In the News...

MIRS - November 9, 2007
Talent Caucus Formed

Over the years, various caucuses have formed in the Legislature from the so-called Kiddie Caucus years ago to the Black Caucus today.

Now comes the newly instituted Talent Caucus with the objective of training and retaining talented college graduates in Michigan. (full article)

Detroit Free Press - October 10, 2007
Focus on building opportunity in state

For the last 20 years, Michigan's economic growth strategy and political wars have centered on tax policies. It's pretty easy to see what the state has to show for that. Businesses, investors and entrepreneurs look at far more than tax rates.

While arguing over taxes, the state has pursued development policies more fitted to the 1950s, failed to invest in cities, and in the process effectively spurned the new knowledge-based industries and young skilled workers that are drawn to vital urban areas. (full article)

Oakland Business Review - October 4, 2007
Technology talent pool paying dividends

It took some faith - and no small adrenaline rush - to trust that the speeding Mercedes S-Class sedan would stop behind the pace car slowing ahead of us on the Ford test track in Dearborn. The driver, a fellow news media member, asked our demonstrator in a near panic whether he should step on the brake pedal.

The demonstration of Continental Automotive Systems' adaptive cruise control technology was part of an event to preview technologies that the supplier, whose North American headquarters in Auburn Hills employs about 750, unveiled during the Frankfurt Motor Show. Among other highlights were emerging vehicle safety features such as car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure telematics and lane departure warnings. (full article)

Oakland Business Reveiw - October 4, 2007
Guest Opinion: Talent rules new economy

Oakland County is losing Volkswagen's North American headquarters to Virginia. VW is leaving so it can attract a skilled, young work force, says Stefan Jacoby, the newly arrived CEO of VW North America.

"By reducing this organization by 30 percent, you need even more talents, more creative people, more motivated people," he said. "Good schools, skilled workers made it an attractive site."

What does that imply about Michigan? (full article)

Detroit Free Press - September 6, 2007
State's economic struggles have little to do with taxes; budget can't be balanced without revenue increases

For more than a quarter of a century, I have focused my research on understanding the effects of taxes. Do taxes matter? Of course they do.

But it's important to keep things in perspective as the governor and Legislature debate how to balance the state budget and avoid an estimated shortfall of $1.8 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. Public discussion about taxes in Michigan has often been dominated by shrill and exaggerated rhetoric.(full article)

Crain's Detroit Business - August 12, 2007
Stores, transit, walkability: To attract millennials, appeal to their desires

First it was the baby boomers. Then Generation X. Now it's time for the millennials to take center stage.

For a struggling Michigan economy, finding out what this group needs is a top priority and should greatly affect housing planning, according to experts.

A millennial is any person born from 1977 to 1996. As a group, they're mobile and entrepreneurial. And, most important, they seek urban areas. (full article)

Detroit News - July 29, 2007
Michigan should mine geezer gold

I'm not one who thinks the Boomer generation will bring an end to old age. Time will catch us all eventually, despite our determination to stay forever young.

But retirement for Boomers will certainly be different than it was for our parents and grandparents; more active and, hopefully, longer and more comfortable.

That's why states, including Michigan, are rethinking their ideal demographic as they market themselves to potential residents. Yes, the ultimate battle is for the young and talented.
(full article)

American Society of Employers - June 2007
A New Agenda For A New Michigan: An Eagle Eye Interview With Lou Glazer of Michigan Future, Inc.

One reason it is so hard to think truly “outside the box” when we problem-solve is
that we tend to start by buying into accepted theories about what caused the problem in the first place. When it comes to Michigan’s floundering economy and apparent youthful brain
drain, we assume the problem is a combination of the woes of the Big Three, an outmoded and prohibitive business tax burden, and any number of additional factors starting with lousy
weather and including bad roads and no public transportation. (full article)

MiBiz Network - June 25, 2007
Restore the Rohwer

Michigan’s culture could not be more wrong for the 21st century.

