Oct. 30--Cheered by a return to economic growth after the worst slump since the Great Depression, Wall Street traders drove stocks and commodity prices sharply higher Thursday.

Fueling the surge was news that the U.S. gross domestic product grew at a rate of 3.5% in the three months ended Sept. 30, following four straight quarterly declines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped nearly 200 points, or 2%, to close at 9,962.58

But hey, what about us out here in Michigan?

We of the nation's highest jobless rate at 15.3%, where the bosses and the labor unions of our largest city, Detroit, and our only auto company not on the federal dole, Ford Motor Co., are still bickering over the scraps of a shrinking economic pie.

What about us?

GDP report a boost

On Thursday, after the release of the GDP news, I talked about Michigan's struggle with Jared Bernstein, chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden and director of the Obama administration's Middle Class Task Force.

"There's no one silver bullet," Bernstein acknowledged, that will return Michigan and the industrial heartland to working-class prosperity.

"How to reconnect the living standards and prosperity of working families throughout the country -- and particularly in places like Michigan where that connection has been so deeply severed -- is going to take a deep focus on the unique problems that each area of the country is facing," he added.

I'm not sure I fully grasp what Bernstein meant by deep focus, but hey, at least he seems aware that Michigan has been severed like some limb chopped away from the rest of the nation's economy, and that we're hemorrhaging badly.

So, what to do about it?

"The president is deeply committed to manufacturing in general and autos in particular," Bernstein said.

OK, thanks for the lifelines and for the energy grants to help create some jobs in advanced batteries.

But aren't you worried when you see UAW locals rejecting Ford's requests for concessions to match the costs savings that GM and Chrysler gained via bankruptcy? Don't you hear people bashing Detroit and unions again, saying they just don't get it?

"Yeah, you certainly hear that," said Bernstein, who was also a member of Obama's auto industry task force. "But when you look back at those months when we were deeply involved in those negotiations" for rescue loans, "the unions were not stonewalling. The unions were stepping up to the plate."

Maybe Detroit is just destined to be misunderstood.

More importantly, though, when will hiring resume? "We don't think the unemployment rate has peaked yet, but we're close," Bernstein said.

Contact TOM WALSH: 313-223-4430 or twalsh@freepress.com

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