by Tom Shields September 16, 2009 Frustrated like all of Michigan by a seven-year recession and a clear lack of leadership in Lansing, a new group is ready to weigh in on public policy issues. In a town filled with biz-group acronyms MMA, NFIB, MIC, DADA, MDA, SBAM, MSMS, and MHA, most insiders see the [...]

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by Tom Shields August 16, 2009 It’s that time of the year again. Kids get ready to go back to school. Farmers begin the harvest. Football is in the air. And, of course, the annual tax-and-spend budget marathon ends with a sprint to the October 1 finish line. That springtime vow, “we’re going to get [...]

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by Tom Shields July 16, 2009 The Michigan we once knew is dead. There. I said it. The Michigan we once knew is dead. The facts today — 15.2 percent unemployment; 730,000 Michiganders looking for work. By 2010, economists say, 950,000 jobs will have been lost in the prior decade, heading toward a million. That’s [...]

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by Tom Shields June 16, 2009 “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.” —Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) Wall Street I don’t think anyone was surprised when $160,000 came up missing from an armored truck that dropped its load on I-75 recently. One observer called it the “freeway lottery.” [...]

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by Tom Shields May 16, 2009 Just when we thought the dark cloud draping Detroit was permanent. When Kwame-gate was followed by the city council circus, a never-ending series of government gaffes, Cobo calamities, and pension fund frauds. When it seemed possible a statue of Monica Conyers would replace the Spirit of Detroit — lo [...]

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by Tom Shields April 16, 2009 When L. Brooks Patterson called the Detroit City Council – Cobo Hall fiasco “infrickincredible,” it was a pretty good clue that it was probably not the prelude to an announcement that he was running for governor. Though groans of disappointment could be heard on every radio talk show, and [...]

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by Tom Shields March 16, 2009 Is spring really just around the corner? If you’ve lived in Michigan awhile, you know the few nice days we get in early March are just a tease. Setting our clocks ahead is the price we’re more than willing to pay, knowing longer days lie just ahead. March 23rd [...]

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by Tom Shields February 16, 2009 We have a saying in the Shields house: “you don’t buy groceries with a credit card.” You may use this rule yourself. This doesn’t literally mean that we don’t use credit cards at the market, especially since we earn frequent flyer miles with every swipe. It’s simply the rule [...]

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by Tom Shields January 16, 2009 While we all sit around waiting for our Obamabucks to arrive, I was thinking about what I might be able to do to help our state get out of this economic mess we’re in. I could go out and hire a bunch of people who are out of work, [...]

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by Tom Shields December 16, 2008 As bailout mania sweeps the nation, Governor Granholm is putting on hold restructuring to balance the state’s budget in anticipation of a ginormous bailout from President-elect Obama. But, given the results of recent attempts by the Big Three to wrestle $37 billion from Congress, the Obama Bailout may not [...]

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