Many of our recommendations laid out in our new report, A path to good-paying careers for all Michiganders, involve increasing public investments. Which raises the question, "how do you pay for those essential public investments?" We have long believed, and…
CNBC ranked Minnesota the best state to do business in. Pretty surprising. Good economy? Yes. Good place to do business? Conventional wisdom is no. We have long used Minnesota as our model state. Because it has the best economic outcomes…
The well-respected Tax Foundation recently released their 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index report. Michigan is rated the 13th best business climate in the country. The same ranking Michigan had in 2013 and 2014. In 2012 the state ranked 27th.…
No matter who wins next week's elections for Governor and the state legislature those elected will be taking over a state economy that is a national laggard. The best evidence of that reality comes from the recent release by the…
Nearly a year ago I did what turned out to be one of my most popular posts which looked at how states ranked highly by the Tax Foundation did in terms of economic performance. Its time for an update. Then,…
Not good news for Michigan. The unemployment rate is going up again. Up to 9.0% in August from a post recession low of 8.4% in both April and May 2013. This turn for the worse, comes with the huge Snyder…
I want to update a column I wrote for Dome in November 2011. Entitled "Model state for Michigan's future?" I wrote then: The Mackinac Center for Public Policy on Monday is hosting an event with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels as…
We have written previously about how irrelevant state business climate rankings are to whether or not a state's residents are doing well economically. Here about the recent CEOs ranking according to Chief Executive Magazine. And here about the widely publicized…
As we explored in our last post being in the top 10 in business cost rankings has little or nothing to do with Michigan families ability to pay the bills or save for their kids college or their retirement. Instead…
As we have written frequently being highly ranked in business climate rankings seems increasingly to be the goal/measuring stick of economic policy makers and too many pundits. Rather than having a good economy. Problem is Michiganders can’t pay their bills…