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 […]
New report: the metro Grand Rapids economy
From 2001-2010, the seven county Grand Rapids regional economy performed better than the Michigan economy. That said it was a decade of decline. And the region in 2010 was one of the poorest of all the metropolitan areas in the country with a population of one million or more. Employment and Wages In 2010 there […]
New report: the metro Detroit economy
As bad as the Michigan economy was from 2001-2010, the nine county Detroit regional economy was worse. As the epicenter of the domestic auto industry, the region suffered most from the near collapse of the Detroit Three. Employment and Wages In 2010 there were 1.996 million jobs in metro Detroit, a decline of 454,000––an unprecedented […]
New report: the Michigan economy
As poor as the national economy was this past decade, Michigan was worse. Basically at or near the bottom on all the metrics covered in our new annual report. During the national expansion, many referred to Michigan’s economy as a single-state recession. We believe that Michigan’s experience during the 2001–2007 expansion is far better characterized […]
New report: the U.S. economy
The period covered in our new annual report, 2001 to 2010, was noteworthy for its weakness nationally. The expansion from 2001 to 2007 was anemic, with low rates of job and income growth, largely driven by the unsustainable housing and construction bubble; then followed by the worst downturn since the Great Depression and a tepid […]