Michigan is a Lesson for the National Economy
I have chronicled the state of Michigan's economic woes here before.
Here is a Bloomberg story about how Michigan's statist and anti-globalist politicians and unions of yesteryear sowed the seeds of their current misery (a bipartisan screw up to be sure). According to the article, Ontario was the big beneficiary of Michigan's misjudgment, but we also now know that numerous other US states, notably Mississippi and Alabama, have benefitted at Michigan's expense. Current Governor Jennifer Granholm has been visiting Japan to plead foreign automakers to reconsider Michigan. News out today would indicate that she wasn't very persuasive.
For anti-globalists and nativists, the good news is at least we have learned to compete with Canada and can now keep our auto manufacturing jobs within the borders of the US. Scant consolation if you ask me. The lessons here should be clear - business investment gravitates to where it is treated well and you can't preserve American competitiveness by demonizing foreign business or walling in your economy. Henry Paulson sounded out the theme of American business competitiveness in his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, and he is dead on. We have to realize that the world offers many places to do business and we have to provide a reason for businesses to want to invest here and hire us. It is not our birthright, we have to compete and the first step is to be receptive, to say to all comers that you are welcome here. I hope that this is the 'vision' that Paulson is building to offer as a competitor to Bob Rubin's Hamiltion Project. (The more I get through Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton, the more I am disgusted that Rubin has besmirched Hamilton's name by pinning it to a collection of statist economic policies. Hamilton was certainly for a strong executive branch as a matter of political philosophy as the right antidote for the weakness and vulnerability of a fledgling nation, but was adamently against government involvement in commerce and trade.)
Here is a Bloomberg story about how Michigan's statist and anti-globalist politicians and unions of yesteryear sowed the seeds of their current misery (a bipartisan screw up to be sure). According to the article, Ontario was the big beneficiary of Michigan's misjudgment, but we also now know that numerous other US states, notably Mississippi and Alabama, have benefitted at Michigan's expense. Current Governor Jennifer Granholm has been visiting Japan to plead foreign automakers to reconsider Michigan. News out today would indicate that she wasn't very persuasive.
For anti-globalists and nativists, the good news is at least we have learned to compete with Canada and can now keep our auto manufacturing jobs within the borders of the US. Scant consolation if you ask me. The lessons here should be clear - business investment gravitates to where it is treated well and you can't preserve American competitiveness by demonizing foreign business or walling in your economy. Henry Paulson sounded out the theme of American business competitiveness in his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, and he is dead on. We have to realize that the world offers many places to do business and we have to provide a reason for businesses to want to invest here and hire us. It is not our birthright, we have to compete and the first step is to be receptive, to say to all comers that you are welcome here. I hope that this is the 'vision' that Paulson is building to offer as a competitor to Bob Rubin's Hamiltion Project. (The more I get through Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton, the more I am disgusted that Rubin has besmirched Hamilton's name by pinning it to a collection of statist economic policies. Hamilton was certainly for a strong executive branch as a matter of political philosophy as the right antidote for the weakness and vulnerability of a fledgling nation, but was adamently against government involvement in commerce and trade.)
posted by Donny Baseball at 1:13 PM
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