A Constantly Changing Economy
The main business Michigan Future is in is trying to understand the flat world and then be a catalyst to better position Michigan and its citizens to prosper in that economy. Our core belief is that the people and communities that will do best economically are those that align with – rather than resist – […]
Toyota
Interesting article by Nathan Bomey in annarbor.com. Its about Toyota apparently considering moving some of their knowledge jobs from California, with Ann Arbor being one of the leading options. Bomey cites our work in speculating that lower labor costs here might be one of the reasons. Turns out the story that Michigan is a high […]
Good Stuff from the GR Press
Two excellent opinion pieces this week from the Grand Rapids Press. One on college attainment being the key to economic growth, the other on low taxes not being the answer. Both worth reading. The editorial on college attainment has some encouraging news. Four-year degree attainment is up twenty one percent at Michigan’s public universities since […]
Innovation is the Key
A recent David Brooks column in the New York Times lays out an innovation agenda. Its worth reading. Its based on a report from President Obama’s National Economic Council. At the core the strategy is based on a belief that its innovation that will be the driver of future economic prosperity in America. Brooks argues […]
What to do with Failing Schools
Good article in the current issue of Education Next. Its called the Turnaround Fallacy. The author, Andy Smarick, argues that there really is no good evidence across the country that we know how to turn around schools that chronically produced low student achievement. Are there schools that have been turned around: moved from low to […]
The Myth of Michigan Big Government II
Quite frankly I was surprised at the data in my last blog about the big disparity in public sector employment in Michigan this decade compared to the nation. Nationally public sector employment up around six percent, in Michigan down six percent from 2001-08. If Michigan had mirrored the country we would have gained 40,000 jobs,rather […]
The Myth of Big Government Michigan
A common story about Michigan’s economic woes is that we have a big and growing public sector that is discouraging/preventing private sector growth. Think again! In the new work by UM economist George Fulton and Don Grimes is a comparison of government job growth in Michigan compared to the US from 2001-2008. (The statistics are […]
Where Job Growth is Occurring
Included in some new work by my friends, UM economists George Fulton and Don Grimes, is an analysis of job growth in America from 2001-2008. They use the same framework we do by dividing the economy into high education attainment industries (those where thirty percent or more of the employees have a four-year degree or […]
Why Young Talent?
There are many who question why it is that folks like us place such a high priority on retaining and attracting recent college graduates. Why pick one demographic group over the others? Aren’t they all important? No one asked that question for the past century when we paid special attention to high paid factory workers. […]
Transforming High Schools
Nationally there are few high performing, open enrollment, urban high schools. We clearly need a new approach. Michigan Future has been working on the issue for nearly a decade. Here is how we think about what matters in creating high quality high schools. Its at the core of our new accelerator strategy. Its drawn from […]