Analysis: Re-Thinking Michigan's One-State Recession

For much of the past decade, Michigan's economy declined while the nation's economy prospered.  Understanding this one-state recession is very important for discerning where Michigan's economy stands now and where it is headed.

It is also vital to understand WHY the one-state recession occurred and WHY it ended, because those may be important keys to ensuring that it does not occur again. 

Re-Thinking the One-State Recession:

• Is Michigan's Recovery Real?

This presentation explains what Michigan's one-state recession was, when it started, and when it ended.  Those facts provide a basis for being confident that recent signs of economic recovery in Michigan are real. 

This presentation also challenges economists to propose new explanations for Michigan's one-state recession.  Conventional explanations for Michigan's economic ills can account for other important aspects of the state's economic performance, but they do not explain why this particular sort of disruption to job creation started and ended when it did. 

Written version of "Is Michigan's Recovery Real" (revised August 4, 2011)

Audio/video version of "Is Michigan's Recovery Real"
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