Important new report from the Economic Policy Institute on the continuing pulling away of the top one percent from the bottom 99 percent. The big picture story is as EPI writes: Examining the growth of income over the past century, we…
Important report from the Economic Policy Institute comparing the economic progress Minnesota and Wisconsin have made since the 2010 election. EPI describes the economic paths the two states have taken this way: Governor Walker and the Wisconsin state legislature have…
It passes for conventional wisdom these days that there’s a large mass of young college graduates (those with a four-year degree or more) who can’t find a job. Everyone seems to have a story about a friend of a friend…
The core lesson Michigan Future has learned in more than a quarter of a century of research about the Michigan and national economy is that the single best predictor of individual and community prosperity is a four-year degree. This, of…
Metro Grand Rapids' economy was in the news twice recently. One very positive story, the other not so much. Both are accurate. The differences between the two highlight the importance of how you define economic success. The positive story comes…
We all know the basic story. A very high percentage of personal income growth is going to the top one percent. Which leaves little for the rest of us to enjoy a rising standard of living. The result is a…
The good folks at Bridge Magazine published a guest commentary I wrote based on my commencement address at Alma College. (The Bridge column is here and the entire Alma speech here. The article was republished, to my pleasant surprise, by…
As we explored previously Michigan is now a low wage state. What a turnaround! From Henry Ford's $5 a day wage in 1914 Michigan was the place where if you were willing to work hard you could earning a living…
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…