Reading recommendations
Lots to recommend on the economy and education. The two areas we work on. On the future of manufacturing, two terrific Atlantic articles. The bottom line from both is that manufacturing is going to continue to be an important part of the American economy. We have competitive advantages both in traditional mass production and in […]
Job growth by education attainment
There seems to be an ever louder chorus of politicians and the press questioning the value of a four year degree. The basic case is that the supply of college graduates exceeds the demand for college graduates. The American economy is not creating enough jobs. So there isn’t enough demand from employers for workers at […]
Big picture themes
As we start the new year I thought it would be helpful to take a step back from the specifics I normally write about to delineate the themes that these posts are about. For the past several years––no matter who was in office in Lansing or Washington––I have written about 100 posts per year. Each […]
What about cost of living?
Every time I write or talk about how states or regions rank the question I get most often is “what about the cost of living?”. Aren’t most of the high prosperity states and big metros in the country – where the knowledge economy is increasingly centered – places with very high cost of living? It […]
Lots of press coverage
All of a sudden there has been a lot of press coverage of our work: I did an interview with Cynthia Canty for Michigan Radio’s Stateside. For those of you who have 13 minutes it is a real good overview of our analysis of the economy and what Michigan needs to do to once again […]
The right top 10
As we explored in our last post being in the top 10 in business cost rankings has little or nothing to do with Michigan families ability to pay the bills or save for their kids college or their retirement. Instead of aiming for a top 10 business climate ranking we believe Michigan policy makers should […]
The wrong top ten
As we have written frequently being highly ranked in business climate rankings seems increasingly to be the goal/measuring stick of economic policy makers and too many pundits. Rather than having a good economy. Problem is Michiganders can’t pay their bills or save for their kids education or their retirement with business climate rankings. What matters […]
Choosing a shrinking Michigan middle class
After the 2010 election I was asked by several publications to write about what I expected to happen to state economic policy. My basic answer was that Governor Snyder campaigned on creating Michigan 3.0 (more knowledge-based), but almost all the legislature was elected on making Michigan 2.0 work again (primarily factories but also farms and […]
Michigan growing the Chicago economy
Three interesting recent articles on young professionals leaving Michigan for vibrant central cities, particularly Chicago. All worth checking out. The first in the Detroit News entitled “Michigan tries to lure best, brightest back“. The article provides a good overview of why where young talent chooses to live and work matters a lot to the Michigan […]
Low pay driving job vacancies
Conventional wisdom is that there are plenty of jobs available that are vacant because too few Americans have the skills employers need in an increasingly knowledge-based economy. Not just the STEM professions, but also technical jobs in manufacturing, construction, health care, etc. President Obama and Governor Snyder are among many business and political leaders pushing […]