Minnesota and Michigan II
Don Grimes and I are putting the finishing touches on our new report. The topic is the transformation of the American economy over two decades: from 1990 to 2011. Taking that long term view reveals patterns clearly. And the differences that Minnesota and Michigan have traveled is both stark and revealing of what we have […]
Michigan is a low wage state updated
As we explored previously Michigan is now a low wage state. What a turnaround! From Henry Ford’s $5 a day wage in 1914 Michigan was the place where if you were willing to work hard you could earning a living and realize the American Dream. No more. Two new studies provide more evidence on the […]
Michigan Future Schools Announces Four New School Openings in Detroit
Michigan Future Schools (MFS), an initiative of Michigan Future Inc., a non-partisan, economy-focused think tank based in Ann Arbor, announced that four new Detroit high schools it has invested in opened this fall, joining three others previously launched with investments from Michigan Future Schools. The four new schools are: Detroit Leadership Academy High School (YMCA) […]
Minnesota and Michigan
Not good news for Michigan. The unemployment rate is going up again. Up to 9.0% in August from a post recession low of 8.4% in both April and May 2013. This turn for the worse, comes with the huge Snyder business tax cuts in effect. You know the ones that were supposed to drive Michigan’s […]
21st Century central cities
In our 2006 A New Agenda for a New Michigan we wrote: “For many Michiganians, vibrant central cities are part of the past. No longer relevant or just something you visit in unique places like Manhattan, Toronto or Chicago. Think again! They are an important ingredient to future economic success. The pattern across the country […]
Student loans: a good investment
Conventional wisdom is that college educated Millennials are being crushed by student loans. A burden that will weigh them down economically for a lifetime. Its nonsense. Using data from The Ladders.com, Business Insider demonstrates the value of a four year degree or more, even if it includes student loans. They conclude: “Student loan debt is […]
More education trumps lower taxes
Terrific study by Noah Berger and Peter Fischer for the Economic Policy Institute entitled A Well-Educated Workforce Is Key to State Prosperity. Sound familiar? That four-year degree attainment is increasingly what determines which states and regions are prosperous has been the central tennant of Michigan Future’s work for years. Berger and Fisher use median wage […]
21st Century neighborhoods
Just finished reading the End of the Suburbs by Leigh Galagher, assistant managing editor at Fortune. Highly recommended. She details, with data and stories, the new reality that more and more Americans want to live in high density, walkable, mixed use neighborhoods. Where walking and transit are as important as driving. That the odds are […]
Not picking industries
I am a skeptic when it comes to government –– national, state and local –– picking industries –– either old ones to save or new ones to stimulate –– as an effective economic growth strategy. Although it is true most of the folks I work with and respect don’t agree. They are far more representative […]
21st Century transportation
What concerns me most about Michigan’s politics is how much of it, on a bi-partisan basis, seems designed for the 20th Century. We seem to be having a hard time learning what made us prosperous in the past, won’t in the future. Our fixation on trying to once again make Michigan a factory-based state is […]