Political Sayings

The problem with political jokes is they get elected. ~Henry Cate, VII * We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop * If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these acceptance speeches there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven. ~Will Rogers * Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. ~Plato * Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. ~Nikita Khrushchev * When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it. ~Clarence Darrow * Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you. ~Author Unknown * If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates. ~Jay Leno * Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. ~John Quinton * Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. ~Oscar Ameringer * The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it. ~P.J. O'Rourke * I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them. ~Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952 * A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country. ~Texas Guinan * Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so. ~Gore Vidal * I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. ~Charles de Gaulle * Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. ~Doug Larson * Don't vote, it only encourages them. ~Author Unknown * There ought to be one day - just one - when there is open season on senators. ~Will Rogers

Jesse Jackson and The Emergency Manager Law

For the first time in his personal history, the Reverand Jesse Jackson is taking an interest in Michigan municipalities.  The Reverand is convinced that the Michigan Emergency Manager law is racist because it targets municipalities that may be governed by Blacks.  No municipality, whether it be ruled by Blacks, Whites or little cheese eating men from the Moon, is immune from fiscal problems.  When the fiscal problems become chronic, IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY of the state government to step in and do something about its delinquent subdivision.  The rest of Michigan cannot afford to allow cities, school districts, and other taxing jurisdictions to run amok and act as if they were islands instead of a constitutional subdivisions of the State of Michigan.  If Detroit goes into bankruptcy, it will have implications for every citizen of the state, be they Red, Black, Brown, White, or little cheese eating men from the Moon.  Why wouldn't the Rev be slightly concerned with the economic plight of Blacks across the state, say, in Kalamazoo?  The last time he was in Michigan, he attended a "green jobs" rally sponsored by the UAW.  The Rev was so committed to the cause of "green jobs" that he attended in his fuel gulping Escalade.  This was the same phony who counseled President Clinton during his difficulties, stopping only briefly to knock up a staffer.  A lot of Catholic priests have paid the price for such despicable behavior, but good ol' Jesse just keeps rolling along. God sure must have a sense of humor.
This is simply one more tragic character who has been passed up and passed over by time.  As the population of our nation grows darker in its composition, Rev. Jackson will continue to lose relevancy, if he isn't totally irrelevant already.  One of these days when he slaps the race card on the table, some brave soul is going to tell him to try looking in the mirror.
Of course, some of us will never forget "Hymie Town".

Cooperman's Letter to President Obama

Could anybody have said it better?

Omega Advisors, Inc. I Wall Street Plaza • 88 Pine Street • 31 st Floor | New York, New York 10005 Tel: 212-495-5210 | Fax: 212-495-5236 November 28, 2011

