How far is Michigan from turning the corner and fully diversifying its economy?
What will happen if we don’t?
What does the future hold for today’s businesses and tomorrow’s college grads?
If questions like those are common topics around your dinner table, cut out of work a couple hours early adn come to Ann Arbor on Monday, February 9 to pick the brains of some of the state’s top economists and other big-thinkers in economic development.
“Michigan’s Economy in 2009 and Beyond” at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy is a 90-minute economic roundtable featuring:
* John Austin, Director of the New Economy Initiative and Vice President of the Michigan Board of Education;
* Charles Ballard, Professor of Economics at Michigan State University and Director of the MSU State of the State Survey; (and editor of the Center for Michigan’s “Michigan Scorecard.”)
* Christopher Hayter, Program Director for the Economic Development Program at the National Governors Association.
* Kim Hill, Director, Automotive Communities Program and Associate Director, Economics and Business Group, Center for Automotive Research.
* Moderator: Paul Courant, Dean of Libraries and Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. (and a member of the Center for Michigan’s advisory steering committee).
From the Ford School’s web site…
A consensus has emerged in the last few years regarding Michigan’s economic future. In order to return prosperity to the state most analysts agree that Michigan must develop a diversified knowledge economy featuring robust entrepreneurial activity and a highly educated, innovative labor force… However, today Michigan is confronted with a severe economic recession and a meltdown of the economy’s core automotive sector. There has been much less discussion, and certainly no consensus, regarding how Michigan should respond to the current economic recession and yet stay on the path of transition toward a knowledge economy.
Join in. It’s free.
2 Comments
I have attended the last two meetings here in Alpena. Well attended and a lot of good info. was put forth. I have 35 years in public education and have a wealth of info. that no one has availed themselves of. No one has talked with or surveyed more of our youth than I have, over 17000. Our leaders addressing grad. req. have put a train wreck in motion. Just once I would like someone to sit down with me and lets talk about what is real. Enough for now. I challenge some one to contact me. 989 356 3077 Alpena mi. We have big problems to solve and raising the bar at this time is not the answer. This is not just a school problem it is a societal problem.
I am a native Detroiter. One thing in all the articles about the “brain drain” or young people leaving Michigan that I never see mentioned is the fact that young people starting out do not have to pay the expense of owning a car in a city like chicago or New York. It cost me far more to live in Detroit off Wayne State campus with a car than it does to live in Chicago without one. The inability to live independently in an urban setting, with good transit, decent areas is probably just as crippling to Mmichigan as any other economic factors. The fact that the people and governemnts of Michigan allowed Detroit to literally be abandoned whoelsale is pathetic. Without a major urban center as a cultural and economic engine, no amount of new jobs or opportunities will be enough to entice people to stay when it simply costs too much just to commute to those jobs. And it’s to expensive to live in the suburbs, and too dangerous to live in the city.