Constantly Changing Economy
At the core of Michigan Future’s work is the belief that globalization and technology are mega forces that are fundamentally changing the economy. That change is now a permanent feature of life. It’s not an adjustment to a new economy that is required but constant adjustments to new realities. The places that understand that and […]
Young Talent Leaving Michigan
A couple of interesting articles about young talent leaving Michigan. Both worth reading. The first from the Spinal Column covering west Oakland County. I’m interviewed, but what is most interesting is the insights of recent college grads on why they stayed or didn’t. Both jobs/careers and place sure seem to matter. The endless debate we […]
The Basics: Education and Infrastructure
When I started working in economic development more than thirty years ago –time does fly when you are having fun – conventional wisdom was that the state’s chief role was education and infrastructure. They were considered the foundation on which the private sector could build a strong economy. Somehow that lesson has been lost over […]
Factory Work: Summing Up
Most of my posts the past several weeks have been about manufacturing. More specifically what has traditionally been blue collar work done in factories. The Atlantic End of Men? cover story, the Andy Grove Business Week commentary and the New Times article on the skill gap between current factory jobs and those of applicants all […]
Andy Grove III
Business Week chose Duke’s Vivek Wadhwa to respond to Andy Grove’s commentary on the need to retain manufacturing jobs. Wadhwa’s response is quite consistent with the basic Michigan Future view of the economy. That the kind of factory jobs that are going overseas are not the kind of jobs Americans need– far too low wage […]
Andy Grove II
Andy Grove in his Business Week commentary lays out a case that America is on track to have high unemployment long term. With all sorts of dangerous implications for the country, social and political as well as economic. He identifies two prime reasons for the country’s likely inability to create jobs at the needed scale. The […]
Andy Grove on Manufacturing
Bloomberg Business Week published an important commentary from legendary former Intel CEO Andy Grove. They also published a response by Duke’s Vivek Wadhwa. Both are worth reading and debating. The case Grove makes is so important, my next few posts will be on the issues he raises. Grove argues that keeping manufacturing jobs in American is a […]
The Real Minnesota Story
High praise for LivingstonDaily.com for a story destroying the claim by a Republican State Senate candidate that Minnesota is a low tax state. Finally someone in the media is willing to check the facts on all the claims that low tax states have the best economies. As they report, when they asked what state had […]
The Challenges of Adult Training
Kudos to the Lansing State Journal and Detroit News for in depth articles on the performance of Michigan’s adult training system. ( You can find the Journal’s article here and the News’ lead article here.) The News focused on the No Worker Left Behind program and its, at best, mixed results. While the Journal takes […]
The Future of Factory Work
Important article in the New York Times on what is happening to manufacturing employment since the economy started to recover from the Great Recession. It identifies the trends that will likely define factory work going forward. The new reality: (1) Some job growth, but at a fraction of what was lost this decade (six million) […]