President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,
It is with a great sense of disappointment that I write this. Like many others, I hoped that your election would bring a salutary change of direction to the country, despite what more than a few feared was an overly aggressive social agenda. And I cannot credibly blame you for the economic mess that you inherited, even if the policy response on your watch has been profligate and largely ineffectual. (You did not, after all, invent TARP.) I understand that when surrounded by cries of "the end of the world as we know it is nigh", even the strongest of minds may have a tendency to shoot first and aim later in a well-intended effort to stave off the predicted apocalypse.
But what I can justifiably hold you accountable for is your and your minions' role in setting the tenor of the rancorous debate now roiling us that smacks of what so many have characterized as "class warfare". Whether this reflects your principled belief that the eternal divide between the haves and have-nots is at the root of all the evils that afflict our society or just a cynical, populist appeal to his base by a president struggling in the polls is of little importance. What does matter is that the divisive, polarizing tone of your rhetoric is cleaving a widening gulf, at this point as much visceral as philosophical, between the downtrodden and those best positioned to help them. It is a gulf that is at once counterproductive and freighted with dangerous historical precedents. And it is an approach to governing that owes more to desperate demagoguery than your Administration should feel comfortable with.
Just to be clear, while I have been richly rewarded by a life of hard work (and a great deal of luck), I was not to-the-manor-born. My father was a plumber who practiced his trade in the South Bronx after he and my mother emigrated from Poland. I was the first member of my family to earn a college degree. I benefited from both a good public education system (P.S. 75, Morris High School and Hunter College, all in the Bronx) and my parents' constant prodding. When I joined Goldman Sachs following graduation from Columbia University's business school, I had no money in the bank, a negative net worth, a National Defense Education Act student loan to repay, and a six-month-old child (not to mention his mother, my wife of now 47 years) to support. I had a successful, near-25-year run at Goldman, which I left 20 years ago to start a private investment firm. As a result of my good fortune, I have been able to give away to those less blessed far more than I have spent on myself and my family over a lifetime, and last year I subscribed to Warren Buffet's Giving Pledge to ensure that my money, properly stewarded, continues to do some good after I'm gone.
My story is anything but unique. I know many people who are similarly situated, by both humble family history and hard-won accomplishment, whose greatest joy in life is to use their resources to sustain their communities. Some have achieved a level of wealth where philanthropy is no longer a by-product of their work but its primary impetus. This is as it should be. We feel privileged to be in a position to give back, and we do. My parents would have expected nothing less of me.
I am not, by training or disposition, a policy wonk, polemicist or pamphleteer. I confess admiration for those who, with greater clarity of expression and command of the relevant statistical details, make these same points with more eloquence and authoritativeness than I can hope to muster. For recent examples, I would point you to "Hunting the Rich" (Leaders, The Economist, September 24, 2011), "The Divider vs. the Thinker" (Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal, October 29, 2011), "Wall Street Occupiers Misdirect Anger" (Christine Todd Whitman, Bloomberg, October 31, 2011), and "Beyond Occupy" (Bill Keller, The New York Times, October 31, 2011) - all, if you haven't read them, making estimable work of the subject.
But as a taxpaying businessman with a weekly payroll to meet and more than a passing familiarity with the ways of both Wall Street and Washington, I do feel justified in asking you: is the tone of the current debate really constructive?
People of differing political persuasions can (and do) reasonably argue about whether, and how high, tax rates should be hiked for upper-income earners; whether the Bush-era tax cuts should be extended or permitted to expire, and for whom; whether various deductions and exclusions under the federal tax code that benefit principally the wealthy and multinational corporations should be curtailed or eliminated; whether unemployment benefits and the payroll tax cut should be extended; whether the burdens of paying for the nation's bloated entitlement programs are being fairly spread around, and whether those programs themselves should be reconfigured in light of current and projected budgetary constraints; whether financial institutions deemed "too big to fail" should be serially bailed out or broken up first, like an earlier era's trusts, because they pose a systemic risk and their size benefits no one but their owners; whether the solution to what ails us as a nation is an amalgam of more regulation, wealth redistribution, and a greater concentration of power in a central government that has proven no more (I'm being charitable here) adept than the private sector in reining in the excesses that brought us to this pass - the list goes on and on, and the dialectic is admirably American. Even though, as a high-income taxpayer, I might be considered one of its targets, I find this reassessment of so many entrenched economic premises healthy and long overdue. Anyone who could survey today's challenging fiscal landscape, with an un- and underemployment rate of nearly 20 percent and roughly 40 percent of the country on public assistance, and not acknowledge an imperative for change is either heartless, brainless, or running for office on a very parochial agenda. And if I end up paying more taxes as a result, so be it. The alternatives are all worse.
But what I do find objectionable is the highly politicized idiom in which this debate is being conducted. Now, I am not naive. I understand that in today's America, this is how the business of governing typically gets done - a situation that, given the gravity of our problems, is as deplorable as it is seemingly ineluctable. But as President first and foremost and leader of your party second, you should endeavor to rise above the partisan fray and raise the level of discourse to one that is both more civil and more conciliatory, that seeks collaboration over confrontation. That is what "leading by example" means to most people.
Capitalism is not the source of our problems, as an economy or as a society, and capitalists are not the scourge that they are too often made out to be. As a group, we employ many millions of taxpaying people, pay their salaries, provide them with healthcare coverage, start new companies, found new industries, create new products, fill store shelves at Christmas, and keep the wheels of commerce and progress (and indeed of government, by generating the income whose taxation funds it) moving. To frame the debate as one of rich-and-entitled versus poor-and-dispossessed is to both miss the point and further inflame an already incendiary environment. It is also a naked, political pander to some of the basest human emotions - a strategy, as history teaches, that never ends well for anyone but totalitarians and anarchists.
With due respect, Mr. President, it's time for you to throttle-down the partisan rhetoric and appeal to people's better instincts, not their worst. Rather than assume that the wealthy are a monolithic, selfish and unfeeling lot who must be subjugated by the force of the state, set a tone that encourages people of good will to meet in the middle. When you were a community organizer in Chicago, you learned the art of
waging a guerilla campaign against a far superior force. But you've graduated from that milieu and now help to set the agenda for that superior force. You might do well at this point to eschew the polarizing vernacular of political militancy and become the transcendent leader you were elected to be. You are likely to be far more effective, and history is likely to treat you far more kindly for it.
Sincerely,
Leon G. Cooperman Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Leon G. Cooperman, C.F.A. Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Black Bears and Grizzly Bears

How do you tell the difference between a Black Bear and a Grizzly?

