

A liberal arts degree leads to a good-paying career
We are constantly besieged with messaging that a liberal arts degree is useless. Maybe even worse than useless: a path to being a pauper or


Young professionals concentrating in big cities
More than a decade ago we identified four common characteristics of high-prosperity non-energy-driven states: Over concentrated in knowledge-based services which are the sectors of the


The myth of six-figure welders
We first wrote about welders in 2013. Its a topic we keep coming back to, most recently in a 2018 post entitled What skilled trades


College entrance exams and college admission
Paul Tough’s excellent new book The Years That Matter Most explores how college entrance exams––SAT and ACT––impact who gets admitted to college. He does it


Talent attracts capital
In preparing presentations about our placemaking recommendations what has struck me is that the key message can be summed up in three words: talent attracts


Neighborhoods without gentrification
In a recent post we made the case for why gentrification is a good. Something that all Michigan cities should want more of. In this