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Economy Watch
Sunday, June 25, 2006 Here are the articles on the economy that interested me last week. Chew on These Numbers, Ben 'Wal-Mart Bill' Assailed Before Judge Comparisons to economy of the 1970s are inflated Another Hard Act to Follow Vital Signs: Another Rate Hike Is in Store Workers deserve better How Ireland Became the Celtic Tiger The high road to prosperity Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says Made in America, Toyota-style posted by Ed | Incentives Watch Here are the significant articles on incentives from last week: The big news: New York is finally getting its chip plant with about $1 billion in incentives. Read more. The news starting popping on the radar screen on Tuesday, June 20. By Friday, the announcement came. Here is more on the politics of the deal. Read more. The incentives for ethanol, coupled with high prices, is driving a boom. A NY Times article explores the consequences. Read more. A new report estimates that Iowa Value Funds incentives have generated 5,300 jobs. Read more. Municipal tax breaks on Long Island may not have generated much benefit, according to critics. Read more. Missouri's governor announced his program to redevelop smaller downtowns. Read more. posted by Ed | Connecting to young leaders Here is an insightful article out of Tulsa on why young civic entrepreneurs are impatient the old patterns of civic leadership. Consultants like Rebecca Ryan have made to healthy business out of advising business leaders of these new trends. The independence of these young leaders is inspiring. Part of the tension they feel, I suspect, comes from their different perception of civic engagement. Older leaders tend to think hierarchically...top down, bottom up. In a typical community, civic leadership is defined by a slow process of gradual ascent. (I remember early in my career, how one business leader in Louisiana insisted that no volunteer chamber board member should be under 40 years old.) Younger leaders are exploring civic engagement in a different way. They tend to see opportunities in terms of networks, not hierarchies. They are looking for fast ways to connect. There are no tops and no bottoms to a network. Only links and nodes. (My colleague Valdis Krebs recently explained how I connected people in Oklahoma City and Lexington, KY. Read more. You can read a more detailed description I posted to my weblog on Real NEO. Read more.) posted by Ed | New brand for the Philadelphia region Philadelphia is launching a new branding campaign. The "Forever Independent" brand will support the work of sixteen economic development organizations in the region. Among other things, Philadelphia's civic leaders have their eye on the 2016 Olympics. Read more. Visit the web site. posted by Ed | University research anchors downtown development Along with Milwaukee, Buffalo is turning to university research as a way to anchor downtown development. The New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences provides a core around which to build. At the same time, the University of Buffalo is keeping track of some important metrics: The number of patents obtained by university researchers has increased from 58 in 2003 to 69 in 2005. Invention disclosures are up from 82 in 2003 to 92 in 2005. Read more. posted by Ed | Connecting tool and die shops Creating open innovation networks (clusters) among tough-minded owners of tool and die shops is no easy task. But as the following article notes: "[D]esperate times lead to unusual measures." Read more. posted by Ed | Innovating in the Hudson Valley Here is an interesting article on a new incubator in the Hudson Valley of New York. The foucs of the incubator is to provide executive assistance through a network of mentors. As the director notes: "If you look at incubators historically, they tend to be aligned with universities. The model we've used is slightly different. Rather than focus on the research aspects of it, we specialize in executive management assistance."Read more. posted by Ed | Denver and energy innovation Metro Denver is moving to shape an energy innovation agenda. Read more. posted by Ed | Stimulating entrepreneurship in North Dakota The Center for Entrepreneurship and Rural Revitalization at Dickinson State University has been recognized by the state legislature as a Center of Excellence. This step launches the Center on a new trajectory to promote entrepreneurship in the state. The Center is heading off in some promising directions. It will partner with Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing (KMM). KMM assembles aerospace electronics and operates satellite manufacturing sites throughout rural southwestern North Dakota. The Center will work with KMM to develop and implement a new system for supply chain transparency using radio-frequency identification in the production process. Read more. posted by Ed | Philadelphia's creative economy Civic entrepreneurs in Philadelphia are focusing on the creative economy. Here's an overview of a conference they held last week. Read more. John Howkins waas one of the confernce speakers. In the same year that Richard Florida came out with the Creative Class, Howkins, a UK-based author, came out with The Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas. You can reaqd a summary here. I also recommend another book, The Creative City, also published in the UK. posted by Ed | Greensboro reorganizes around clusters The Greensboro Economic Development Partnership is reorganizing itself around a cluster-based focus. Greensboro is focusing on transportation and logistics; life sciences and biotech; financial and insurance services; and advanced materials and manufacturing. Read more. posted by Ed | Washington State's index of innovation and technology Washington State has released its index of innovation and technology. Read more. You can download a copy here. The index includes guidance for metropolitan areas. See, for example, how newspaper in Yakima reported the results. Read more. To be useful, these Index reports need to be clear, concise and readable. They need to educate as well as inform. By drawing these intdicators down to the metro level, Washington State spurs local interest. The Washington report adopts the practice pioneered by Massachusetts some years ago. The Massachusetts report clearly explained why certain indicators were important to the state's innovation future. You can see an archive of Massachusetts reports here. posted by Ed | Missouri initiative for small downtowns Missouri's governor has unveiled a new initiative to stimulate creative development in the smaller downtowns within his state. The DREAM Initiative (Downtown Revitalization Economic Assistance for Missouri) will simplify the process of obtaining technical and financial assistance for select Missouri communities. Read more. You can visit the web site here. This initiative highlights importance of building quality places in economic development. The Missouri program is similar to Michigan's Cool Cities initiative. posted by Ed | Don't do this at home Last week, I highlighted the food fight between Cincinnati and Cleveland over casino gambling. The Greater Cleveland Partnership has taken on this initaitive as one of their primary economic development strategies. Read more. The fight escalated last week. A Cincinnati councilwoman called the tactics used by the business promoters of a casino in Cleveland, "the slimiest thing I've ever seen." Read more. She is calling for a boycott of the Cleveland-based initiative. Maybe the lesson in all this is simple: You can expect to trigger small town reactions if you treat a state constitution like a small town zoning ordinance. posted by Ed | Food business incubators For EDPros interested in the possibility of a food processing incubator, check out the developments at the Rutgers Food Innovation Center. Read more here and here. Visit the web site here. posted by Ed | Connecting public schools with universities Increasingly, economic development will depend on flexible connections between primary in secondary schools on the one hand and our colleges and universities on the other. Here's an example of the type of collaboration that could - over time - turn into a significant economic development strategy. In Kentucky, a statewide technology collaborative is connecting public schools with colleges and universities. Read more. posted by Ed | Winds farms coming to Indiana? Two Caliornia-based firms have expressed interest in establishing wind farms in Indiana. Read more. posted by Ed | Report on state renewable portfolio standards Renewable energy provides one of the major economic development opportunities next decade. Increasingly, states are adopting renewable portfolio standards (RPS) to diversify their sources electricity. Here's a good article that provides some background on how states are using these standards to spur the development of renewable energy. Note one quote in the article: "The biggest challenge in the future will likely revolve around the need for interstate collaboration and dialogue as the questions of cooperation across state boundaries arise. Ultimately, federal and state regulators will need to work together in the event of adoption of a federal RPS." You can download a copy of the report here. posted by Ed | Nuclear engineering in Pittsburgh Southwest Pennsylvania is trying to figure out how to take its pool of nuclear engineers and convert it into economic development opportunities. Read more. posted by Ed | Development efforts in Texas Ray Perryman is a fixture on the Texas economic development scene. He writes a commentary about how economic development efforts in Texas are coming together. Read more. posted by Ed | Don't do this at home I recently received an e-mail from a colleague in Shreveport. For some years, group of us have been promoting the development of the area around the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport. You can see the results of our plan here. Part of our plan involves establishing a digital media center. A delegation from Shreveport came to Cleveland last week to make a presentation to the national meeting of the New Media Consortium. Our Shreverport plan represents the one of the first plans to use digital media as a catalyst for regional economic growth. My friend writes: "[In] the week following the trip, a digital media company interested in locating in Shreveport came to town... I met representatives in our office to