State of the State Podcast

Matt Grossmann and Charles Ballard
State of the State Podcast

Each month on the State of the State Podcast, professors Charles Ballard, Associate IPPSR Director Arnold Weinfeld and Director Matt Grossmann aim for a lively discussion of Michigan policy and current events. They’ll run down three or four hot topics, pointing to research on each policy issue. In the first edition, they cover income tax cuts, Detroit’s bid for Amazon’s second headquarters, and the proposal for a part-time legislature. This podcast comes to you from the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, where the focus is policy, leadership and research in MSU's College of Social Science.

  1. MSU scholars analyze the latest in Michigan politics and economics on podcast

    22 ИЮЛ.

    MSU scholars analyze the latest in Michigan politics and economics on podcast

    MSU Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) Director Matt Grossmann, Professor Emeritus of Economics Charley Ballard, and IPPSR associate director Arnold Weinfeld break down the results and implications of the 2022 midterm election. Show Notes The trio talks about how the new maps from the redistricting process “significantly” impacted the results. And they talk about the issues that motivated voters most. They look ahead to 2023 in the Michigan Legislature and to the already-underway 2024 presidential election. The group reflects on whether President Biden will and should run for re-election in 2024. Ballard looks ahead to the prospects for Michigan’s economy in 2023, and the group discusses Governor Whitmer’s potential national political future. Conversation highlights: 1:18 – “The national House popular vote moved from about three percentage points in favor of Democrats to about three percentage points in favor of Republicans, which is a little less than normal for a midterm election.” 6:24 – “Certainly abortion is the top candidate for why Michigan performed differently than other states.” 7:43 – “Wherever abortion was on the ballot, Democrats did well.” 8:59 – “The economy is not in great shape, but are we in a recession? No. We are definitely not in a recession. Could we be in a recession six months from now? Maybe. I think avoiding a recession is a little bit less than 50/50, but it’s not zero.” 13:11 – “Candidates endorsed by Donald Trump performed about six points worse in House and Senate elections where he endorsed less experienced and more extreme candidates, and he made the election less of a referendum on President Biden and more of a choice between Biden-preferred and Trump-preferred candidates. That does seem to have made a difference. Trump endorsed a lot of people in winnable seats who lost.” 22:01 – “You can’t beat somebody with nobody. There would have to be consolidation around an alternative, and the same people who don’t want Joe Biden to be the nominee don’t necessarily want Kamala Harris to be the nominee, who would be the most likely alternative. We might wish for different, but we still might see Biden vs. Trump again.” 23:05 – “Certainly a Midwest governor winning by a large amount who already had some national profile is going to continue to be mentioned regularly. And she has an argument.” 24:35 – “We were the strongest economy in the world in the middle decades of the 20th Century. Then with the decline of manufacturing in general and autos in particular, we have struggled for decades.” 30:14 – “On average across the states, if you look at the ideal party position of the Republican Party versus the ideal position of the Democratic Party, we expect each year of full control by one party to move the state policy about one percent in their direction.” MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

    31 мин.
  2. MSU scholars analyze the latest in Michigan politics and economics on podcast

    22 ИЮЛ.

    MSU scholars analyze the latest in Michigan politics and economics on podcast

    MSU Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) Director Matt Grossmann, Professor Emeritus of Economics Charley Ballard, and IPPSR Associate Director Arnold Weinfeld analyze the latest in Michigan politics and economics. Show Notes Topics in this episode of the State of the State podcast include negotiations around raising the debt ceiling and Governor Whitmer’s State of the State address. Conversation Highlights: (2:17) – “Best case scenario, there is a lot of drama and a lot of headlines and eventually we raise the debt ceiling. Worst case scenario, and we came close to a default in 2011, defaulting on our treasury obligations would be catastrophic for the world economy.” (4:42) – “Most analysts believe that in 2023 either we will have a soft landing – meaning very slow growth but no actual recession – or a softish landing, meaning a mild recession. Right now, no one is predicting a deep recession.” (5:47) – “There have been some very highly-publicized layoffs in the tech sector. On the other hand, Taco Bell is looking to hire 25,000 workers and Chipotle is looking to hire 15,000.” (8:15) – Social Security is wildly popular. Any member of Congress who votes to rip up Social Security should be getting ready to sell their house in January of 2025.” (15:24) – “A lot of it was the same things that were proposed in the campaign and last year. But now anyone who hears them thinks they have a chance of being enacted because there’s a Democratic legislature for the first time in 40 years. You have unified government and a lot of money.” (17:15) – “It is kind of amusing that one of the first big acts of a new Democratic legislature is likely to be letting an across-the-board income tax decline to go through.” (20:35) – “Citizenship doesn’t end when you retire.” (22:50) – “The research is relatively consistent and finds business tax incentives do not result in major increases in business income or any other outcome that states might be looking for, even accounting for the fact that other states would do it.” (25:10) – “Historically, most laws still pass with bipartisan support. It’s much more dependent on the state of the economy and the budget than it is on state partisanship.” (27:22) – Even after all the shrinkage of the automotive sector, Michigan is still more heavily dependent on durable goods and manufacturing than the average state. That means bigger ups and downs for the economy because you can put off buying a car, but you can’t put off buying groceries.” Listen to MSU Today with Russ White on the radio and on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

    31 мин.
  3. MSU IPPSR State of the State podcast focuses on “historical oddity” of U.S. debt ceiling

    22 ИЮЛ.

