The wrong top ten

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 or save for their kids education or their retirement with business climate rankings. What matters […]

Choosing a shrinking Michigan middle class

After the 2010 election I was asked by several publications to write about what I expected to happen to state economic policy. My basic answer was that Governor Snyder campaigned on creating Michigan 3.0 (more knowledge-based), but almost all the legislature was elected on making Michigan 2.0 work again (primarily factories but also farms and […]

Michigan growing the Chicago economy

Three interesting recent articles on young professionals leaving Michigan for vibrant central cities, particularly Chicago. All worth checking out. The first in the Detroit News entitled  “Michigan tries to lure best, brightest back“. The article provides a good overview of why where young talent chooses to live and work matters a lot to the Michigan […]

Low pay driving job vacancies

Conventional wisdom is that there are plenty of  jobs available that are vacant because too few Americans have the skills employers need in an increasingly knowledge-based economy. Not just the STEM professions, but also  technical jobs in manufacturing, construction, health care, etc. President Obama and Governor Snyder are among many business and political leaders pushing […]

Not your father’s job market II

The second recommended New York Times article that portrays the changing way work is being organized is entitled: As boom lures app creators, tough part is making a living. The article chronicles how applications are being developed for devices like the iphone and ipad. The good news as the article reports is the:  “… field […]

Not your father’s jobs market

We continue to act as if the job market should look like it did in the past. With the same occupations, the same pay and benefits and organized around relatively stable full time work for an employer. That job market is in permanent decline. A victim of globalization and technology––irreversible mega forces––and policies favoring employers––including […]

Notre Dame and USC

Before the college football season began the University of Southern California was ranked #1, Notre Dame unranked. As the college football season draws to a close Notre Dame is ranked #1 and USC unranked. So much for the experts being able to predict real world outcomes. And, of course, fans of the two teams don’t […]

Not Indiana

As we have explored previously (see my Dome article), Indiana is the Great Lakes state that is most often held out as the model for Michigan to emulate if it wants to grow its economy. Out going Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has been sited here as one the best. Indiana might be a model low […]

The millennials are an economic growth priority

Across the country state and local leaders have made retaining and attracting young college graduates an economic development priority. Not in Michigan. Here, by and large, state and local policy makers and economic developers are missing in action. So are the major business organizations. Some pay lip service to the importance of retaining and attracting talent, […]

New report: the metro Lansing economy

We have included metro Lansing in all our annual reports because mid sized regions anchored by a major research university can do well in a knowledge-driven economy. We use metro Madison, Wisconsin in the report as a comparison to metro Lansing. Metro Madison––although with a population of only 632,000––has a per capita income exceeded by […]