James M. Hohman

In an article in The Detroit News, Michigan Sen. Vincent Gregory, D-Southfield, states that government workers get generous health and pension benefits in lieu of bonuses, apparently implying that the two offset. Thankfully, there are data on the issue to check his theory. … more

If a person sits through Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s video portrait, they might think that the governor is interested and aware of her economic development programs. She spends nearly the entire production on her efforts to foster job creation. Unfortunately, a recent MIRS interview (subscription required) shows that she is blind to the failures of the programs she supports. … more

The Mackinac Center is pro-free markets, not necessarily “pro-business.” The following excerpt from an article by Luigi Zingales does a good job of describing the difference (although the Center is not a lobbyist, either). Zingales is a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  … more

The Bureau of Economic Analysis released a key measure of economic growth today that showed that Michigan has gone over a decade without increased production. New gross domestic product figures, a measure of the value of an area’s goods and services production, showed that Michigan’s economy produced 8 percent less in 2009 than it did in 2000 when adjusted for inflation. The nation rose 15 percent during this period. … more

In Gov. Jennifer Granholm's weekly radio address, she ballyhoos her investment missions abroad by claiming that they're responsible for creating or retaining 20,000 Michigan jobs. Unfortunately, she continues to mistake job announcements for job creation. … more

There's no question that Michigan's economy has performed poorly over the past decade. Essentially, the state lost one out of every five jobs since employment peaked in 2000. However, Michigan's economic trends have changed in recent months. It is no longer the worst performer in the country. In fact, since the end of the U.S. recession, Michigan's performance is average. … more

Some 867,500 jobs have disappeared from the Great Lakes State since our 2000 employment peak of 4,690,300 jobs. … more

Gongwer News Service reports that Gov. Jennifer Granholm is unhappy that a new economic forecast estimates that Michigan will start adding jobs next year. But crediting those programs for improving the job estimates is an injudicious use of the forecasts since the economic estimates cited have been optimistic. … more

Mark Adler, a lobbyist for the Michigan Production Alliance, and Carrie Jones, the director of the Michigan Film Office, defended the state's film subsidy program in a Senate Finance Committee meeting today. To do so they employed a long-recognized economic fallacy, the "Broken Window" theory, which only considers economic activity that is "seen" while ignoring unseen economic costs. … more

The fiscal 2011 budget appears done. It contains no systemic reforms or program reductions. Meanwhile, with the end of federal stimulus subsidies, revenue projections for the following fiscal year fall off a cliff. … more