More education trumps lower taxes

Terrific study by Noah Berger and Peter Fischer for the Economic Policy Institute entitled A Well-Educated Workforce Is Key to State Prosperity. Sound familiar? That four-year degree attainment is increasingly what determines which states and regions are prosperous has been…

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Michigan’s recovery

Good news! The Bureau of Labor Statistics just released revised data on Michigan employment for 2011 and 2012. They show larger job gains than previously reported. For the two years combined Michigan added 160,800 jobs, an increase of 4.2%. After…

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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…

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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…

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Transportation Drives Growth

Transportation Drives Growth

Terrific article by Christopher Leinberger in this month's Atlantic. It's about the increased consumer demand – in both cities and suburbs – for walkable neighborhoods linked by train. The article and his book the Option of Urbanism are worth reading.…

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Not Low Business Costs

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…

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