Stinks in politics when reality intrudes. The nation’s gross domestic product in the April-through-June second quarter expanded a measly 1.3 percent, the Commerce Department reported today, down from an earlier estimate of 1.7 percent. The unemployment rate is stuck at 8.1 percent; business groups are decrying the looming “fiscal cliff” of expiring Bush tax cuts, … Continue Reading →
The continuing gamesmanship between Detroit City Council, the office of Mayor Dave Bing and their paymasters at the state Treasury is likely to exact a price, Treasurer Andy Dillon signaled this morning in an interview with 760-WJR’s Frank Beckmann. Of the $137 million in newly bonded money ear-marked to keep the city afloat, only $37 … Continue Reading →
Give Council Member Ken Cockrel Jr. credit for one thing: Why, he wondered today during the endless hashing of the state’s proposed lease of Belle Isle, are the energies of City Council and the administration of Mayor Dave Bing so singularly focused on the details of a 30-year deal to make the city’s jewel in … Continue Reading →
My Dad, Philip E. Howes, died Aug. 1. He was many things to me, our family and his community, far more than a trial lawyer for 52 years. He was a touchstone for my years as a working journalist — reporter and editor in the early days, auto writer and foreign correspondent based in Germany, business … Continue Reading →
Nothing seems to work properly in Bob Ficano’s Wayne County. Trusty lieutenants, cushy packages in hand, are fleeing for better jobs — if they aren’t copping to pressuring political patronage or serious corruption charges, witness former Chief Information Officer Tahir Kazmi’s guilty plea today to accepting bribes. The pension fund for retired county employees boasts … Continue Reading →
The presumptive Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney, is campaigning this week in Michigan and Ohio and claiming credit for the controversial auto bailouts, even as he’s criticizing them. And Team Obama, joined by surrogates and such chief water-carriers as United Auto Workers President Bob King, counter that Romney wanted to “let Detroit go bankrupt,” … Continue Reading →
Mayor Dave Bing, preparing to return to work Monday after a month-long medical hiatus, today added two more appointments to the Financial Advisory Board that will help his administration and City Council deliver their side of the state consent agreement. They are Sandra Pierce, the president and CEO of Charter One-Michigan, and Eddie Munson, a … Continue Reading →
The news popped into my Droid this morning marked “URGENT”: Ford Motor Co., nearly seven years to the day after losing its investment-grade credit rating, is back in the Big Leagues, according to Fitch Ratings. Add one more — Moody’s or Standard & Poor’s — and FoMoCo officially will be back and it will once … Continue Reading →
The stumbling toward a Detroit City Council vote on a proposed “Financial Stability Agreement” with the state Treasury Department is starting to look like one of those gambits in an ol’ Indiana Jones movie: As soon as they tip-toe over the rotting bridge, skirt the poison darts and dodge the spring-loaded blades, a giant boulder … Continue Reading →
In the continuing battle over perceived power and who will control Detroit’s coming financial reckoning, few wield more real power than bondholders and the ratings agencies they use to assess their investments. With more than $12 billion in total liabilities and a total liabilities-to-net assets ratio of more than 32-to-1, Michigan’s largest city is a cautionary tale for any … Continue Reading →