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Help me, dear readers, to reinvent myself. How may I serve you better? After 10 years as a newspaper columnist, and 20 years before that as a reporter and editor at the Free Press, the ground beneath me and the industry I love is shifting violently.
So Canada is delivering us a tasty gift on a platter -- a new bridge, at no cost to Michigan taxpayers, that will feed more than 10,000 families with the bounty from well-paying jobs? Kudos to Gov. Rick Snyder for showing the common sense and political will to snatch this gift while it's still on the table.
Kudos to Gov. Rick Snyder for showing the common sense and political will to snatch this gift while it’s still on the table, by sidestepping the dithering legislators in Lansing who remain in a sugar coma from feasting on the all the tasty bonbons from their Ambassador Bridge donors.
GM's new board of directors overruled Fritz Henderson in 2009, but selling Opel might have been a very smart move.
It's the chronic complaint of budget-minded citizens, whether about Washington, D.C., or Wayne County, Mich.: Why can't government be run more like a business? If the private sector has to slash payroll, close plants and combine departments, why can't cities balance budgets?
Glenn Miesch, general manager of the Garland Lodge and Resort in Lewiston, reminds me a lot of Alan Mulally, the CEO who led Ford's comeback while averting a bailout.
Today in Detroit, Dan Loepp, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, will throw a big party to celebrate completion of the massive relocation of 3,400 workers from Southfield to Detroit, bringing total Blue Cross employment to more than 6,400 in five downtown buildings.
MACKINAC ISLAND -- Russia may no longer be the avowed enemy of the U.S. as it was during the Cold War, but that doesn't mean we're bosom buddies yet, as Severstal North America found when its bid for a $730-million federal loan to modernize its Dearborn steel plant was derailed in January by protests from Republicans in the U.S. Congress.
If the City of Detroit and State of Michigan want to cheat death, they would do well to heed the example of Ford, which not only avoided both bailout and bankruptcy but also turned massive losses into big profits, better sales, improved credit and a gusher of public goodwill.
As business and political leaders debate and gossip about the future of Detroit at this week's annual Mackinac Policy Conference, two assumptions seem to be baked into every conversation:
Michigan is a big question mark to people who give advice to companies about where to expand, invest and hire new workers, says Brent Pollina. Here's what else Pollina, a site-location adviser to companies, says about Michigan:
As the annual Mackinac Policy Conference opens today, the Detroit Regional Chamber will announce plans to launch an economic development campaign for the region, with a goal of raising about $2 million a year to start.
With a city on the brink of fiscal disaster and a region on the cusp of economic recovery, Nancy Schlichting has a seat smack in the middle of their crosscurrents as CEO of the Henry Ford Health System. Who more appropriate, then, to chair the Detroit Regional Chamber's 2012 Mackinac Policy Conference?
Is Detroit finally emerging from its long Sisyphean period of punishment and frustration? Sorry for the reference to obscure Greek mythology, but I couldn't resist.
Is Detroit fixable? I mean really, fundamentally fixable? Beneath the paint jobs to dress her derelict buildings up for a big event, or the repair job on Cobo Center, or the makeover along the riverfront? Is Detroit fixable?
Shahid Khan left his homeland of Pakistan at age 16 to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also worked at a small automotive parts firm, Flex-N-Gate, as he earned his degree in industrial engineering.
What do Ayn Rand, Warren Buffett, the Titanic, rock bands, a hedge fund and Michigan craft beer have in common? All are intertwined with the splendidly erratic career of Mark Sellers.
Memo to self: Be wary of writing anything positive when there's a feeding frenzy in process. Blood lust is running particularly high in Wayne County these days.
On Bell Road alongside I-275 south of Detroit Metro Airport, a French-owned maker of plastic fuel tanks, Inergy Automotive, is getting ready to open a new factory this summer with 240 workers.
As Mitt Romney was assailing President Barack Obama in Lansing on Tuesday as “a catastrophe for a lot of us,” Obama's top economic adviser, Gene Sperling, delivered a rousing defense in Detroit of what he called decisive — if unpopular — actions that left the U. Europe or other nations following the economic plunge of 2008....
What's a sports franchise to do after it loses 20 of its first 24 games and attendance drops from tops in the league three years ago to 28th out of 30 teams for the sorry season that just ended? Why, throw a big party, of course. Film it, put it on TV and then show the video on the team's website all summer.
As Mitt Romney was assailing President Barack Obama in Lansing today as “a catastrophe for a lot of us,” Obama’s top economic adviser, Gene Sperling, delivered a rousing defense in Detroit.
Six years into the worst housing crash in modern U.S. history, Bloomfield Hills homebuilder Pulte Group appears to be -- dare I risk a jinx by writing this? -- pulling back from the brink of oblivion en route to something resembling recovery.
You've always wanted to make something yourself -- be it a guitar, a toboggan or an automotive gadget -- but you've never had the tools or the know-how. TechShop Detroit, a membership-based fabrication shop and do-it-yourself training center, could change your life.
In a three-party deal announced Thursday, Ford is taking a giant step toward concluding a seven-year effort to dispose of its old auto parts operations, while French auto parts maker Faurecia expands its U.S. footprint and a new joint venture is formed in Detroit that brings 500 manufacturing jobs to the city.
They hardly looked like kindred spirits -- clean-shaven Dan Gilbert in a neatly pressed suit, alongside stubble-faced Sergio Marchionne in his trademark rumpled dark sweater -- at their joint appearance Monday morning in downtown Detroit.
I'm not sure I can adequately explain the purpose, scope and potential of a new venture taking shape in Allen Park, but I sense that it's important, so here goes:
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Mike Thompson