If you see a bear, run to the nearest tree and climb it as fast as you can.  If the bear climbs the tree and eats you, it is a Black Bear.  If the bear hugs the tree, rips it out of its roots, slams you over the head with it, and eats you, it is a Grizzly.

Orientation

One of the things that plagues good discourse these days is the ad. hominem fallacy.  Byron Roth describes the ad. hominem fallacy as "a well known rhetorical device in which the logic of the argument is discounted by impugning the motives or the character of the person making the argument.  It is useful as a debating trick, but it often leads to faulty judgement."
If a conversant disagrees with you or your way of thinking, you are a racist, a corporate tool, or something so similarly evil as to rob you of any credibility whatsoever.
They were only slightly more direct during the Inquisition, but the outcomes are the same.
For a writer who has been characterized as everything from "an apologist for Corporate America," to a "union stooge," I am not necessarily partisan.  I was born of Labor/Liberal/FDR worshipping/Democrats, but I have evolved to my own intellectual space.
I have also worked since I was 12 years old.  I began by delivering the Detroit Free Press at four in the morning--everyday--rain, sleet, freezing rain, snow, and whatever else can be cooked up.
In the best of times, we were lower Middle Class.  My younger brother says, "poor, but not destitute".  We were taught to excel in school, work hard, and save for college.  Our parents called themselves "children of the Depression" and modeled certain behaviors about savings and minimizing waste, and pursuing other frugalities of life.
So, don't expect me to confine my political bombardment to one party or another, to me, they're both dysfunctional.  And I enjoy being an equal opportunity offender.  Nobody and nothing is safe fgrom question or bombardment in these columns.

Running Out of Money

Revelations recently about the compensation levels of college football coaches really strains the dynamic between schools that can afford lavish salaries for athletic programs and the same schools that are constantly poor mouthing their state legislatures that they need more money.
I am a university trustee, so I fully understand the importance of college athletics as a way to build school loyalty, keep the alumni in the mix, and help the school recruit.  I also understand that big schools like the Ohio State University reap good revenue on their football programs, in particular.
But there seems to be a belief that big money corrupts--on Wall Street, in Washington, D.C., etc.  Who inoculated the big money college sports programs from the same kind of greed?  As the past two years have shown, nobody has.
The NCAA spends a lot of time worrying about politically correct, but insignificant things like the mascots of certain schools.  North Dakota can no longer be the "Fighting Sioux", but Florida State can still be the Seminoles because the university pays big money to the Seminole Nation.  Those two words, again, BIG MONEY.
Big Money is clearly ruling the roost in college football.
Maybe the NCAA ought to be made of "sterner stuff".  Or maybe it ought to go away completely.  As a protector of student athletes, it acts more as a corrupting force.

Health

Q:  What % of Adult Americans do the following?
1. exercise 20 minutes 3 x week
2. Don't smoke
3. Eat fruits and vegetables regularly
4. wear seatbelts regularly
5. are at appropriate body mass index

A: 3%
(Does your healthcare system really need that new transplant center?)

Republicans and Capitalism

Looks like the major casualty of the New Hampshire primary is the claim of the Republican candidates that they embrace capitalism.  The remarks and criticisms about Bain Capital make the candidates sound like they were trying out for roles in the new movie "Occupy Wall Street".

Battlo Creek and Fiber Optics

It is never appropriate to start a column with the word, “unfortunately,” and so I will not.  Economic development has been described as a “fad ridden” profession.  It seems as though a wave of activity comes along every fifteen years and states and communities everywhere climb on board even if they have not the slightest justification for doing so.  Life Sciences is one of those fads as over forty states and three hundred communities are somehow involved in attempting to foster a Life Sciences industry, even if the community happens to be located in north central Alabama.