show them the plan. They see and want to be part of the vision..." Despite the national recognition that our plan has generated, Mayor Keith Hightower and his staff have been fighting our proposal. Their idea: Tear down the surrounding buildings and turn the areas around the historic Munnicipal Auditorium into more parking lots. Urban renewal strategies in the 1960's were generally a disaster for American cities. Shreveport, luckily, did not participate in these programs, because the city's leadership was oppposed to federal funding. The benefit: Many of Shreveport's old buildings -- it's authentic urban fabric -- are still standing. This authenticity -- rough edges and all -- provide a remarkable economic development opportunity. But Mayor Hightower can't seem to get his head around the possibilities. Instead, he wants to tear down buildings and pave parking lots. Remarkable. A corporate attorney -- a member of our design team -- once told us the challenges we face in coming up with a bold idea for Shreveport: "You're dealing with a lot of ignorance down there." My sense is that the reasons go deeper. The Hightower Administration has been plagued by rumors of alleged corruption. This brings to mind a Bob Dylan lyric that is applicable to Shreveport: "The pump don't work because the vandals stole the handle." posted by Ed | Education for Global Leadership The Committee for Economic Development (CED) has issued a report called Education for Global Leadership that calls for significant improvements in foreign language education. Read more. You can download a copy of the report here. posted by Ed | Milwaukee moves on technology agenda Civic leaders in Milwaukee are moving ahead with it plans to develop this city into research hub. The development of the Medical College of Wisconsin and GE Health Care into a major business provides a pathway the future development. A number of new coalitions are forming within Milwaukee to push forward this agenda.Read more. In addition, the state system is moving ahead with its more aggressive research and development strategy. Read more. posted by Ed | Two planned wind farms in Indiana Tuesday, June 20, 2006 After moving ahead aggressively in biofuels, Indians announced that two wind farm developers from California have plans to develop wind farm projects northwest of Lafayette, Indiana. Read more. If you are curious about wind energy, visit the site of the American Wind Energy Association here. posted by Ed | Georgia opens China office Georgia is taking steps to strengthen its ties with China. The governor has announced that the state will open its first office in China, in Beijing. Read more. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Sunday, June 18, 2006 Here are the intereesting articles on the economy I came across last week: Learning to Swim - While Drowning Innovation to drive India, US ties Why Our Educators Can't Let Us Down On The Home Front Bernanke: Fed needs to watch for inflation U.S. auto workers lower their goals amid gloom Vital Signs: Housing Holds a Key to Spending Inflation expectations a bit unhinged: Fed's Kohn Auto industry's domestic situation posted by Ed | Incentives Watch Here are the incentives stories I have come across in the last week or so. According to a recent study, a federal tax credit could spur the development of more andel funds. Read more. One of the challenges we face as EDPros is dealing with shady characters. The folks in Indiana hit this wall recently. Read more. Seven states are competing for a big Department of Energy clean coal project, FutureGen. Read more. The EDA is pumping half a million into Tennessee to help pay for a manufacturing extension for auto parts maker Denso. Read more. Nissan is moving ahead with its move of its corporate headquarters. Here's more details on the deal. Read more. Here's some background on a DirecTV call center in Denver. Read more. Bristol Myers recently selected massachusetts for a bio-manufacturing plant. Here's more details on the deal. Read more. posted by Ed | Florida's universities and tech transfer Here is an interesting article on how Florida's universities are commercializing research. Govenor Bush has led the state to making major investments in research and universities will be playing an increasingly important role in the state's economic development. Read more. posted by Ed | State renewable energy policies The Pew Center on Global Climate Change has released a report on state policies for renewable energy. You can download the report here. posted by Ed | Resource: State entrepreneurial index The Edward Lowe foundation has produced a report that ranks states on their entrepreneurial support. While the report was developed to assess Michigan's economy, it provides good insights into each state. You can download the report here. posted by Ed | Milwaukee region moves toward an innovation future In Milwaukee, momentum is building to drive the regional economy toward a different future, one driven by technology and innovation. Business leaders are moving forward with a vision of translating University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee into a aginificant research hub. In recent months the seven counties around Milwaukee have aligned to focus their effforts