What is on the horizon for Michigan’s economy and why is that important to you.  It is important because it means your ability to get a good paying job or increase in your pay at your current job and perhaps a bonus.  It might not be you who needs that job but I can assume that you know someone in your life that does.  In fact it helps all of us in Michigan for people to be employed as opposed to being on the welfare roles.

Well if you listen to one economic forecaster from Comerica Bank, Michigan’s economy may be slowing.  What we have to determine is what needs to be done or continued to be pursued politically, meaning attitude toward businesses and policies that are instituted and followed, here in Michigan to keep the good economic pace going and who should we elect to do so.

Mlive is reporting about a symposium titled Comerica Bank Outlook on America in Grand Rapids where economic forecaster Robert Dye said extending the economic recovery in the state may take some “creative approaches”.  At that symposium he was quoted staying:

The positives that Michigan and other upper Midwestern states enjoyed coming out of the Great Recession -- that tailwind feels like it's starting to diminish. We're now at the top of the auto cycle…If we're going to extend this thing, then it has to be business as unusual and there's enough evidence out there that maybe we do that business as unusual.

Robert Dye tracks the economy in Michigan on a monthly basis in his position as the chief economist for Comerica Bank.  He does so by tracking the following:

  • employment rates
  • housing prices
  • industrial electricity rates
  • auto production
  • trade
  • hotel occupancy
  • and sales tax.

Did you know that the United States is in the second longest expansion cycle since 1854?  Due to this Mr. Dye believes that business owners have the great choice of either saving money made in their business for a slow period, which will eventually come, or investing in their business.  What a great choice.

He is quoted saying at the symposium:

Do you hunker down and put the money in the pickle jar, or do you reinvest?

He also stated at the symposium:

We're running out of humans…if we want to keep the expansion cycle going, we have to do it with machines; we have to do it with investment.

Not that we necessarily want machines to take Michiganders jobs but it is better to be in a position of needing people then having too many people going after limited jobs.

The question we must answer come this fall is what political party and their attitudes and policies toward business, you think has the best chance of keeping this economic expansion going, the Democratic or Republican.

I think most intelligent people know the answer to that.  The answer to many of our societies issues really comes down to people having good paying jobs.  These jobs and opportunities to rise up the ladder will increase tax revenues into our local, state and federal treasuries.

Who cares what party you think you are affiliated with, what really matters is the money in your pocket, purse and bank.  First look at what is happening around you from a society’s perspective, then track that back to the policy that helped that happen and then to the political party that implemented that policy.

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