The need for a new economy
Thought provoking essay by Walter Russell Mead for the American Interest entitled: The job crisis: Bigger than you think. Worth reading! Mead tells well the story Michigan Future has been describing for years. That just as more than a century ago when agriculture could no longer be a source of a prosperous America, the same […]
Not enough jobs
Interesting Businessweek article entitled What’s wrong with the U.S. Job market?. It’s what we should debating. The answer is clearly not the one we are hearing increasingly: that kids are getting too much education. That if only college aged students got technical rather than liberal arts degrees far more folks would be working. What nonsense! […]
Employment by education attainment updated
Both Catherine Rampell of the New York Times and Matthew O’Brien of the Atlantic have articles (which you can find here and here) on the continuing evidence that those with four year degrees have done best since the onset of the Great Recession. It’ s not close! Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data through March […]
Education for more than Michigan employment
Phil Power, the terrific founder of the Center for Michigan, recently wrote a column for Bridge entitled: Schools, colleges aren’t preparing students for careers in Michigan. I find the title quite troubling. It assumes that the purpose of schools and colleges is preparing Michigan students for Michigan jobs and careers. It is the same thinking […]
Education for the economy of the future II
Bloomberg Businessweek just published their New Rules for the modern workplace. Their list: Rule No. 1: Your job is temporary. Where you start isn’t where you’ll end up. Your job, company, and profession may completely change because of mergers and acquisitions, layoffs, outsourcing, automation, and various other factors that are outside your control. Rule No. 2: […]
Factory jobs II
As we explored in my last post, factory jobs are a declining component of the American economy. That is an irreversible reality. The question is “how do we square that reality with the constant drumbeat from manufacturers and their policy and press allies that there is a critical shortage of factory workers today and tomorrow, […]
Factory jobs
Both President Obama in his State of the Union address and Governor Snyder in his State of the State speech identified manufacturing as a key component of their economic growth strategy. Unfortunately, almost certainly, if the goal is more and better jobs it won’t work. In a terrific Atlantic Cities column entitled Sorry Mr. President, […]
Education for the economy of the future
As I have written previously we need an education system that prepares students for the economy they will live in, not the economy that their parents and grandparents experienced. Unfortunately increasingly education policy is moving towards the economy of the past. Both David Brooks and Thomas Friedman wrote recent columns that illuminate what the economy […]
Bipartisan addiction to tax cuts
I have written previously that the state budget policy on a bipartisan basis for two decades has made tax cuts, corrections and health care the priorities. Which by necessity –– or as Bill Clinton says math –– has meant that education, particularly higher education, and support for local governments have been devastated. Every time I […]
grbj.com
I have agreed to write a monthly blog for the online edition of the Grand Rapids Business Journal. I’m excited about the opportunity. You can find my initial post here. The topics will be the same as I write about here. But obviously with a focus on the West Michigan economy. To us that is the […]