on a common economic development agenda. Read more. Two competing proposals are circulating among city leaders to focus on university-based research. The two proposals highlight two different perspectives on commercializing university research. one proposal seeks to tighten the collaboration among universities. The second focuses on stimulating business investment in early stage technologies. Read more. posted by Ed | Insights into a couple of clusters Every once in a while I come across articles that provide a glimpse of how clusters evolve. Here's an article on the data storage industry in Colorado. And here's a good insight into how an an aerospace cluster is emerging in Blacksburg, VA. posted by Ed | Don't try this at home It is no mystery why the Greater Cleveland business leadership is promoting gambling as a strategy to turn around the city. Unfortunately, Cleveland's business leadership has been unable to compromise with other gambling promoters from around the state. The controversy is starting to get a little ugly. Cleveland's tactics have shut the door on a proposal for a casino in Cincinnati. Now, allegations of dirty tactics are spilling out into the newspaper. Read more. So, following the leadership of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, it looks like Ohio voters may be asked in November to change their constitution in order to benefit two real estate developers in Cleveland. This may be progress for Ohio, but I, for one, have a hard time seeing it. We should instead be focused on improving the financing of secondary education, needed investments in post-secondary education, and improving the networks for high impact, entrepreneurial companies in the state. (The "Ohio Learn and Earn" branding of a gambling campaign is a nifty PR touch to position this initiative as an investment in education. It looks like in November we'll see if Ohio voters buy it.) posted by Ed | Managing visual clutter with sign ordinances Smaller rural communities often face the challenge of maintaining rural character while the community grows. Sign ordinances can help, but they are controversial. Regulating the tight, size, and location of signs can help significantly in reducing the visual clutter that often accompanies strip development. When communities that this right, however, everyone benefits. The community is more attractive and property values tend to be relatively higher. A good example is Traverse City, Michigan. Here's an article about how Clumbia, Tennessee is managing its debate over a sign ordinance.Read more. Here's an example of a model sign ordinance from a county in Pennsylvania. Learn more. For more resources on sign ordinances and other planning issues, check out Planners Web, a web site designed to help citizens who serve on planning commissions. posted by Ed | Michigan's ad campaign Michigan is promoting a new ad campaign. Read more. It's not clear to me how the ads, featuring celebrities like CBS newsman Charles Osgood and actor Jeff Daniels, will achieve the governor's objective. According to Governor Granholm, "We want to convince businesses we are the best place to come, to grow." A far better approach would the capture some of the many stories of Michigan innovation and promising initiatives like Automation Alley and the Great Lakes Entrepeneur Quest. Like many Great Lakes states, Michigan is facing a major cultural shift. We're moving away from an industrial economy in which job security was largely defined by union contracts. We're moving into and you're out in which job security and prosperity depend on innovation and one's willingness to learn. If Michigan is going to commit ad dollars, its campaign should be geared toward accelerating the innovation economy already emerging within the state. posted by Ed | New venture fund in Indiana Governor Daniels in Indiana has announced a new $105 million venture fund that will leverage resources from the state's Public Employees Retirement Fund. Read more. posted by Ed | Promoting entrepreneurial North Carolina North Carolina is continuing to improve its entrepreneurial climate. Here is news of a new collaboration between two established organizations promote entrepreneurship in the state. Read more. posted by Ed | Technology park at Oak Ridge Late last month, Oak Ridge National Laboratory dedicated the first technology park on the campus of a national laboratory. Read more. posted by Ed | Rochester considers muni wireless Civic leaders in Rochester, NY are exploriing the possibility of creating a "wireless downtown". Read more. You can keep up with developments in municipal wireless from this web site. In case you missed it, St. Paul Minnesota recently released a report on establishing a city wide wireless network. Read more. posted by Ed | Creative Tampa Bay Tampa Bay, Florida has embraced the strategy of promoting its creative industries as an economic development driver. Here is some background. Read more. you can visit their web site here. by moving in this direction, Tampa Bay is embracing an economic development trend that started in Europe. In the late 1990's -- before Richard Florida wrote his book on the Creative Class in 2002 -- a number of cities in Europe started to embrace the concept of creativity as of organizing