Michigan Business Beat | Dr. Charles Ballard, Economist, Michigan's Economy

Michigan Business Network · May 7, 2026 · 6m

Chris Holman welcomes Dr. Charles Ballard, Emeritus Economics Professor, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Dr. Charles Ballard, emeritus economics professor at Michigan State University, described Michigan's economy as persistently middling, ranking 39th in per capita personal income due largely to decades of decline in manufacturing and the auto industry. He emphasized that economic conditions vary widely across the state, with affluent areas like southern Oakland County contrasting sharply with struggling rural regions in the northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula that…