The Chicago Fed's Detroit Economic Activity Index (DEAI) was +0.21 in December 2021, down from +0.53 in the previous month. An index value greater than zero points to the city of Detroit's economic activity growing faster than trend, while an index value less than zero points to the city's economic activity growing slower than trend. The complete results of the most recent DEAI—for December 2021 ... Read More
The 28th annual Automotive Insights Symposium was held on January 12, 2022. This year’s program focused on continuing issues surrounding supply chain disruptions, developments in capital markets, and the impact of new and proposed federal policies. A common theme throughout the program was the significant uncertainty the industry faces in meeting existing market demand while charting a path to a f... Read More
The Chicago Fed's Detroit Economic Activity Index (DEAI) was -0.77 in September 2021, down from +0.21 in the previous month. An index value greater than zero points to the city of Detroit's economic activity growing faster than trend, while an index value less than zero points to the city's economic activity growing slower than trend. The complete results of the most recent DEAI—for September 202... Read More
The Chicago Fed's Detroit Economic Activity Index (DEAI) was unchanged from the previous month at +0.17 in June 2021. An index value greater than zero points to the city of Detroit's economic activity growing faster than trend, while an index value less than zero points to the city's economic activity growing slower than trend. The complete results of the most recent DEAI—for June 2021 (covering ... Read More
In the five years following its bankruptcy, despite ongoing demographic and fiscal challenges, Detroit was able to stabilize its relatively diverse municipal revenue structure. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic presented a new and significant set of challenges. On March 23, 2020, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued a statewide order “directing all Michigan businesses and operations to tempo... Read More
This is the first of two posts on the City of Detroit's revenue structure. These posts build on the discussion at our recent Project Hometown virtual event, Charting Detroit's Fiscal Future. In this post, we discuss Detroit's municipal finances, specifically the city's general fund, and how its sources of funding have evolved over time, including during the post-bankruptcy period, 2014-19. In a ... Read More
Throughout 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded, small business closures across the United States dominated the headlines. In particular, many news stories highlighted the hardships faced by Black-owned and other minority-owned businesses. Moreover, the pandemic helped shed greater light on the fraught history that the U.S. has had with such small busine... Read More
The Chicago Fed's Detroit Economic Activity Index (DEAI) was -0.07 in March 2021, down from +0.24 in the previous month. An index value greater than zero points to the city of Detroit's economic activity growing faster than trend, while an index value less than zero points to the city's economic activity growing slower than trend. The complete results of the most recent DEAI—for March 2021 (cover... Read More
Leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic and the related economic slowdown, many viewed Detroit as a city undergoing a renaissance. In 2018, just five years after Detroit’s historic bankruptcy filing, the city had reversed course, and the future looked promising.1 The city government was once again able to balance its budget; received multiple credit upgrades by the... Read More
The Chicago Fed's Detroit Economic Activity Index (DEAI) was –1.13 in December 2020, down from +0.08 in the previous month. All the monthly index values for 2020 are displayed in figure 1. Also featured are visual representations of the contributions from the index's four major categories: labor, trade, real estate, and income. An index value greater than zero points to the city of Detroit's econ... Read More