This is not to denigrate what our colleagues in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Ann Arbor are trying to do in Life Sciences.  All three areas contain one or more of the necessary ingredients to implement a Life Sciences development strategy, such as a pool of scientific or research talent, a dedicated research institute or a research university. 

But economic development should also be a constant process of searching for the niche, of finding a gap in the global economy where a community can establish itself as the center for something.  Rapid wealth creation occurs when a community finds that niche and occupies the niche until other communities catch on and catch up.

Many communities have the additional task of setting the stage so that the niche can be found.  The emergence of global communications and subsequent location indifference for business has mandated the installation of advanced telecommunications as part of a community’s infrastructure.  Some would argue that an advanced telecommunications infrastructure is as important as modern municipal water and sewer.

The City of Battle Creek has been working to manage the transition from a last century traditional manufacturing center to the economy of the 21st century. As the home to Kellogg's, Post, and Ralcorp, Battle Creek has earned the moniker "Cereal City", producing a large share of the breakfast cereal consumed in the US.  As the home to units within the Defense Logistics Agency and several health care software producers, Battle Creek needs to sharpen its prowess as a suitable location for the processing and distribution of information.

The basis of the transition has been to create an atmosphere that is conducive to the needs of business today. Two major components necessary are transportation and communications. And they are strangely intertwined in today's world of fiber optic communications.

As a manufacturing center that produced bulk products and heavy equipment, transported by railroads, Battle Creek is crossed by two major rail lines. The former Michigan Central is a Detroit to Chicago east west line. The former Grand Trunk line runs from Port Huron to Chicago. And in today’s world, railroad right of way serves as a “Fiber Optic Superhighway”. Several national fiber optic network carriers have networks that pass through Battle Creek. Additionally, Battle Creek is located on I-94, a busy east-west interstate highway between Detroit and Chicago. North-South interstates are on either side of Battle Creek, I-69 and US-131. And like the railroads, interstate highways serve as “Fiber Highways”, as several other fiber optic routes follow the interstate highways routes.

Metropolitan Fiber Network

In order to provide “off-ramps” from these numerous fiber optic routes, the City of Battle Creek and Battle Creek Unlimited partnered with local service provider CTS Telecom. A thirty-five mile fiber optic backbone was constructed through the city and Fort Custer Industrial Park to provide redundant, advanced communications services. Services are provided using Cisco Sonet-based fiber optics systems. Sonet is short for Synchronous Optical Network, which is a physical layer network standard for redundant ring-based optical networks. Another 15 miles of fiber provides edge access deeper into the city. An additional downtown ring passes though the city center, serving the core business district with a Sonet Ring. A Sonet Ring at the airport can provide service to airport users and residents. The Battle Creek metro fiber system makes any communications service readily available to business from local service providers to national carriers. Currently, dozens of more miles of fiber are being constructed, or planned, to bring fiber access to the entire business community of Battle Creek.

This is part of the necessary infrastructure that can enable a community to foster and nurture a creative mix of old and new technologies leading to innovative products and services to fill that niche.

Understand also that it will take some time for the elements to knit together to form an entrepreneurial ecology.  Installation of the infrastructure is only a first step.  Finding ways to foster increased use, derive maximum benefit, and instill a continuous improvement approach to the technology are all part of the endgame.

Graced

Graced

Graced by the presence of a large Bald Eagle perched in a tree between me and Lake Michigan.  It had swooped by, earlier, with adult plumage stark against the blue sky.  I saw it for a brief four seconds, but now it has returned to sit.  I hope it gets good and comfortable.
Even though one of my heroes, Benjamin Franklin, referred to the Bald Eagle as a "coward" and a "thief", the American Eagle's majestic qualities can never be diminished. 
To be sure, there is a thief dimension to the Eagle.  It often sits in wait while the Osprey, a superior fish hunter, does all the work.  When the Osprey comes up with a fish, the Eagle will harass and hound the Osprey until it drops the fish which the Eagle promptly collects.  
Again, don't let that diminish the Eagle's own great capabilities as a predator.

"He clasps the crag,
with crooked hands,
close to the sun
in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure
world he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawld,
as he watches from his mountain wall,
and like a thunderbolt he falls."
Tennyson

Thank God for Bald eagles along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

Unemployment Rate vs. Workforce Participation Rate: The Corrections

I am still stumbling along with blogger technology having been brought up in the era of black and white television.  So, for basics, on the previous post I said if your total workforce was 100 people and 64 were not working, the workforce or labor force participation rate would be 64%--that is incorrect:  the workforce participation rate would be 36%, but you see where this heads.

