Michigan is a low wage state

Michigan was the birthplace of the 20th Century American mass middle class. Largely built on a foundation of high paid blue collar –– mainly unionized factory –– jobs. It is the main reason Michigan was one of the most prosperous…

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Michigan’s demographic challenge

We close our presentations with "either Michigan gets younger and better educated or we will get poorer". Both matter and for both the trends are not good. Many of these posts are about the necessity of getting better educated. Michigan…

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Hanging on to the past: not smart!

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…

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A Tale of Two Economies

Good article (with video interview of George Fulton) by Nathan Bomey at AnnArbor.com. Its called Education Chasm. Its the new reality we all need to adjust too. Using data from a new projection of Washtenaw County by UM's Fulton and…

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The Myth of Big Government Michigan

A common story about Michigan's economic woes is that we have a big and growing public sector that is discouraging/preventing private sector growth. Think again! In the new work by UM economist George Fulton and Don Grimes is a comparison…

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Where Job Growth is Occurring

Included in some new work by my friends, UM economists George Fulton and Don Grimes, is an analysis of job growth in America from 2001-2008. They use the same framework we do by dividing the economy into high education attainment…

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