Michigan's low-tax strategy has failed. Since 2000 Michigan has experienced––in good times and bad and no matter which party has been in control in Lansing––far worse than the nation employment and wage growth. In 2000 Michigan accounted for 3.6 percent…
In my last post we looked at evidence that the most prosperous non-energy states were those with the highest college attainment, not the lowest taxes. In this post I want to look at the states the tax cutters in Lansing…
Amazing Bloomberg column entitled Kansas Ends Bad Economic News by Not Reporting It. Its written by Barry Ritholtz, founder of Ritholtz Wealth Management and formerly chief executive and director of equity research at FusionIQ, a quantitative research firm. Turns out that Kansas has…
Theme: Low cost states don't win Conventional wisdom is that so-called business friendly places have the best economies. That the way to grow a state's or region's economy is to lower business costs with lower taxes, less regulation and weaker…
Theme: Quality education matters most Michigan––any many other states––have been slashing higher education funding for the last decade. It has been viewed as something we can't afford in hard economic times. A luxury that you invest in when times are…
Michigan spent most of the 20th century building a world class system of higher education – both universities and community colleges. That system is now at the top of the list of the assets Michigan has to grow its economy.…
Finally we are having the debate we need on higher education funding. For the past decade the state – on a bi-partisan basis – has disinvested in higher education without much debate. As we have argued for years this was…
Mixed news to say the least on making higher education a priority in Michigan. In a world where increasingly the most prosperous individuals and communities are characterized by college attainment, how we view our community colleges and universities matters a…
Most of the questions I have received have been about how well the Governor’s budget will help in growing the Michigan economy. In addition there also is the question of how well the proposal tackles the state’s structural deficit. They…
I finally had the time to take a look at the annual competitiveness report published by Business Leaders for Michigan. The one that gets so much publicity because it shows Michigan has a cost of doing business 4% higher than…