It does provide the heuristic justification to learn what the 64% are doing with their time.  It seems to me that a healthy workforce participation rate would be at least 80%.

I have heard it said many times:  THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE.  In fact, the numbers lie very well particularly, when manipulated by liars.

Unemployment Rate vs. Workforce Participation Rate

I suppose the best justification for continuing to base our judgement of our economy on the percentage of unemployment is that it is easier for politicians to hide the truth and easier for the media to communicate.  Unfortunately, being "easy" hardly ever pays off.  Instead of an unemployment rate, we should be asking what is the workforce participation rate?  That is to say, of ALL the people available for work, exactly how many are actually working?  Such a calculation will account for those who have given up looking for jobs, a rather wild variable in the unemployment percentage calculations.  So, if on a simplified approach:  If your total workforce is 100 people and 64 of them are not working, you have a 64% workforce participation rate.  Below is an illustration from Hedge Zero on workforce participation rates:

Wonder why the unemployment rate is at an artificially low 8.9%? Three simple words: Labor Force Participation. At 64.2%, it was unchanged from last month, and continues to be at a 25 year low. Should the LFP return to its 25 trendline average of 66.1%, the unemployment rate would be 11.6%. And indicatively, the Birth/Death adjustment was +112,000.

Unfolding Trends

The “Green Revolution” will begin to diminish, but will not disappear.  The diminishing will set in as people become more educated about “green technology” and some of the untrumpeted consequences. We, in West Michigan, will be in the forefront of that debate as more forces will seek to create wind power off Great Lakes shorelines, raising environmental and quality of life concerns.

Smart farming will continue to accelerate in West Michigan, already a regional agricultural giant.  Computerized soil analyses, seed mixtures, and fertilization mix with meteorological models to increase the optimal standards for production.  Given the plethora of vacant buildings in West Michigan, there is a great likelihood that an entrepreneur will introduce vertical farming in an appropriate climate controlled building.

Education will finally experience the outer bands of a long needed revolution.  As traditional education falters and refuses to reform itself, the revolution will come from without.  New learning management systems coupled with advancing technology in online and interactive education will challenge the very existence of traditional, instructor-centric education.

It is likely we will see the first home robots to do cleaning, home protection, and even provide health services.  Already in use in Japan to cope with the demands of an aging population, the trend is definitely in our immediate future.

There will be increasing signs and even occurrences of systems breakdown as technology applications become unevenly applied across the board.  Referred to as “desynchronization”, the many aspects of our lives are changing at radically different rates, creating mismatch, and structural incongruence.  The economic distress in Michigan is a leading national indicator of what happens when sacred “Rust Belt” practices are not sustained by an archaic and diminishing asset base.

Despite the unfriendliness of some of the new leadership in Washington, D.C. to many aspects of globalization, transnational economic activities will grow and specialize, further blurring national boundaries.  This trend will continue, resulting in continued erosion of the sovereignty of the nation-state.  The rapid and fluid changes in markets, production, and technology are occurring too fast for the nation-state concept, implemented in 1654 to accommodate.  Something has to give.

Let's BRAC Michigan: Creating a Structure for the Future

BRAC:  Base Closing and Realignment Commission

Increasingly, the dimmest of the lights in Michigan is coming to believe that our current ills are anchored in an industrial society that has little in common with the new emerging techno-economic paradigm.  That is to say, our economic plunges in the past have been tied to cycles within the economy, particularly, the automotive economy.  The current economic plunge is more tied to structures, processes, and organizations that worked well forty years ago, but do not work today, thus inhibiting our ability to ever recover.

Changing structures, processes, and organizations is a horse of a different color because somebody benefits from the structural status quo.  And that somebody is willing to fight about changes to the structural status quo.  It is clear that the will to change Michigan has not yet attained the level of strength and courage where these constituencies can be confronted and forced to accept change.

So I have an idea as to how we might go about the process of forcing change.  Although Governor Rick Snyder has accomplished significant change in his short tenure, there is a model in existence that might be the pathway to shaping a new Michigan.

Twice in my professional career, I have had to confront the military base closing process.  While I was at the wrong end of the base closing process, I could not help but develop a grudging admiration for how well designed the base closing process of the government really was.

