This is a transcript of the interview with Dr. Alexander Tokarev for Mackinac Center’s “Chasing the American Dream” series in celebration of the 250th anniversary of freedom in the U.S.
I’m Alexander Tokarev. I am a professor of economics and classical liberal philosophy at Northwood University here in Midland, Michigan. I grew up in Bulgaria under socialism.
Michigan has a fertility gap, Warren Anderson says, and regulations on childcare facilities may be making it worse.
Anderson, a professor of economics at University of Michigan Dearborn and member of the Mackinac Center’s board of scholars, joins the Overton Window Podcast to discuss how easing up on regulations could make it easier for moms and dads to have children.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News March 5, 2026.
What can you say about a representational public body that silences dissent and conceals information from the public? That question lurks in the background of two lawsuits against public school boards in Michigan.
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation should be put out of its — and our — misery. The state’s jobs agency is mired in a misuse-of-funds scandal, has presided over costly development failures, and has little to show for decades of promises about growth.
This article originally appeared in The Washington Times February 23, 2026.
President Trump is trying to make homeownership more affordable for families. If he wants to make lasting progress, then he should take an example from my home state of Michigan, where lawmakers unveiled a bipartisan package this month to lower the costs of building and buying homes. The plan rests on the time-tested principle that government simply needs to get out of the way.
“Local control” sounds like a conservative principle. But it is not a conservative principle unless it protects liberty. And the groups fighting for the power of cities don’t seek to protect liberty. Typically, they fight for more government control over our lives, at least at the local level.
Workers for Opportunity, a project of the Mackinac Center, celebrated a big win May 19 when Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed SF 472 into law. The measure strengthens a requirement that unions periodically gain their members’ trust to continue serving as bargaining agents.
By Molly Macek
This article originally appeared in Bridge Michigan March 4, 2026.
Standardized test scores for Michigan students are on an alarming downward trend. Yet high school graduation rates are rising. These conflicting trends raise serious questions about the standards public schools use to measure academic success.
It is hard these days not to encounter good news about Detroit’s fiscal profile. According to Detroit’s 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the city’s basic governmental funds have moved from a $363 million deficit in 2016 to a $326 million surplus in 2025. This is a major positive swing for a city that emerged from bankruptcy in December 2014.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News April 26, 2026
Everyone loves Michigan. Just listen to them.
We’re “Pure Michigan,” a “Winter Water Wonderland” with “Great Lakes, Great Times.” Michigan is the home of Motown, Beer City USA, Tree Town, Vehicle City and the Cherry Capital of the World.
This article originally appeared in the Lansing State Journal February 16, 2026.
As winter tightens its grip on Michigan and temperatures plunge below zero, electricity isn’t a luxury - it’s a lifeline. Keeping houses warm and the lights on during brutal winter weather depends on reliable, affordable power. Yet just as residents need electricity the most, Michigan’s energy policies are driving up electricity rates while pushing nuclear and other dependable power plants off the grid.
At a Mackinac Center event on how states can improve healthcare coverage and reduce costs, a panelist mentioned using dental therapists to expand access to dental care and make it more affordable. These midlevel providers practice under the supervision of a dentist but provide more services than a dental hygienist. Michigan law lets them practice, but the required regulatory changes are being implemented at the speed of bureaucracy.
Michigan, long an oasis of decent homes at attractive prices, is feeling the national housing squeeze. Costs are skyrocketing, and the supply of units is not growing fast enough to meet that demand.
Alex Cartwright, a Mackinac Center Board of Scholars member and former economics professor at Ferris State University, has a plan. As principal at HotelShift, Cartwright converts former hotels into multifamily housing. The business substantially boosts the number of homes in an area, but many zoning bureaucracies, local politicians, and community activists resist expansion of the real estate market. Cartwright joins The Overton Window Podcast to discuss the promise of new housing, the prospects for a hotel shift in Grand Rapids, and the challenges posed by NIMBY opposition.
