No Talent, Jobs Go Elsewhere
About a month ago I received an e mail with the title “Why our growing firm may have to leave Michigan” (you can and should read it here). I assumed that it would be about taxes and/or business costs are too high. Boy was I wrong! It is from a law firm that cannot fill […]
Cost of Living?
One of the questions I get most often during my presentations is “what about the cost of living?”. Aren’t most of the high prosperity big metros in the country – where the knowledge economy is increasingly centered – places with very high cost of living? It is true we don’t correct income for cost of living […]
Constantly Changing Economy
At the core of Michigan Future’s work is the belief that globalization and technology are mega forces that are fundamentally changing the economy. That change is now a permanent feature of life. It’s not an adjustment to a new economy that is required but constant adjustments to new realities. The places that understand that and […]
Young Talent Leaving Michigan
A couple of interesting articles about young talent leaving Michigan. Both worth reading. The first from the Spinal Column covering west Oakland County. I’m interviewed, but what is most interesting is the insights of recent college grads on why they stayed or didn’t. Both jobs/careers and place sure seem to matter. The endless debate we […]
The Basics: Education and Infrastructure
When I started working in economic development more than thirty years ago –time does fly when you are having fun – conventional wisdom was that the state’s chief role was education and infrastructure. They were considered the foundation on which the private sector could build a strong economy. Somehow that lesson has been lost over […]
Place Comes First
Place trumps everything. Among my college educated friends who have yet to start families, they’d sooner move (and many have) to an exciting or beautiful place without a job prospect, than to stay in or move to Southeast Michigan with an excellent job offer. While there are exceptions, my husband and I included, the overarching […]
Factory Work: Summing Up
Most of my posts the past several weeks have been about manufacturing. More specifically what has traditionally been blue collar work done in factories. The Atlantic End of Men? cover story, the Andy Grove Business Week commentary and the New Times article on the skill gap between current factory jobs and those of applicants all […]
Andy Grove III
Business Week chose Duke’s Vivek Wadhwa to respond to Andy Grove’s commentary on the need to retain manufacturing jobs. Wadhwa’s response is quite consistent with the basic Michigan Future view of the economy. That the kind of factory jobs that are going overseas are not the kind of jobs Americans need– far too low wage […]
Andy Grove II
Andy Grove in his Business Week commentary lays out a case that America is on track to have high unemployment long term. With all sorts of dangerous implications for the country, social and political as well as economic. He identifies two prime reasons for the country’s likely inability to create jobs at the needed scale. The […]
Andy Grove on Manufacturing
Bloomberg Business Week published an important commentary from legendary former Intel CEO Andy Grove. They also published a response by Duke’s Vivek Wadhwa. Both are worth reading and debating. The case Grove makes is so important, my next few posts will be on the issues he raises. Grove argues that keeping manufacturing jobs in American is a […]