The mission of the Base Closing and Realignment process is clearly stated and restated. A data call goes out to the various branches of the Defense Department to provide any and all information about functions, processes, and costs.  The information is fed to a central point where analysts, planners, and supervisors construct a list of bases to be closed, to be realigned, and to be strengthened.

The Defense Department then publishes the list, allowing impacted groups to sift through the findings and to provide more information to the process.  Information coming back may be significant enough as to force changes in the draft list.

The list is presented to a panel of distinguished individuals who make up the Base Closing and Realignment Commission.

The list of changes is, in turn, submitted to the Congress and the President.  Both entities have one choice:  accept the list as it is or reject it.  They are not allowed to tinker with the list or make changes.  Accept it as it is or reject it.

In Michigan, a similar process could be instituted that could blaze the trail of change and adaptation to new realities.  The process would have to be sweeping and comprehensive review of state government.  That includes all offices, functions, departments, revenue, expenses, and anything else relevant to the operations of the State of Michigan..  At the same time, it is understood that there will be certain non-negotiables in the process due to mandates from the state constitution, and from the federal government, funded and otherwise.

An independent institute could be hired to oversee the process.  That institute would issue the data call and would construct the beginnings of a list of state functions that would be eliminated, kept, or realigned.

A commission of citizens would be empanelled to preside over the information gathering and steps leading to the formulation of a final list.  Each commissioner would be assigned a region of Michigan to visit and assess the impacts of the proposed list on that particular region. 

At the end of the information gathering phase, the Commission would be taken through a groupware decision making process to construct the final list.  Groupware consists of strategic planning through a computer process that assures anonymity and encourages input.  Changes would go on the list through majority rule.

The final list containing changes to state government would then be presented to the Michigan legislature which has only the option to accept or reject—no tinkering or changes.  Assuming approval, the list is then presented to the Governor where the same rules apply. 

 

The new list, once accepted, would have the force of law in state government.  The Legislature and the Governor would have the responsibility for enacting enabling legislation and public policy to implement the changes.

Local governments could be encouraged to go through similar processes in order to impact the final statewide list.  In fact, due to the unitary structure of state government, local governments may have no choice.

Since this has most likely never been done before at the state and local level, the process is likely to be problematic, but we have had enough experience with the base closing processes that we should be in good position to anticipate problems with carrying out a similar process in a different set of circumstances.  There are plenty of people with BRAC experience, both staff and otherwise, that can craft an application of the process for Michigan.

Do we use Michigan residents or people from the outside or both?  Are there enough untainted bright people out there that could take on this task, thinking of Michigan first and their constituencies later?

A time limit would be imposed on the entire process.  The commission should work privately in the development of recommendations, thus, it should be advisory in nature.

Our economy has in the tank; our credit rating is a little below junk bond status, people all over the country are looking down their noses at us; and our citizens and residents are suffering.  What do we have to lose?

Besides our rustbelt chains.

Words on West Michigan, Detroit, and Emergency Managers

Having traveled to the far ends of the earth, I am acutely aware of how associated in image the State of Michigan is with Detroit.  As I used to visit the CEOs of foreign owned companies, encouraging them to invest in Michigan, their first question was:  "How close are you to Detroit?"
Crime, a formidable union presence, and difficult race relations characterized Detroit and very few people wanted any part of it.
Because of my location in West Michigan, I was able to point out equal proximity to Chicago and make the claim that Chicago could very well have a stronger influence on West Michigan than Detroit.  Indeed, in the summer months, it sure seems so.
Moreover, West Michigan is much more rural in nature.  Michigan ranks in the top ten states in the production of forty-five different fruits and vegetables--largely on the strengths of West Michigan agriculture.  The agricultural diversity of West Michigan rivals any region of California.
That is not to deny Detroit.You would have to be insane to not root for the recovery of Detroit.  I always  have and I always will.  But I must say, previous efforts to fix the city have been very disappointing as the city administration has fossilized in its approaches while the rest of the region is embracing change, enthusiastically or not.
The most recent controversy involves the Emergency Manager concept where a chronic fiscal municipal or school district basket case that has proven repeatedly its inability to get its act together and live within its means.  The Governor can appoint an Emergency Manager with very significant power to take steps to reverse the continued decline, involving, for example, the power to invalidate certain collective bargaining agreements and the power to divert the wishes of local voters into a basic financial survival strategy.  Failure of any municipality has consequences for all of us.  And, consequently, irresponsible crony local government anywhere threatens all of us in Michigan.  As we, in West Michigan know, Benton Harbor is operating with an Emergency Manager who has, just recently, brought the budget into balance.  A lot of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth has taken place about the changes, but the important thing is Benton Harbor will not go down the tubes.
Opponents articluate the undemocratic nature of the concept in that it has the power to eliminate local policy.  However, the US Constitution makes the fifty states, unitary governments, which means that local governments are a responsiblity of state government, even when home rule charters are in place.  The best advice is:  if you don't want an Emergency Manager, fix your problems--while you still have the power.  It is going to be hard to dismantle the expensive feed troughs that have built up over the past sixty years, but it is clear with one-third of our manufacturing establishment having vaporized in the past ten years, the system is no longer sustainable.

