11:23 am
Detroit Exhales
It’s quiet in Michigan today. The storm has passed.
Not the winter storm, mind you — that is still hard at work, blanketing the state with inch after inch of snow. But as the storm rages outside, Michiganders are much calmer. For the first time in weeks, they can stop holding their breath. There will be a bailout — or at the very least a respite for the Big Three and their workers.
Others, such as TomP at DailyKos, have done a terrific job summarizing the terms of the bailout deal, and the Detroit papers all have statements from auto-execs, union leaders, and Mayor Ken Cockrel, as well as editorials expressing relief, so I will spare you from restating their remarks.
Senator Debbie Stabenow and Congressman John Dingell have (rightly, in my opinion) denounced the severe concessions demanded of the United Auto Workers by the Administration. But most folks here aren’t parsing the details or hemming and hawing over the concessions — at least for now.
The reason is simple.
As the Congressional bailout bill failed and President Bush decided to take his sweet time in deciding to take action a real sense of impending doom descended on this region — a sense that a crisis much worse than a winter storm was coming our way.
Michiganders know how to dig out from a blizzard. But over the past few years, we’ve had to learn how to dig out of an economic storm. Unlike most of the country, we’ve been in a recession since at least 2001. For decades, excess and shortsightedness had left the state far too reliant on a single industry — one that has proven resistant to the change and evolution needed to stay competitive in an era of global trade, declining labor costs, and rapidly fluctuating gas prices. In response, we’ve been trying to diversify the state’s industrial base and push the Big Three to modernize.
In short, we’ve were starting to turn the corner, and were doing everything in our power to maintain momentum.
Then came the collapse of the global financial system and credit markets the world over. Despite having nothing to do with derivatives trading or mortgage-backed securities, the auto-industry was hit with the double whammy of high gas prices and unavailable credit. All of a sudden, Michigan’s attempted comeback stalled, but we remained hopeful that we would make it through. . .eventually.
Then the Senate’s rejected the auto bailout, in large part because of the opposition of self-interested Southern Senators whose supposed opposition to the UAW masked the fact that their own states benefitted from foreign automakers having built non-union plants in their states.
As a result, Michiganders started to wonder whether an economic hurricane was going to decimate tens of thousands of families. Not only did Michigan face the very real possibility that all of our work to turn the state around would be lost, but the long-term viability of both our home-grown industry, and, quite simply, our homes themselves, were at risk of falling apart right before our eyes.
Have you noticed the dire and exasperated tone of Michigan elected officials lately?
Given the fact that these near catastrophic events were poised to take place during the holidays, when the safety and security of your family is paramount in the minds of all, one could excuse Michiganders of a little exasperation and fear. The tension throughout the state has turned this usually festive season into a time no one will want to remember for a long time.
So while Michiganders are by nature a proud, yet humble, and hard-working people, the palpable emotion throughout the state over the past weeks was one of complete powerlessness. We began to believe that our future was no longer in our hands. Not only that, but it seemed as though those in a position to decide our fate had no great affection for our state, or the people who call it home.
So that is why this morning’s news has been met with simple, yet deeply heartfelt relief. No one is under any illusions about the need for drastic change, and we all know we are not yet out of the woods.
But today, on a quiet snowy day, Michigan can finally stop fearing the worst, and can let out one big sigh of relief.
Photo — Diego Rivera, “Detroit Industry,” by Derek Farr via Flickr, used under a CC 3.0 license.