A Governor's Story The Fight for Jobs and America's Economic Future

by Granholm, Jennifer; Mulhern, Dan

• ISBN13: 9781610391856
• ISBN10: 1610391853
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-14
• Publisher: PublicAffairs

Summary

In January 2003, Jennifer Granholm was sworn in as governor of Michigan--the eighth largest state in the nation and home to America's auto industry. She swept into office on a campaign of hope and change, armed with youthful energy and optimism. Reality struck immediately--in the form of an inherited fiscal crisis, an imploding auto industry, and unforeseen breakdowns from hospital systems and the electric grid to collapsing cities. Then the entire country was caught up in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Throughout her two terms as governor, Jennifer Granholm led Michigan through a slew of profound economic challenges including some of the largest bankruptcies in American history and eight straight years of gigantic budget deficits. In A Governor's Story, Jennifer Granholm and her husband, Dan Mulhern, provide a gripping first-hand account of a series of battles that erupted first in Michigan and swiftly spread across America: the battle for jobs in a global economy; the battle over budget deficits; the battle to rebuild a manufacturing base crippled by globalization, technological upheavals, and unfair foreign competition; and the battle to restore fairness to an economic system in which a few prosper while many suffer. In this candid account, they reveal what it took to start on the tough path to recovery in Michigan and provide a model of hope to businesses across the country. Filled with revelations from the front lines, A Governor's Storyilluminates what's happening not just in the industrial heartland but in states across the nation, through the perspective of a dynamic leader and public servant who found herself at the heart

Author Biography

Jennifer Granholm was elected governor of Michigan in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. She was born in Vancouver, Canada, grew up in California, and is an honors graduate of both the University of California at Berkeley, where she now teaches in the law and public policy schools, and Harvard Law School. She is a senior advisor to the Pew Charitable Trusts Clean Energy Program, a contributor to Meet the Press, and a regular guest on other national news programs.

Dan Mulhern is an honors graduate of both Yale University and Harvard Law School, teaches at the business and law schools at the University of California at Berkeley, and is an advisor to the Families and Work Institute. He is an author, talk show host, public speaker, and expert in leadership development and the changing roles of men and women. He is married to Jennifer Granholm.

Table of Contents

Seven Months of Freefall	p. vi
Introduction	p. ix
The Bounce	p. 1
Playing Defense	p. 25
A Different Kind of Crisis	p. 43
Landing in a Hurricane	p. 63
Blown Away Yet?	p. 85
Blowing Up Taxes, Budgets, Mind-sets … and Mattresses	p. 115
Free Fall	p. 145
The Unthinkable	p. 173
Green Shoots	p. 199
Cracking the Code: Keys to Creating American Jobs in a Global Economy	p. 231
Eleven Months of Hope	p. 270
Acknowledgments	p. 273
Appendix: 99 Reasons (Plus 17 More) Why Tax Cuts Alone Are Not the Key to Economic Growth	p. 277
Source Notes	p. 287
Index	p. 295
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