This state really invented the concept of low-skilled, high-wage jobs," Milt Rohwer told MiBiz. "Many of those jobs have been lost and are not ever going to come back." (full article)

Muskegon Chronicle - June 14, 2007
Speaker: State must attract highly skilled talent

Conventional wisdom places the blame for Michigan's economic woes on the
downward spiral of the Big Three automakers.

Wrong, says Lou Glazer, lead author of "A New Agenda for a New Michigan," a
comprehensive challenge that is being embraced by leaders throughout the state.
(full article)

Crain's Detroit Business - June 4, 2007
Millennial draw

Metro Detroit's future may hinge on its ability to attract the millennial generation of under-30s.

An informal group that includes Michigan Future Inc., the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, the Michigan Municipal League and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, in May brought in a recognized expert to help deliver a message to area government, foundation and business leaders. (full article)

Crain's Detroit Business - June 4, 2007
What's a millennial?

There are 78 million millennials in the U.S.

Born between 1977 and 1996, they are the second-largest generation in America, behind the baby boomers.

Because millennials were largely raised in the suburbs by the baby boomers, they seek walkable, urban neighborhoods, said Laurie Volk, a research analyst and principal in Zimmerman/Volk Associates Inc. (full article)

Rick Haglund - May 23, 2007
Column: Michigan cities have to work on being cool

Two of Michigan's most serious economic problems -- and we've got plenty -- are these:

Many of our brightest and most educated young people are leaving. And our cities, where many young people want to live, are dying. (full article)

Lansing State Journal - May 9, 2007
Melot: Out from under dome
Glazer: Economic gain isn't product of state Capitol

In the American lexicon, "future" is a relentlessly positive word. Life always will be better in the future.

Lou Glazer is president of the group Michigan Future Inc. He has some thoughts on the state's and the region's future. They are not relentlessly upbeat.

Michigan could have a better future, but it better get its act together now to have a chance at it. (full article)

Dowagiac Daily News - March 30, 2007
Talent Trumps Low Taxes

Talent - not low taxes - drives prosperity in the new global economy, Michigan Municipal
League Executive Director Dan Gilmartin said Thursday night to the 16th annual Cass County Intergovernmental Forum at the Edward Lowe Center for the Council on Aging.
(full article)

Grand Rapids Press - March 14, 2007
Hillegonds takes jab at tax cuts

Republicans and business owners tend to view lower taxes as an 11th commandment, but
Tuesday a once-prominent Republican challenged doctrine at a chamber of commerce breakfast in this solidly GOP locale.

Paul Hillegonds, the former state House speaker who represented the Holland area 18 years before retiring in 1996, delivered a tough message: Lower taxes have hurt Michigan economically in the long run. (full article)

Detroit News - March 12, 2007
75% of education school grads can't get jobs in Michigan

Michigan universities continue to graduate large numbers of new teachers -- an estimated 7,000 will be certified this year -- but three-fourths won't land jobs here because there aren't enough teaching positions to go around.

That hastens the brain drain of young professionals who abandon Michigan to find jobs elsewhere, and it's a burden to taxpayers who help pay for college degrees that benefit other states, some say. (full article)

Crain's Detroit Business - March 5, 2007
Funding pool can help all research

Michigan has 15 publicly funded state universities. But only three of them attract large numbers of federal research dollars — $1.3 billion a year by one recent tally.

Last week, the presidents of the “big three” research universities — University of Michigan , Michigan State and Wayne State — asked lawmakers to recognize that difference by funding them at higher levels than the other 12 universities. (full article)

Grand Rapids Press - March 3, 2007
More talent -- not lower taxes -- will aid economy

We all want a Michigan that once again offers lots of good paying jobs. But many middle class jobs of the past are now gone forever. How to replace them in the new global economy is the key economic challenge facing the state.

Since the adoption of Proposal A in 1994 Michigan has centered its economic development strategy on cutting taxes. It hasn't worked. And there is no evidence that it will! (full article)

Lansing State Journal - February 18, 2007
What's the model - Alabama or Minnesota?

