In our last post we detailed that states with employment most concentrated in production––front-line factory––jobs are all structurally low-prosperity states, with per capita income substantially below the nation's. Those states include Michigan and Tennessee, both with per capita income twelve…
Terrific op ed in Crain's Detroit Business by Glenn Stevens Jr., executive director of MICHauto and Britany Affolter-Caine, executive director of Michigan’s University Research Corridor. They write: The most successful strategy to ensure Michigan's long-term competitiveness and economic prosperity is…
When its comes to wages and benefits Michigan used to be among the top states. No more. The state has fallen from 8th in 1990 to 21st in 2018. Michigan has gone from $3,743 above the nation on average compensation…
A couple weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of Education John King paid a visit to Detroit, during which time he offered some advice to Michigan education leaders in an interview with Chalkbeat: stop shuttering failing schools, because the schools we’re replacing…
In our last post we looked at the unacceptable increase in poverty in Michigan that has occurred over the long term. From 1969 to 2014. Its a consequence of Michigan becoming structurally a low prosperity state. After have been a…
Governor Snyder is in the vanguard of elected officials and business leaders who are pushing for more Michigan students to pursue occupational certificates and associate degrees with an occupational major rather than a four-year degree, particularly in non STEM fields.…
As we explored previously Michigan has lousy k-12 student outcomes and is making little progress if at all. A recipe for long term economic decline. The state which has the best student outcomes is Massachusetts. Massachusetts k-12 policy was put in…
MSU economics professor Charles Ballard just gave a terrific presentation on the Michigan economy. Highly recommended! Ballard's main themes are: Michigan's population decline has followed its economic decline Michigan has moved from being a high to low prosperity state The main causes…
Theme: The places with the greatest concentration of talent win Among all the disappointing actions taken by Michigan policy makers the past two years––particularly in December––the most disturbing is explicitly positioning Michigan to compete with Indiana. As we and many others…
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…