Michigan's core economic challenge is there are too many low-wage jobs. It is the primary reason for the Michigan Association of United Ways finding that a way too high 43 percent of Michigan households in a strong economy cannot pay…
Two highly recommended recent New York Times articles on how technology is destroying good-paying jobs and careers. The first, written by Kevin Roose, is entitled The hidden agenda of the Davos elites. The second, written by Eduardo Porter, is entitled…
Late last year, Stanford economist Raj Chetty and colleagues published an important set of data that measured just how many Americans achieve the American dream. They define the American dream as the ideal that a child will earn more money,…
2015 turns out to be the year that a growing economy finally delivered rising incomes for low and middle income Americans and Michiganders. Median household income nationally rose 5.2 percent. In Michigan 2.4 percent. Michigan's median household income in 2015 was…
Two recent New Times columns make the case that lower taxes are not the magic elixir that automatically leads to economic success. Both worth reading. Bruce Bartlett, one of the authors of the Reagan tax cuts, in a critique of…
Every election year candidates from both parties make growing manufacturing employment a centerpiece of their economic growth strategy. One problem: no matter who wins in DC or Lansing the structural decline in manufacturing employment continues unabated. Manufacturing employment declines sharply…
Two insightful Eduardo Porter columns for the New York Times. One entitled The myth of welfare's corrupting influence on the poor. The other entitled The Republican party's strategy to ignore poverty. Both worth reading. The first makes the case that…
I support President Obama's proposal to make community college tuition free for those students who stay on track academically. Expanding education opportunity and outcomes is an essential component of raising the standard of living of all Americans. That said taking…
An important column from Eduardo Porter in the New York Times entitled: A Simple Equation: More Education = More Income. That about says it all! Worth reading. As we write frequently in these posts the evidence is overwhelming that the most…
Micheline Maynard wrote an insightful article for Atlantic Cities entitled The Midwest's Big Economic Miscalculation. She writes particularly about Michigan's continuing belief that the auto industry will once again be the engine of economic good times as it was for most…