    MSU IPPSR State of the State podcast focuses on “historical oddity” of U.S. debt ceiling

    This month’s State of the State podcast conversation from Michigan State University's Institute for Public Policy and Social Research focuses on the debt limit. Matt Grossmann, Charley Ballard, and Arnold Weinfeld welcome associate professor of economics Antonio Doblas Madrid to the discussion. Conversation Highlights: (1:46) – “The Federal Reserve has been trying for more than a year to slow things down. They’ve had some success. Inflation is not where it was several months ago, but it’s still above their target. There are a lot of indications that the economy is growing more slowly than it was a year ago, but it’s still growing.” (3:36) – “We’re still at a pretty high level of resources. Compared to the last few years, there is a lot of money and a lot of people asking for that money. The good news about being in the majority during this kind of time is that you can say yes to a lot more people, and that’s usually good for you politically. The bad news is if you say yes with temporary money on a permanent basis, then a few years down the line you have to say no a whole lot more and it can be pretty bad.” (4:45) – “Surpluses tend to disappear.” (6:45) – “The United States is one of a group of privileged countries that has always had healthy enough finances that it has never defaulted on its debt. And the U.S. dollar is the world’s reserve currency. It’s shocking that this debt ceiling situation that keeps coming up over and over threatens to engineer a self-inflicted financial crisis.” (7:45) – “The debt ceiling is a historical oddity of the United States.” (9:30) – “The U.S. dollar and U.S. government debt are considered the safest financial assets. It would be similar to the ground shaking.” (11:26) – “The U.S. Treasury is a whole lot bigger than Lehman Brothers.” (16:34) – “Most countries when they have a default it’s followed by a pretty deep downturn of economic activity.” (17:06) – “These are good reasons why policy makers have strong incentives to avoid the default, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t gain strategically from having the leverage that you have to force your opponents to the table.” (20:55) – “The story was a little bit different in 2010 when Democrats had a big majority and could have gotten rid of the debt limit or extended it. And then there was a sentiment that if Republicans are going to be in charge, they should have ownership of the debt limit. And that was kind of the old politics of the debt limit. ‘I don’t want to vote for it when I’m in the minority so that the other side gets the blame raising the debt limit’ even though it has nothing to do with actually increasing spending. And that was catastrophically dumb.” (21:56) – “None of us is saying the debt should be allowed to grow without any proportion to the country’s ability to repay.” (22:57) – “These are debts for expenditures that were already approved years ago and money that has already been spent. These are bills that are due now and not paying them is literally bankrupting the country.” (30:22) – “There’s not a lot of time unfortunately. The extraordinary measures that Treasury has been taking since 1985 have become par for the course.” (32:00) – “This is an occasion where Democrats and Republicans have to pass something together.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

    33 мин.
  4. “Remarkable resilient” national economy, new state budget

    22 ИЮЛ.

    “Remarkable resilient” national economy, new state budget

    This month’s State of the State podcast from Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research has Matt Grossmann and Arnold Weinfeld from the institute and emeritus economics professor Charley Ballard discussing the state of the national and Michigan economies, UAW contract talks with the Big 3 automakers, the impact of unions in today’s America, Michigan’s new state budget, population loss, and the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action. Conversation Highlights: (1:25) – “The economy continues to roll along. Whereas a few months ago I would have said a mild recession is more likely than not. Right now, I would say it’s more likely than not that we kind of skirt the edges of a recession.” (5:57) – “People are still pretty dour about the economy…” (10:11) – “A part of it is that our economy is doing pretty well. And that means revenue is coming in reasonably well. That’s the remarkable resilience of the American economy.” (11:29) “There is an effect of full Democratic control on state spending, but it’s actually a lot smaller than you might expect and much smaller than the year-to-year differences due to the overall state of the economy and share of federal money that gets sent.” (12:09) – “The actual effect is more often the reverse. The more that state governments are able to pass legislation and move the agenda in their direction, the more likely that in the next election they will lose ground rather than gain ground.” (14:27) – “Many prognosticators on the national scene have listed Gretchen Whitmer as a potential presidential candidate, and I’m pretty sure she’s aware of that.” (15:17) – “In policy, this has been a very large shift on the scale of state government year-to-year shifts. That is what you’d expect after a prolonged period of lack of control from a party.” (16:35) – “Michigan is three percent of the national population and two and a half percent of the national economy. We’re in this little life raft floating upon a gigantic ocean of the worldwide economy. And if those waves are big, they’re going to affect our boat.” (18:55) – “The population of Michigan hasn’t been dropping steadily in this century, it’s just been astonishingly flat.” (21:03) – “The overall picture is actually we don’t have a higher rate of college graduates leaving the state. After graduating, what we have is a lower rate of college graduates from elsewhere deciding to move into the state. And that is part of a broader pattern where our issues are not as much from the perspective of young people moving away as we hear in the political debate as we have young people not being attracted to Michigan to move from elsewhere.” (25:20) – “For one thing, the Supreme Court was more in line with public opinion this term than they were the previous term.” (27:50) – “Some universities have abandoned legacy admissions. That might, I think in the long run, have more of an effect.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

    32 мин.

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Each month on the State of the State Podcast, professors Charles Ballard, Associate IPPSR Director Arnold Weinfeld and Director Matt Grossmann aim for a lively discussion of Michigan policy and current events. They’ll run down three or four hot topics, pointing to research on each policy issue. In the first edition, they cover income tax cuts, Detroit’s bid for Amazon’s second headquarters, and the proposal for a part-time legislature. This podcast comes to you from the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, where the focus is policy, leadership and research in MSU's College of Social Science.

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