Which brings us to the so-called National Summit, a three-day gathering of politicians and business people in Detroit’s Renaissance Center. Now, I have no doubt that a national summit on the economy would be a good idea. America has enormous deficits, enormous debt and depends far too much on China and the Middle East.
However, what is happening in Detroit this week is neither national nor a summit. It seems instead to be a giant waste of time.
What I would expect a national summit to involve would be a gathering of world-class economists and the nation’s key political and business leaders. President Obama would open the proceedings, followed by somebody like Warren Buffett or Bill Gates.
They would then proceed to have working sessions to hammer out a blueprint for our future. But that’s not what has been going on this week. Instead, a succession of politicians, local worthies, and mainly local business leaders made speeches at each other.
These included top officials of the auto companies, heads of smaller companies and chambers of commerce, and also a fair number of Canadian executives, which makes sense for this area, but made me wonder why they didn’t call it an international summit.
The governor spoke, and the heads of Michigan’s three major universities, and everybody else locally who needed to have themselves seen. However, some of the choices were baffling.
Charles Ballard, the ranking expert on the Michigan economy was evidently not invited. However, an engaging young woman named Becky Quick, who hosts a cable show called Squawk Box, was. What she and all the rest of them did was make speeches.
Highly forgettable speeches, most of them. The highest ranking political attendee was a member of the President’s cabinet. Here’s what his own press release said about his appearance: “U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today announced a new initiative designed to streamline government bureaucracy and bring services and solutions directly to businesses and entrepreneurs.”
I’ve read sexier sentences in the manual that came with my toaster oven. What’ s wrong with all of this is not just that the Detroit Economic Club put on a mind-numbingly boring event.
What wrong is that they bit off more than they could chew. We have a national economic crisis, true. But we aren’t going to solve that with a regional conference in Michigan. Even a good one.
But we also have a special form of crisis in Michigan, one we could do something about. Our core industry has fundamentally collapsed. Our political system is dysfunctional. Our state government broken. And our politicians and business leaders seem determined to drag our state over the cliff.
Now here’s an idea: Convene a real summit with the people who have the power to actually do something about that, and put pressure on them to do it.
Because if you haven’t noticed, Michigan is running out of time.
What about the annual Mackinaw "junket" and love fest? What gets accomplished there? I also liked the idea behind the alternative "peoples summit" which received a lot less publicity - it's about time! The solution to the jobs problem is going to come from the ground up, not the top down (if we can find one at all). None of the "talking heads" at the economic "club" have anything really new or credible to offer. I agree with Jack on this one, what an incredible F...ing waste of time!
Posted by: George | June 17, 2009 at 04:29 PM
I continue to have many reservations about Jack's scholarship and journalistic chops when he engages in these one sided selective commentaries..
Where was Jack's angst toward the worthless summit in Mackinaw????
Michigan's plight at the end of the day is an national issue not just a regional issue on one hand Jack's indicts the summit as being to local than he indicts the summit for not being about Michigan!!!
Make up your mind...
Posted by: Thrasher | June 18, 2009 at 10:01 AM