principle for their economic development strategies. See, for example, the Web site of Creative London. The Blair government in the United kingdom stimulated this development with a report on the creative clusters which appeared in 1998. (The so-called Creative Industries mapping document.) By 2002, an annual creative clusters conference promoted continuing developments the U.K. Learn more. By 2000, the New England Foundation for the Arts we aligned with the business community to launch a creative industries initiative. Read more. Now w're saying places like Providence, Philadelphia, Vermont, Savannah and Tampa Bay focusing on this strategy. (Here is a report that appeared recently on activities in Vermont. Read more. Here's a summary of a conference in Philadelphia. Read more.) posted by Ed | Preparing young people with 21st century skills Increasingly, civic leaders around the country are recognizing that high school no longer prepares a majority of young people with 21st century skills. Here is article out of Michigan that underscores this challenge. Read more. posted by Ed | St. Louis focuses on innovation The St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association is moving in the right direction by creating a new organization that to will focus on the region's innovation economy. Innovate St. Louis will focus on two strategic activities. First, it will create a Web-based network of innovation and entrepreneurship resources. Second, it will focus on strengthening the networks among existing companies. Read more. posted by Ed | New York's Capital Region still focused on chip plant The Capital Region around Albany, New York continues to remake itself. Civic leaders have set their sights on attracting a chip plant. Here's an update from a couple weeks ago. Read more. posted by Ed | Indiana's commitment to manufacturing In many ways, the popular business press has done us a disservice. For years, we have been seen articles about how the manufacturing economy across the United States is "dying". In fact, during the Internet boom of the late 1990's, the business press missed one of the major stories about transformation the U.S. economy: the remarkable expansion of manufacturing productivity.Read more. Successful manufacturing companies are becoming more dynamic and network. Their class in product development cycles and accelerating innovation investments. So, while it is true that the global integration of world markets places pressure on our manufacturing businesses, new, more dynamic manufacturing models are emerging. Business leaders in Indiana see the opportunity. They are launching a new effort to integrate manufacturing and logistics. Read more. posted by Ed | Developing an Oregon brand Branding has become an essential tool for regions to compete in today's global economy. Yet, branding is not simply developing an ad campaign or a clever logo. At its deepest this level, branding is about experiences and telling stories: the experiences that visitors and investors have when they visit your region. Stories help you shape those experiences. For some time, Oregon has been moving ahead with a branding campaign. It's a good example of how a state builds a brand around the stories that it tells. Here's a brief update of what they have been doing. Read more. posted by Ed | Moving Maine toward innovation Accelerating innovation is not easy. In particular, defining new roles for the state government to play is tricky. On one hand, many states are anxious to invest aggressively in promising start-up companies. On the other hand, especially in older industrial regions, political leadership focuses on helping people make the adjustment to new economic realities. In a recent roundtable discussion in Maine, participants discussed how to move the state toward a more focused innovation agenda. The discussion highlights some of the tensions that exist within main. It also emphasizes the importance of defining some quick "wins" bolster political support for change. Read more. posted by Ed | The value of leadership visits One of the best ways to organizes civic leadership around a COMMON agenda is to take field trips. Last week, I visited Oklahoma City with a group of 175 civic leaders from Lexington, Kentucky. Read more. Recently, a group from Phoenix visited Austin. Read more. In next few weeks, a group from Pittsburgh will visit Charlotte. A group from Charlotte will visit Philadelphia. In the fall, a group from Oklahoma City will visit Indianapolis. Organizing field trips serves two purposes: it strengthens the bonds among civic leaders in your region, and it exposes them to new thinking about what works. posted by Ed | Heading off regional poaching Sunday, June 11, 2006 Ronnie Bryant at the Charlotte Regional Partnership has released a report to calm concerns in his region about poaching. You can read more about the report, written by Tom Ticknor, here. posted by Ed | INconversation Last week, we held the Leadership Indiana summit on the topic of the Urgency of Innovation. We had a particularly interesting event to lead off the summit. We called it INconversation, an open space event that was designed to teach civic leaders about a different approach to engage a diverse group of civic leaders and guiding their conversations toward action. Increasingly, EDPros will need to learn the new leadership skills needed to guide these conversations. