October31st
Almost every political argument these days, especially the more heated ones, inevitably provokes the opinion that “arguments were more civilized in the good old days, before society turned so partisan.”
Here’s a theory on how the departure from civility happened, offered by New York Times columnist Joe Nocera. It appeals to me. Robert Bork, whether you believe in the right or left or center, was a brilliant jurist. He should have had a chance to serve on the Supreme Court. Read More | Comments
October17th
This early 20th-Century cartoon pokes fun at Andrew Carnegie's criticism of fellow capitalists who did not give to charity like he did.
Absent from the debate about how the U.S. ought to fix its finances comes a pertinent fact from The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. In 2006 (the last year for which figures were available), just over $81 billion, or 44 percent, of the $187 billion deducted as charitable giving by American taxpayers came from the wealthiest 3 percent of filers.
Not only do the wealthy already pay the lion’s share of taxes, they also contribute the lion’s share to causes including The American Cancer Society, the Sierra Club, local houses of worship and the Brownies.
What else happens when the government piles more taxes on the wealthy with the intent of solving the nation’s debt crisis? Economists have studied the question. The likely answer: less money will be contributed to charity. Read More | Comments
October4th
Bob Ritchie, Danialle Karmanos and Peter Karmanos Jr.
Thanks much to my friend Bob Ritchie – most of the time known as Kid Rock – for helping us raise $700,000 for the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, named for my late wife who died of cancer in 1989.
Bob is quite a party guy and irrepressible free spirit, as you can see from the picture. The sentiment expressed on his t-shirt is the way all of us feel about a disease that’s taken away so many of our family, friends, loved ones.
The event at Ford Field was a quintessential Detroit party, hundreds of “partners” in philanthropic giving in attendance to bid on trips, memorabilia and merchandise, including a couple of Bob’s guitars. Read More | Comments
August2nd
Peter Karmanos Jr.
Compuware has been building “apps” for almost 40 years, though back in the day they were known as applications and they made mainframe computers do what you wanted.
Now anyone who carries an iPhone or other smartphone knows about downloading these digital gadgets that can pay a bill, play Scrabble or a million other tasks. Read More | Comments
July12th
Last week Compuware bought dynaTrace Software of Waltham, Massachusetts for $256 million. It’s an acquisition that will strengthen our leadership in application performance management – managing the Web-based systems used by companies like Macy’s and Thomson Reuters.
We’ve also just bought a stake in a much smaller company, one I’m sure you’ve never heard of. iRule is a two-person startup that sells a program that resides on an iPad or an iPhone for remotely controlling home entertainment systems, as well as lights, garage doors and so forth. Read More | Comments
May31st
Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in the early 20th Century.
In earlier posts I’ve pointed out the obvious, that Detroit has a big geographic footprint and not enough people.
One simple way to attract people to the city (as well as to Michigan and the rest of the country) is to respond creatively and intelligently to non-U.S. citizens who want to come here to live.
Full disclosure: My folks came here from Greece – and I’m proud of it. I also understand that illegal immigration is a huge problem that the country has to address more seriously than it has.
Still — people from all over the world with educational credentials, financial assets and entrepreneurial instincts are trying to get in – why aren’t we encouraging them? Read More | Comments
April8th
Stephen Clark and his crew came over Thursday. The embedded video is what ran on Channel 7 news as part of the station’s “Detroit 2020″ project that seeks to find solutions to the city’s problems.
March29th
Peter Karmanos
We didn’t need the census to tell us that Detroit has lost a lot of its population and that those losses are coming from both ends of the curve: People aren’t coming to The D and many in The D are moving out.
I’ve never really been much of a conformist, so I took the stage with my friend Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans; and we shared our thoughts on why there is no better time to be heading into the city than now.
Need some proof? Read More | Comments
February28th
Detroit 187.
When we built the Compuware building in Detroit some people wondered why we would spend so much money on a place that would be filled with computer programmers. Didn’t make financial sense.
But there are assets, such as employee morale and retention, that don’t show up on a balance sheet. They’re intangible. Read More | Comments
February22nd
Rick Snyder
Michigan voters elected Rick Snyder governor – by a big margin – on his promise to balance the state’s budget and restore fiscal responsibility. The budget he’s proposing suggests he’s an elected official who honors a promise.
The legislature ought to pay attention. We surely wouldn’t want the sort of fiasco that’s unfolding in Wisconsin, where opposition legislators actually are hiding as a means of delaying a majority vote. Read More | Comments
Pete is a civic-minded business man, philanthropist and sports fan.