The tax and spend decisions Lansing is making today will impact the state's ecomony for years. With stakes so high, the question we should answer first is:

"If our strategy works, what would the Michigan economy look like?"

At the think tank I lead - Michigan Future, Inc. - our answer is a high-prosperity Michigan. A Michigan with lots of middle-class jobs that gives each of us a real opportunity to realize the American Dream. A Michigan with a per capita income above the national average no matter how the national economy is faring. (full article)

metromode - January 18, 2007
The Real Big Three

The Big Three — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler — controlled the fate of this state for
a century. When they struggled, Michigan struggled. But as the auto industry cuts jobs,
closes plants and absorbs financial losses, the place of the domestic auto industry in the
future is as just another player in a field of players.

The real Big Three in the state are University of Michigan, Michigan State University and
Wayne State University — three institutions that experts say are integral to the state's
future economic success. (full article)

Michigan Land Use Institute - December 15, 2006
Sleepless in Michigan, not Seattle

SEATTLE—It may not seem like a big deal in Michigan that the fate of an old
elevated highway running along this city’s waterfront pits two of the Wolverine State’s
former residents against each other. Or that settling their dispute will decide what
Seattle looks like for the next century. But, in fact, their disagreement offers lessons
for those of us still living in their home state.

Cary Moon, an engineer, planner, landscape architect, and prominent community
activist here, wants to tear down the earthquake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct,
replace it with a bayside boulevard and park, and turn Seattle’s noisiest district into a
waterside landscape fit for strolling, picnics, and people-watching. (full article)

Hillsdale Daily News - December 9, 2006
Glazer: focus on education and training

Michigan is in the market for entrepreneurs with good ideas. To attract them, the state needs to focus on education and training as a way of life.

“It's a knowledged—based economy when you're talking about the future,” Louis Glazer, a co-founder of Michigan Future Inc., said Friday.

“Industries will go where the talent is, where the talent wants to live,” Glazer told economic development leaders gathered for the Regional Leadership Roundtable's monthly meeting in Reading this month. (full article)

The Atlantic - October 2006
Where the Brains Are

America's social fabric has been regularly reshaped by great migrations—of pioneers westward, of immigrants and farmers to rising industrial cities, of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North, of families outward from cities to suburbs to exurbs.
(full article)

Jack Lessenberry's Essays & Interviews (Michigan Public Radio) - October 25, 2006
Essay: Enterprise Zone

There is a school of thought that believes entrepreneurs base all their business decisions on taxes. Lower taxes, and business will move in. Raise them, and business will move away.

This is firmly believed, for example, by many Republican politicians, who used to talk fervently about what they called the “Laffer Curve.” That's something economist Arthur Laffer supposedly sketched on a napkin during a 1974 meeting with Dick Cheney. (full article)

Bay City Times (Editorial) - October 1, 2006
John Glenn Class of '86 starkly shows the task we have ahead of
us

Think of an economic model based on human talent, and Bay County is a world-class exporter.

Before anyone swells with pride at that distinction, let me put it another way: Young people are taking their brains and dreams elsewhere to make their wealth and contributions to society.
We are shipping out earning power like a river out to sea, and we're getting only a trickle in return. And it means that in a state in economic eclipse, Bay County is heading for the darkest corner. (full article)

Bay City Times - October 1, 2006
Should I stay, or should I go

It's not just theory.

Young people get educated, and they leave Bay County to pursue career success.

Those who stay are less educated, and pay the price.

The Times spent several months tracking down 174 - more than half - of the 318 members of the Bangor Township John Glenn Class of 1986. What we found is a tale of two financial fates, separate and distinct based on education and location. (full article)

Crain's Detroit Business - September 26, 2006
Business investment in China stirs debate

Patrick Anderson and Lou Glazer disagree on the best way to make Michigan a high-employment state, but they share an assessment of the impact of a high-profile issue
swirling in business and public-policy discussions: Business investment in China.

