Reconstruction along the Eight Mile Road

[MikeF]

Wasn't sure where to place these articles, but they're worth reading.

v/r

Mike

Detroit: The Death — and Possible Life — of a Great City
Daniel Okrent
Time Magazine

If Detroit had been savaged by a hurricane and submerged by a ravenous flood, we'd know a lot more about it. If drought and carelessness had spread brush fires across the city, we'd see it on the evening news every night. Earthquake, tornadoes, you name it — if natural disaster had devastated the city that was once the living proof of American prosperity, the rest of the country might take notice.

But Detroit, once our fourth largest city, now 11th and slipping rapidly, has had no such luck. Its disaster has long been a slow unwinding that seemed to remove it from the rest of the country. Even the death rattle that in the past year emanated from its signature industry brought more attention to the auto executives than to the people of the city, who had for so long been victimized by their dreadful decision-making.

By any quantifiable standard, the city is on life support. Detroit's treasury is $300 million short of the funds needed to provide the barest municipal services. The school system, which six years ago was compelled by the teachers' union to reject a philanthropist's offer of $200 million to build 15 small, independent charter high schools, is in receivership. The murder rate is soaring, and 7 out of 10 remain unsolved. Three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans, unemployment in that city hit a peak of 11%. In Detroit, the unemployment rate is 28.9%. That's worth spelling out: twenty-eight point nine percent.

For Iraqi Refugees, a City of Hope
Bobbi Ghosh
Time Magazine

For Wasan Aljanaby, the journey from her native Iraq to the U.S. was long and convoluted: with her husband and young son, she fled first to Jordan, then Turkey, Argentina and Ecuador. Everywhere they went, inhospitable immigration rules prevented them from even trying to put down roots. It wasn't until they were finally granted asylum in the U.S. last year that the Aljanabys could finally unpack their lives and settle down.

The easiest part of it all was deciding where in the U.S. they would settle down. "From the beginning, our destination was Detroit," says Aljanaby.
It didn't matter that Motown was experiencing the nation's highest rates of unemployment or that Aljanaby's skills as an Arabic-English translator might be more valuable in states with concentrations of defense contractors. More important was the fact that her husband had some relatives in Dearborn. "We knew we'd get shelter, food and the chance to build our lives," says Aljanaby.

Detroit may be the poster child for urban flight, but there's one group that still regards it as a city of hope: Iraqi refugees. Like previous waves of Arabs fleeing violence and political upheaval — or merely seeking new economic opportunity — thousands of Iraqis have been arriving in the Detroit metropolitan area since 2007, when the Bush Administration began accepting refugees from Iraq.

[jmm99]

Needless to say, the truly ugly economic situation in Michigan is a factor in how Michigan residents view nation-building efforts in Iraq and Astan.

The unemployment figures for Detroit are worse than some other areas of the State; but not atypical. The small county (Baraga) south of us had a July 2007 population of 8500. Before this week, it had an official unemployment rate (the offical rate is too low) of over 25%; and had 1150 people employed. The Terex plant there is closing, adding 90 to the unemployed. That is just a small picture of the "bad" in Michigan.

Middle Eastern immigration into Michigan is long-established, especially in the Detroit area (e.g., Dearborn). The initial wave goes back to ca. 1900, mostly Lebanese Christians in our little area. Spence Abraham is a product of that wave of migrants.

While Michigan could become the "Arsenal of the Renewable Energy Future" (as the author of the Detroit article states at the end), no mechanism exists for that to happen. Without being able to go into details, I'm involved (not as a lawyer) in a "renewable energy" project (actually an "energy storage" project). We tried to interest the governmental "powers that be" in what would have to be a very large private-public partnership joint venture - read that as government being a partner and not in control. The uniform response was "we don't get involved in things like that"; but "we do have these grant programs, etc., etc."

[slapout9]

Mike, don't worry that Invisible hand is gonna swooop down any minute and save everybody. We don't allow no Commonism (planning) in this country. Of course the fact that the Invisible Hand is attached to ugly greedy Talli-Bankster body seems to escape most people

[slapout9]

The future of America???? 8 Mile-The Soundtrack


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeLvuFuSLZg

[MikeF]

The future of America???? 8 Mile-The Soundtrack


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeLvuFuSLZg

I don't think it's that fatalistic yet. The issue is highly political now, but we simply need to rethink (or actually understand) some of the assumptions on Keynesian economics. The "cut taxes" crowd ain't cutting it. In every model of modern capitalism, two assumptions are made:

1. Perfect Communication.
2. Fair Games.

We've lost sight of that recently. I think there is a parallel with our planning in the current foreign policy with merging to groupthink and looking for panaceas without a thorough understanding of the assumptions and cost.

I still believe it'll sort itself out.

v/r

Mike

[jmm99]

Of this ...

Mike, don't worry that Invisible hand is gonna swooop down any minute and save everybody.

I will await that hand, but in the particular case it is more likely to be German, Canadian or Chinese. We will try to avoid the "ugly greedy Talli-Bankster body" - You should market that as an Oct 31 costume idea.

As to this ....

In every model of modern capitalism, two assumptions are made:

1. Perfect Communication.
2. Fair Games.

My take is that even if the ideal were realized (all corruption, manipulation and insider dealing were eliminated - bring in Dr Pangloss), modern capitalism (and all economic systems, including Slap's) would be subject to the vageries of complexity and chaos.

Schmedlap could probably pontificate better on this than I.

[davidbfpo]

Urban decline is not a subject I'm anywhere near being familiar with. I visited Detroit in 1980, when it was just about staying alive and marvelled at how it then worked - with the auto industry being buoyant.

There are IIRC numerous examples of cities failing across the world and in the UK perhaps fifteen to twenty years ago there was a suggestion that Liverpool, a port city, which had lost a third of it's population should become an urban park. Not sure what happened since, but it's not an urban park.

Grassing over a suburb, a forest etc all seem good options to me.

davidbfpo

[slapout9]

(and all economic systems, including Slap's) would be subject to the vageries of complexity and chaos.

It is not mine......it is ours as defined by FDR on January 11,1944.......The Economic Bill of Rights! It's called Americanism. Yea I just invented that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3NTU...eature=related

[MikeF]

My take is that even if the ideal were realized (all corruption, manipulation and insider dealing were eliminated - bring in Dr Pangloss), modern capitalism (and all economic systems, including Slap's) would be subject to the vageries of complexity and chaos.

Schmedlap could probably pontificate better on this than I.

What I was trying to say deserves much more than a simple blog post. I've mostly looked at the issue qualitatively (as it has been years since I cracked open Advanced Macroeconomics, Econometrics, or Fundamentals in Finance and Banking.), but there are three essential areas of decline that I have observed: 1. Farming, 2. Urbanization in the Midwest, 3. the Middle Class. Decline in farming was predicted in the 1990's, the decline in the auto industry was somewhat predicted, but the decline in the middle class was sorely underscored. I think one of the blinders was the utopian belief in the technological revolution. Difficult problems to say the least.

Capitalism is not a perfect system- never has been and never will be, but it is the least bad solution just as democracy is the least bad form of governance . Corruption, manipulation, and insider-trading cannot be eliminated b/c they are just aspects of our broader human nature, but they can be managed.

And that's okay. We just have to adapt a bit. The current situation reminds me of a cross of the early 20th century when the gov't dealt harshly with monopolies, the 1920's when we spent too much, and the 1930's when we tried to recover.

v/r

Mike