Banks being stingy with small business loans are choking off America’s economic recovery, argues blogger Matt Yglesias at his new home at slate.com. He is reporting on new research that purports to show that small businesses that just want to do business and need some bank money for investment have been hurt disproportionately during the […]
Business Watch
Covering the intersection of business and policy, and informing Michigan employers and workers on the long road back from coronavirus. Our Michigan Economic Dashboard shows key metrics that show how the state is performing.
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U-M research gives split image of Michigan Works
Noticing Bridge’s recent coverage of the effectiveness of Michigan Works agencies around the state, Tom Ivacko of the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the University ofMichigan directed our attention to two pieces of research at U-M. One casts the MW agencies in a good light; the other is not quite as favorable. […]
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Guest column: Michigan Works agencies fill job slots
By Christine Quinn and Charlotte “Charlie” Mahoney/Michigan Works Association When reading the recent article in Bridge about both perceptions and realities regarding our state’s workforce development efforts, we remembered advice the 19th century abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher once offered his colleagues, “hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never […]
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Criticism mounts against Michigan Works
Jacora Seymore needs a job. Larry Harb needs an employee. Both have tried meeting their needs — so far without success — through the Michigan Works program, the network of agencies charged with matching Michigan’s unemployed with employers. Seymore, a single mother, who receives public assistance to support her two young daughters, fills out job […]
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There's gold – $10, anyway – in them rodents
A mini-boom in one of the oldest businesses in Michigan is offering at least a few Upper Peninsula entrepreneurs a windfall — if you can define a fur trapper as an entrepreneur. (Tramp for hours through freezing swamps to maintain a trapline? Works for me.) The Wall Street Journal visited Calumet in the U.P. to […]
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Michigan population shrinks
State Demographer Ken Darga reports that the most recent population estimates are out — showing changes among the states from 2010 to 2011. The news for Michigan will play negatively. The state lost 7,400 people in the period, about the equivalent of the city of Houghton. Michigan was one of only three states (Rhode Island […]
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Aerotropolis searches for dollars, stability
To proponents of Detroit’s “aerotropolis,” the airplane could be as important to Michigan’s economy in this century as the automobile was in the 20th century. The “aerotropolis” sounds like something out of “The Jetsons” — an airport surrounded by a bustling city fueled with a constant stream of people and cargo coming and going from […]
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For $400 million, you get a double-decker rail tunnel
A freight rail tunnel under the Detroit River — nearly two decades in the planning — is nearing the construction phase, its backers say. The $400 million Continental Rail Gateway would replace an obsolete, 102-year-old rail tunnel that is too small to accommodate modern, double-stacked rail cars. “We’re really excited about it,” said Marge Byington, […]
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Economists pitch Halifax-Detroit freight link
Detroit could become a major inland port by establishing a rail link with the expanding deepwater port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, say three Michigan economists who have formed a nonprofit group to promote the idea. The Great Lakes Global Freight Gateway ultimately could create 150,000 jobs associated with transporting billions of dollars of auto parts, […]
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Delray neighborhood has hopes, worries for a new bridge
If advocates get their way, the Next International Trade Crossing bridge would be built with its U.S. terminus in the Delray neighborhood of Detroit, southwest of downtown and of the existing Ambassador Bridge. Community leaders and residents who spoke to Bridge Magazine about the proposal offered mixed views, with hopes of improved economic activity leavened […]