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Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan recently announced the city’s unemployment rate has fallen to 7%, matching a 20-year low. Automobile manufacturer Jeep just opened a new assembly plant in the city, the first of its kind in the last 30 years. And a University of Michigan forecast “maintains a faster recovery for Detroit than the State overall through 2023.” Straight Arrow News contributor Peter Zeihan believes the U.S. is in a phase of rapid industrial growth that will benefit cities like Detroit, with large-scale pre-existing industrial infrastructure.
Excerpted from Peter’s Nov. 7 “Zeihan on Geopolitics” newsletter:
Despite what you might be hearing, the United States is in the midst of its greatest period of industrialization since WWII…if not ever. How did we get here?
For starters, the political environment of the last half decade or so has shifted rapidly. Part Trump, part COVID and supply chain snafus and part post-Russian invasion of Ukraine, the time is ripe to bring more of the production and manufacturing of US-destined goods back to the US. There are natural advantages to operating in the US as well–thanks to shale, Americans have some of the lowest-cost energy in the world. And thanks to the U.S.’ millennial baby-boom, we have a large cohort of relatively young people to lead consumption for decades to come.
Which brings us to Detroit. The current challenges facing America’s once mighty Motor City are well known–but there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic for Detroit’s future. It’s one time competitors like Germany and China are facing significant headwinds, and that production has to go somewhere. Detroit’s integration with southern Ontario’s manufacturing hub, America’s inland waterways and existing manufacturing base means the city is primed for much brighter days ahead.
