Category: News

There’s a common refrain among mainstream economists that, when it comes to America’s long-term growth, it doesn’t matter whether the country has a strong manufacturing base. Nor, they say, does having a healthy industrial structure create greater income equality. If we want growth and fairness, the thinking goes, we shouldn’t focus on specific industries. We…

Manufacturing matters to the United States because it provides high-wage jobs, commercial innovation (the nation’s largest source), a key to trade deficit reduction, and a disproportionately large contribution to environmental sustainability. The manufacturing industries and firms that make the greatest contribution to these four objectives are also those that have the greatest potential to maintain…

Why has Michigan enjoyed the second-strongest post-recession recovery among the 50 states? Because the state and its metropolitan areas are rich in the assets that will drive the next economy in the U.S. and around the globe.http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2012/02/23-michigan-economy

As U.S. job and housing markets stabilize and expand once again, population will likely return to interior Sun Belt metropolitan areas and suburban communities generally. However, the places that succeed in this new regime will probably not mirror the winners at either the middle or the end of the turbulent 2000s. Instead, metro areas with…

New growth theory argues that, in advanced economies, economic growth stems less from the acquisition of additional capital and more from innovation and new ideas. On May 10, the Brookings Institution and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) hosted a symposium examining new growth theory as a tool for assessing the impact of art…

The Senate’s highway-fund bailout will only perpetuate the spending misallocation that has contributed to traffic nightmares. It will also run up the deficit. If Congress really wants to enhance the livability of cities and suburbs, it will pass a highway bill that builds more roads.http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10001424052702303815404577333631864470566,00.html

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa program—created as part of the Immigration Act of 1990—allocates 10,000 green cards per year to foreigners who invest $1 million (or $500,000 in a targeted employment area) in qualifying U.S. businesses that create or preserve at least 10 jobs. Three thousand green cards are set aside annually for designated “regional…

Commentators were right to point out that Mitt Romney committed a flagrant gaffe last week. Unfortunately, they were only half-correct in identifying the offense. Yes, Romney was impressively inartful in announcing that he was “not concerned about the very poor” because “we have a safety net there,” managing to upset both liberals (for his apparent…

U.S. exports, a bright spot in the lethargic economic recovery, have now expanded for 10 straight quarters—two-and-a-half years. Alongside an improving jobs picture, the trend offers further evidence of an economy on the mend.http://www.brookings.edu/up-front/posts/2012/02/17-exports-liu

As states and metropolitan areas fight to regain ground lost during the economic downturn, the ability to innovate is proving increasingly crucial. Innovation allows economies to adapt as new technologies emerge. It enables existing companies to survive and thrive and encourages new businesses to develop. A strong innovation ecosystem facilitates the design of new products…