“If we do not embrace competing in a flat world, we cannot be a high-prosperity state. Period,” said Glazer, president of Michigan Future Inc., and former deputy
director of the Michigan Department of Commerce under former Democratic Gov.
James Blanchard. (full article)

Michigan Information & Research Service Inc. (MIRS) - September 15, 2006
Glazer Continues to Pitch Change

"Culture trumps policy."

That's the three-word pitch researcher Lou GLAZER shared with the Mott Foundation in Flint on Wednesday as he continued to pitch his blueprint for restarting Michigan's economic engine.

The head of Michigan's Future, which is funded by Mott, met with the group's board of directors and suggested a full economic recovery here may be three to four years down the road. (full article)

Detroit News - September 6, 2006
Talent, not low taxes, drives growth

For most of the last century, Michigan was a place of high prosperity, enjoying a per capita income above the national average. No more!

We all want a Michigan that once again offers lots of good paying jobs. But many middle-class jobs of the past are now gone forever. How to replace them in the new global economy is the key economic challenge facing the state. (full article)

MiBiz.com - August 21, 2006
Economic report pessimistic about West Michigan

A newly released economic report entitled A New Agenda for a New Michigan commissioned by non-profit Michigan Future Inc., and partly funded by the Frey Foundation, is extremely pessimistic about Michigan in general and is especially pessimistic about the economy in the western side of the state. According Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, West Michigan is likely to look a lot like West Virginia in the relatively near future. (full article)

Grand Rapids Press - July 27, 2006
Forecaster: Area faces economic challenges

West Michigan is struggling to grow its knowledge-based industry as fast as it is losing
its manufacturing jobs.

In a diagnosis of the state's economic future, forecaster Lou Glazer sees a long, arduous journey ahead for Michigan.

And the recovery is more likely to come from Detroit and environs before West Michigan gets there.

The race rests on culture change that could span a generation. Shifting to the next economy comes after a 35-year decline in the state's economic health, Glazer said Wednesday. (full article)

MyBayCity.com - July 9, 2006
Futurist Lou Glazer Helps Bay County Leaders Sketch a Vision of Progress

As Michigan is ripped by the mega forces of globalization and technology, how do we transform the economy for the future?

That's the question Ann Arbor Futurist Lou Glazer pursued with about 60 local leaders recently in a soul-searching and brainstorming session at the DoubleTree Hotel - Bay City Riverfront, arranged by County Executive Thomas L. Hickner.

The No. 1 issue is job creation and in improving opportunities for the under-employed, said Mr. Glazer, adding: "It matters to a community whether jobs are $10 or $25 an hour. How do we get our income above the national average, a status we enjoyed for the first 70 years of the 20th century?" (full article)

Michigan Municipal Review - July/August 2006
Study offers a new direction for Michigan

Wow! Talk about an economic wake up call for Michigan.

I just finished reading A New Agenda for a New Michigan by Michigan Future, Inc., an insightful think tank that is focused on redirecting Michigan’s downward spiraling economic prospects. The report couldn’t come at a more appropriate time, given Michigan’s six straight years of job loss and a public that is growing tired of waiting for a turnaround. (full article)

ABC 53 - WLAJ - June 23, 2006
Lansing Mayor Meets with Lou Glazer

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernreo is looking for ways to make the city competitive in a global economy. So he's calling on the president of Michigan Future, Incorporated. (full article)

The Morning Sun (Editorial) - June 16, 2006
Opinion: A new economy for a new day

When, oh when, will we permanently unhitch our economic wagons from the lumbering oafs of industry, the domestic automakers?

Yes, yes, I know. The Big Three made Michigan great. But, like a head coach who
hasn't won a Super Bowl in a decade, there comes a time when it's appropriate to ask
whether it's time to end the relationship. (full article)

Booth Newspapers (Peter Luke Column) - June 11, 2006
State leaders, residents must put the money where our future is

Michigan's various soul-searching exercises lamenting that the past is past but the future is so uncertain omit a salient point:

Like it or not, the state has to do more to shape what comes next.