You only have one shopping day left until Michigan Manufacturing Day. Michigan lawmakers in 2004 designated the Friday of the second full week in May as a time to encourage manufacturers “to open their plants and facilities to young people, teachers, and parents and encourages visits to manufacturing plants and facilities.”
A bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced a package of bills that would help increase the supply of homes by making it easier to build. This, in turn, would lower housing costs.
But the legislation is meeting opposition from local governments, because part of the package sets limits on local regulation of home construction. The argument from local officials leaves out some important information. Municipalities should realize that by limiting new construction, they are curtailing the property taxes that are their largest revenue source.
Homes in Detroit now sell for prices seen elsewhere in the state, a big change from where property values were during the Great Recession of 2007-09. That’s a sign of the city’s recovery. But a law meant to protect taxpayers has unintentionally penalized people who move to the city, and it treats some property owners unfairly. This can be an issue throughout Michigan. But with the recent trend in Detroit’s property values and tax rates that are the highest in the nation, it’s more of a problem in Detroit.
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News February 19, 2026.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s new executive budget combines a worthwhile goal with bad economics. The governor says she wants to lower costs for Michigan families, but her plan to create targeted tax breaks and subsidies for certain goods and services or certain groups of people will produce few savings even for its beneficiaries. And the costs of several new tax hikes also included in the plan swamp whatever small benefits the subsidies might produce.
This article originally appeared in Crain’s Detroit Business February 4, 2026.
For the first time in decades, Michigan’s lawmakers finished a year without authorizing more selective business subsidies. That’s excellent. The subsidies are ineffective at creating jobs, unfair to taxpayers and competing businesses, and expensive to the state budget.
This article originally appeared in Crain’s Detroit Business March 13, 2026.
Housing costs have spiked in Michigan. Rental and mortgage rates are higher than they were just a few years ago. A key reason for this increase in costs is that there isn’t enough supply to meet demand – builders aren’t able to build enough to keep up with what customers want.
This article originally appeared in The Washington Times March 29, 2026.
The knives are out for Arizona’s universal school choice program.
A recent media report is making waves in the Grand Canyon State. It claims that 20% of spending from Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, which parents are supposed to use for their children’s education, went to unauthorized items such as dirt bikes and luxury hotels.
By Naomi Lopez
This article originally appeared in The Hill April 2, 2026.
On drug pricing, few things are more dangerous than bipartisanship.
Democratic former President Joe Biden and Republican President Trump have both tried to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Yet Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and Trump’s Most Favored Nation scheme both amount to de facto price caps. They inevitably stifle the future medical breakthroughs that Americans need by preventing pharmaceutical makers from getting a return on their multi-billion dollar investments.
The city of Detroit grew to near its peak population and was one of the wealthiest cities in the world prior to adopting a municipal zoning code. During that time period, many of the city’s historic homes and neighborhoods were also built.
The city was able to add the housing people wanted because it had loose land use policies. After Detroit put in place its first municipal zoning ordinance around 1940, that trend came to a halt and even reversed.
Michael Clark has learned a lot through trial and error in 15 years of teaching, and he wants to bring that learning method to the rest of us.
“My whole philosophy is that feedback matters a great deal,” Clark, an associate professor of economics at Hillsdale College, tells the Overton Window Podcast. “It does in research. In terms of learning, if you give a wrong answer and you let it go for a week, your brain thinks that’s the right answer. Even if you weren’t sure about whether or not it was the right answer. Well, if I tell you right away and explain it to you and then we have a little mini-conversation and you repeat it back, that’s another chance for me to help you learn.”
This article originally appeared in The Detroit News April 14, 2026.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is celebrating government transparency this month, and she has a proclamation to prove it. Whitmer designated April as “Government Records and Information Management Month.” The proclamation encourages Michigan agencies to review their information management practices and follow laws governing public records.
The Michigan House of Representatives created a robust Oversight Committee last year, with various subcommittees focused on specific public policy areas. It’s been a long time since there was this kind of dedication to reviewing state government operations.
