is great summary of our approach to economic development. In an increasingly knowledge-based […]
California’s growth explained
Lets take a look at the details of California’s economic resurgence since the election of Governor Jerry Brown and adoption of a significant tax increase. (Using data compiled by Don Grimes covering the period from June 2011 to June 2014. Governor Brown took office in January 2011 and the tax increase was approved by voters […]
California growing, Kansas not so much
Paul Krugman has done recent New York Times columns on economic growth in California since the election of Governor Jerry Brown and in Kansas since the election of Governor Sam Brownback. The California column entitled “Left Coast Rising” is about the state’s impressive growth since the state raised taxes. In Kansas its the opposite story, […]
Trickle down and the Millennials continued
At its core, Thomas Sugrue’s critique of making retaining and attracting young professional a priority really should be aimed at regions and states, not cities. What Sugrue is arguing is that it is not an effective jobs and economic development strategy. City government has very little clout in either. In his Free Press interview Sugrue […]
Michigan Future Schools helps two new high school open in Detroit
Michigan Future Schools (MFS), an initiative of Michigan Future Inc., announced that two new Detroit high schools it has invested in are opening today, joining seven others previously launched with investments from MFS. The two new schools are: Detroit Delta Preparatory Academy for Social Justice Schools for the Future Detroit Detroit Detroit Delta Preparatory Academy […]
Trickle down and the Millennials
Thomas Sugrue is the author of the must-read “The Origins of the Urban Crisis”, a history of the deindustrialization of Detroit. He was a keynote speaker at the last Detroit Regional Chamber’s Detroit Policy Conference. Prior to the speech he did an interview with John Gallagher of the Detroit Free Press which was entitled: “Sugrue: […]
High taxes and more and better jobs
By and large our Minnesota policy case study has been well received. The facts are clear. It has the best economy of the Great Lakes states by far. And it also is the highest tax and spending state, with the most generous safety net, in the Great Lakes. And this has been true for decades. […]
A generous safety net helping economic growth
In his last post about our State Policies Matters report, Rick Haglund wrote of the much more generous safety net Minnesota has compared to Michigan. I wrote on the topic in a post entitled “The safety net and employment”. Both of us have noted that Minnesota disproves the all too conventional wisdom that a generours safety […]
Upcoming posts
For the next several weeks these posts will be written by Rick Haglund. Rick authored our latest report: State Policies Matter: How Minnesota’s Tax, Spending and Social Policies Help it Achieve the Best Economy Among Great Lakes States. His posts will highlight the lessons he learned in his investigation of Minnesota’a approach to growing its economy. By […]