Ten Ways to Avoid Poverty

10 Ways to Avoid Being Poor

The economic development profession ought to be concerned about the reduction of poverty in our communities.  Perhaps another column can articulate the dozens of reasons why this is so.  Unfortunately we have let the cave people stereotype us as establishment types, uncaring country clubbers (I don’t play golf), and elitists.  In fact, if we are true to our profession, we are change agents.  So, in that vein, I will use this space to present what I hope are common sense, increasingly nontraditional solutions as to how we can reduce poverty in our communities.  In so doing, I understand I may, again, arouse the ire of the establishment, but my message is not directed to them.  My message is to young people who still have a chance to make things better.  So please give some thought to the following:

1.               Graduate from high school.  It is free.  The taxpayers foot your bill.  Never look a gift horse in the mouth.  Even a high school diploma is no guarantee that you will be comfortable.  Lack of a diploma is a guarantee you will always be poor.

2.               Get a job.  Any job.  Do not expect to start out as the CEO of General Electric or as the Captain of a 747.  Do not listen to all the defeatist rhetoric about how you need a crutch or special assistance.  Do not listen to the “chump change” or “hamburger flipper” culture.  Those people generally wind up incarcerated or dead.  In fact, there will be hundreds of thousands of jobs available in the next few years as the Baby Boomers retire. Only 20% of the current workforce will have the shills to deal with the emerging job market.  Get some.

3.               Work more than forty hours a week.  Success and the attendant comforts do not come without a price.  As my colleague, Birgit Klohs has said many times, “If you want to be successful in our work, you must be willing to work up to eighty hours a week.”  While this may seem extreme, it is also true.

4.               Do not depend on government to help you out of poverty.  In fact, some governmental employees have a vested interest in you remaining poor.

5.               Do not listen to the brie nibbling, chardonnay sipping set.  Their motivations have far more to do with themselves than you.  If you think they have something useful to say to you, the next time you need a haircut, go spend $200 on it.  Sean Penn could have boarded his private jet and flown out of New Orleans before Katrina struck.  Most of the residents of New Orleans did not have private jets, nor do they have estates in rural France.  For the record, I am a beer drinker.

6.               Do not have unprotected sex.  Despite youth’s propensity to feel immortal, you are playing Russian Roulette with your life.

7.               Do not have children out of wedlock.  If you want to be poor and miserable, that is your choice.  But statistics show that children born out of wedlock are overwhelmingly condemned to lives of poverty.  Give the innocents a chance.

8.               If you want to have children, here are a couple of suggestions.  Get married.  Read number one again.

9.               Avoid breaking the law.  With search engines and the proliferation of information outlets, any mistake you make will follow you around the rest of your life.

10.            Avoid drugs.  Drug testing will become increasingly accurate, long-term, and frequent.  Read number nine again.

You do not have to be rich to observe these simple rules.  For the most part, it is free.  You give yourself better odds to succeed.  It will not cost you.  Best of all it will not cost me.

Greetings

I have been writing for various publications for years.  These publications have their rules and especially, their zones of sensitivity.  I am intending that this blog bust those rules and disrespect all zones of sensitivity.  This is an experiment and it is hoped that ANYBODY who stumbles across this will take the time to comment.  After thirty five years in the public sector, I have a pretty thick skin.  Your criticisms will be welcome. 
Even though the blog title suggests economy and politics, we'll discuss other matters as well--the health of the Great Lakes, hockey, and travel.