Two key points contained in a new report written by a lot of smart people for Michigan Future Inc., an Ann Arbor public policy group, address that. (full article)

Detroit News (Editorial)- June 7, 2007
Rebuilding state economy starts with smarter workers: High-paying jobs follow well-trained workforce

Michigan must have a vast pool of talented workers if it hopes to attract the high-paying, high-skilled jobs its business and political leaders keep talking about.

It doesn't have that key ingredient for economic revival yet and has not made developing talented workers a top policy priority. (full article)

Detroit Free Press - June 7, 2006
BRIAN DICKERSON: Blackballing our way to economic oblivion

A new analysis of what ails our state's economy concludes that luring talent, not lowering taxes, is the key to Michigan's recovery.

If the diagnosis advanced by Michigan Future Inc. is correct, voters have two options: Elect leaders who pledge to do exactly the opposite of what our incumbent state legislators are doing now, or settle in for decades of inexorable economic decline. (full article)

Flint Journal - June 7, 2006
A State Agenda: Study shows how Michigan must change for the future

Michigan parents have known for some time that their sons and daughters no longer can go from high school into a factory job for life, but this state as a whole has not adjusted to what this new employment reality now requires. (full article)

Lansing State Journal - June 6, 2006
State's future: Build a better Michigan? Start with smarts, creativity

The face of Michigan's economic future may look a lot like R.E. Olds.

Come again? Isn't the old, industrial economy - so wedded to the legacy of Olds and other
automotive pioneers - the reason Michigan is struggling?

True. But the people who jump-started the automotive age with innovation and risk-taking ... their spiritual "heirs" will be the ones to lead Michigan out of the economic swamp. (full article)

Detroit Free Press - June 6, 2006
Michigan's revival needs knowledge

Michigan's economic development efforts in recent years have focused on cutting
taxes. But investing in Internet access, city parks and education probably would do
more to revive the state's economy, a new think-tank report said Monday. (full article)

Model D - June 6, 2006
Detroit is Flat

The sky is falling and Lou Glazer knows it.

Behind him and above him dark storm clouds are fast approaching. He looks up from the center of a pretty green park in downtown Plymouth and says, “We can make it, there’s still time.” He’s here for an interview and a photo shoot, something he says he’s never comfortable doing. Soon, the town square will be deluged with sheets of rain and hail, the air charged with lightning and thunderclaps. But Glazer doesn’t flinch.(full article)

Crain's Detroit Business - June 5, 2006
Mackinac: Report: Revamp higher ed to attract talent

Talent rules.

That’s the conclusion of Michigan Future Inc. report called “A New Agenda for a New Michigan” scheduled for release June 5. To attract and keep talent in Michigan, the Ann Arbor think tank recommends a new approach to higher education that includes: (full article)

Crain's Detroit Business - June 5, 2006
Mackinac: Michigan's cost for not competing: 223,000 jobs

About 223,000 more jobs would be in Michigan had the state more effectively competed for whitecollar workers like the rest of the nation between 1990 and 2005.

Better news, though, is that good-paying jobs are in Michigan’s future as long as workers here are willing to accept change and continuously learn.

These are two findings of a report scheduled for release June 5 prepared by Michigan Future Inc., an Ann Arborbased think tank. (full article)

Crain's Detroit Business - June 5, 2006
Bring talent to state by changing spending

How best to jump-start Michigan’s economy?

Michigan Future Inc., a nonprofit Ann Arbor think tank, has some ideas in a report released this week.

They could be the right recipe for rebuilding Michigan by giving it a competitive edge to set it apart from other regions in the country.(full aritlce)

Gongwer News Service - June 5, 2006
Report Says State Needs Policies to Encourage New Talent

Revitalizing Michigan's economy will require state officials putting a higher priority on higher education and on revitalizing the state's urban centers, a report from Michigan Future Incorporated says, even if that means giving up efforts to save jobs in noncompetitive industries.
(full article)

Detroit News - June 5, 2006
Michigan is blind to the future while it clings to the past

To Michigan's power crowd, the markers of the state's decline are disappearing manufacturing jobs, young people leaving in droves, a wretched housing market and too many residents with too little education for the new world. (full article)