A decade of state spending restraint

Back to the must read new report from the Senate Fiscal Agency on state taxes and spending over the last decade or so. As you know, conventional wisdom is that the new Administration and Legislature took over from a high tax/high spending regime. Turns out to be complete baloney. The facts as laid out in […]

Welcoming West Michigan?

As readers of our work know, we believe that culture trump policy. In a world where economic growth is driven by knowledge and innovation, the most successful regions are those which highly value learning, an entrepreneurial spirit and being welcoming to all. The evidence is that Michigan is having trouble with all three. More evidence of […]

College: a better investment than stocks or home ownership

I’m frequently asked about the effects of rising and high tuition on college attainment. I answer in two parts. The first is obvious, of course, high tuition to some degree depresses college attendance. In a recent article AP’s Kathy Barks Hoffman provides an excellent overview of how declining state aid has been a major contributor […]

Lou’s 4th annual progress report presentation

The following presentation is an overview of the 4th Annual Progress update on Michigan’s transition to a knowledge-based economy. The presentations builds on the ideas and research of the New Agenda for a New Michigan initiative. Lou Glazer, the CEO of Michigan Future Inc., regularly gives this presentation at talks around the state. Read through […]

The value of a college degree

Public conversation these days is filled with talk of the declining value of getting a college education. Don’t believe it! The earnings premium from a four year degree or more is greater today than ever and almost certainly will grow going forward. Two terrific new articles make that case quite well. Both are worth reading. […]

Explaining Michigan’s lost decade

Don Grimes and I have written in each of our annual progress reports on the Michigan economy that Michigan’s economic collapse the past decade could best be explained as a single industry recession, rather than a single state recession. That our so-called lost decade is a continuation of long-term trends, rather than a departure. For […]

Detroit growing

Last May I wrote that the city of Detroit should focus on growing, not shrinking. As contradictory as it sounds the city needs to do some of both. But the priority needs to be growth. As I wrote: Detroit’s problem is not that there is no demand for central city living. The last two decades […]

Key quality of place characterisitcs

Finally had a chance to read the Knight Foundation’s 2010 Soul of the Community report. Conducted by Gallup it identifies the attributes that most drive community attachment. What is of particular interest is the finding that the more attached an area’s residents are the better the region’s economic growth. Metro Detroit is one of the […]

Low tax America

Bruce Bartlett is one of the original supply siders. He worked in both the Reagan and first Bush Administrations as well as for Congressmen Jack Kemp and Ron Paul. He was involved in the drafting of the Kemp/Roth tax cut that in many ways started the tax cuts are the answer to whatever ails the […]