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Saturday, June 03, 2006 Here are the articles on the economy that I found interesting last week. New jobs far below May forecasts U.S. job growth weak in May, but jobless rate slips Cooling economy chills job growth Will May Jobs Report Give Fed Pause? Data paint uncertain job market Corporate Income Taxation's Effect On the U.S. Economy Vital Signs: Trade Gap May Widen Solid U.S. economy shows some sluggish signs US economy gives confused signals The Matador Economy posted by Ed | Incentives Watch Here are the interesting articles on incentives I came across last week. Lacrosse, WI is waking up to the importance of having a clear incentives policy.Read more. Colorado is going to make a big co-investment if it can get a valauble federal research lab. The size of the deal is triggering some discussion about the use of incentives in the state. Read more. Bristol-Myers decided to put its bio-pharmaceutical manufacturing project in Massachusetts. North Carolina officals felt the loss deeply. Read more here and here. Governor Bush signed a package five economic development bills in Florida last week. One bill establishes $245 million in corporate and insurance premium tax credits designed to lure high-tech industries to Florida.Read more. The film industry is continuing to reboot. A study shows that LA is losing TV pilots at a high rate. Read more. A big pork project landed in the Quad Cities, helped with a $16 million state incentive package. Read more here, here, and here. That looks like chump change, though when New York has put together a $1 billion package to lure a chip plant. Read more. posted by Ed | Quotes of the Week "Manufacturers tend to think, `We make stuff and we ship it,' and customers don't just want to buy stuff, they want you to solve problems for them. And increasingly, that means customers expect that you are going to somehow combine service and a product into a total solution that is going to make two or three of their `to-dos' on their to-do list go away." John Brandt, CEO of the Manufacturing Performance Institute Group. "Our colleges and universities are successful — just not successful enough to confront the challenges of globalization without significant change." David Ward, president of the American Council on Education. "There was a bunch of disconnected individual initiatives. There's a hundred things going on. We wanted to figure out a way to connect the dots." Eric A. Reisner, vice president for strategic programs at Johnson Controls on his company's expansion of their MetroMarkets initiative to a regional scale. "Just as schools must improve their knowledge of the actual job skills required in the business world, so too must businesses improve their knowledge of the career paths available to their employees." Charles Lawton, Senior Economist, Plannning Decisions, a consulting firm in Portland, ME. “We as a region have made the strategic choice to address the energy crisis facing our society. We would like Northern Colorado to become the global leader in attracting clean-energy projects, R&D (research and development) and technology.” J.J. Johnston, head of the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corporation, announcing the creation of the Northern Colorado Clean Energy Cluster. "From its research institutions, to its multi-national corporations and its 'techpreneurs,' Illinois has the necessary ingredients to create a new regional model." Richard Paullin, Chief Operating Officer of the Illinois Global Partnership, launching a forum in Chicago to highlight best practices for technology commercialization and new business creation. "We look forward to seeing Ohio reclaim some of the gaming revenue that is lost to our neighboring states." Joe Roman, President and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership in announcing his organization's support of statewide gambling. (I'm not sure that this is such a good idea. By this logic, we ought to be building more amusement parks to recapture the money Clevelanders spend at Disneyworld. You can see my views here. Senator Voinovich, former mayor of Cleveland, is a leading opponent to gambling in Ohio. Based on my experience analyzing the impact of casinos in Louisiana, Senator Voinovich has got it right. Read more.) posted by Ed | An example of "link and leverage" Friday, June 02, 2006 Here is an interesting idea out of Maryland. However, not very many regions will be able to replicate it. But that's not the point. This is an example of how an economic development professional has articulated an opportunity by making connections among different organizations. This is a good example of the new type of "link and leverage" strategies that innovative economic development professionals are launching. In order to test her out this hypothesis, she is moving ahead with a pilot project. Specifically, she wants to see whether the high number of post doctoral fellows in the Washington area provides opportunity to promote new entrepreneurial firms. Read more. posted by Ed | |
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