Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Michigan born and raised, was back in Michigan last Friday for a talk at the Detroit Economic Club. According to an article in the Great Lakes IT Report,, Ballmer is big on the optimism he sees in Michigan’s economic leaders. While we are all well aware of the challenges ahead, my personal feeling is that there’s good reason for Ballmer’s optimism. A report released last year by Public Policy Associates showed that Michigan is actually doing quite well in attracting “new economy” jobs, and that we’re not so much in a one state recession as a one industry recession (we actually added more than 55,000 New Economy jobs in Granholm’s first term, but suffered through a decline in manufacturing that continues to hurt our overall economic position). This makes the case for increasing the speed of our transition to a more diversified economy that much more important (and it takes investment to get there).

But perhaps the most telling portion of Ballmer’s speech came when he argued that companies and regions can’t cut their way to success. Ballmer stated “Spending on innovation in hard times is a hard sell. … The typical response is to retrench, focus on job cuts and efficiency. That might not be the best approach.”

Ballmer also argued that keeping our eyes on the prize, and investing and innovating today, can pay big dividends for the future. From the article: “[Ballmer] said companies and regions that find a way to continue spending on innovation even during tough times frequently are in a better position to succeed once growth resumes.”

Look, this isn’t just me saying we need to take a holistic look at our budgetary situation. But when you put Wall Street analysts and the CEO of Microsoft on one side and just Mike Bishop, Leon Drolet and a select group of Republican ideologues on the other, I know which side I’m siding with. To paraphrase President Kennedy, “It’s time to get Michigan moving again.”