Michigan

Personal Search Engine – (PSE) – Find Things

by dldamore

While looking for a twitter name that was hard to spell I decided to search Google Reader for a term that might have been used. Last I recall, there were a few Twitter feeds coming in to Google Reader. One is tweets marked as favorites and there is or was one for @ replies to my account. The hope was that the person using Twitter I was looking for used the word “Biggby” (coffee chain here in Michigan) in a message to me. As of this post the search continues, but the reason behind this post is that you can use Google Reader as a personal search engine (PSE) that will search all the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds you subscribe to. This would be similar to searching a single site using the advanced search features of Google but doing it for hundreds of sites that you subscribe to via RSS.

The search continues …

*The person I am looking for is on Skype and is logged in. Status is marked as do not disturb and in any case I want to learn how to find what I am looking for faster and more effectively using tools that are available. Will try Greplin next.

**Greplin came through after just two attempts.

Ford Profit Sharing – The Role of Profit Sharing on the Michigan Economy

by dldamore

Ford, in reporting its biggest profit in more than a decade Friday, disappointed Wall Street but pleased UAW workers with bonuses averaging $5,000.

The profit-sharing bonus was two-thirds larger than the amount Ford was required to pay under its contract, said UAW President Bob King.

“What’s really important for our members to know is they didn’t have to do this,” King told the Free Press.

With about 20,000 Ford hourly workers living in Michigan, the checks, due in March, will help lift the state’s economy.

via Ford made $6.6 billion in 2010, workers get $5,000 profit-sharing checks | Detroit Free Press | freep.com.

Time for some quick math. If each of the 20,000 hourly Ford workers in Michigan gets a check for $5,000 how much might that boost the Michigan economy?

Let’s assume that the check is for the full amount and that each worker on average will spend 60% of it in the 30 days after they get it.

20,000 (checks) * $5,000 = $100,000,000

At a 60% spend, one hundred million dollars will generate $60,000,000 in economy boosting cash flow. It will be interesting to see how the Michigan economy does in the months of March, April and May. It would seem likely that dining out will increase and that fuller restaurants will equal more tips for servers. Will the general sense of optimism create a measurable up tick in consumer confidence? I for one believe it will and time will tell if that is an accurate prediction of what will occur.

Immigration, Michigan, Entrepreneurship and Job Creation

by dldamore

Global Detroit cites Duke University research indicating a third of Michigan’s high-tech startup companies founded between 1995 and 2005 had at least one immigrant founder. A U.S. Small Business Administration report found that 16 percent of all Michigan businesses started between 1996 and 2007 were started by an immigrant.

via Snyder: Foreign nationals could help Michigan economy – Crain’s Detroit Business – Detroit News and Information.

Creating an environment that is welcoming to people interested in starting their own business is critical. Having policies that attract and bring  talented people to Michigan from other nations and that are more likely to start-up a business enterprise could be a jobs engine.

There was a time when Detroit and Michigan were leaders in innovation and manufacturing. Manufacturing will probably not be a job engine for Michigan as it was in the past. technology and services are the areas that are poised to be fast growing and provide the most opportunity.