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Posted: Monday, 22 September 2008 6:08PM

Dow's Liveris Demands Manufacturing Policy; Econ Club Sets National Summit

Dow Chemical Co. CEO Andrew Liveris made a plea for a national manufacturing policy Monday at the Detroit Economic Club, which also announced a national economic summit for Detroit next June that Liveris will co-chair.

In his speech, Liveris said the policy should include measures sure to raise Democratic hackles -- cutting the corporate tax rate, "reinventing" regulation, and "reforming" what he called "an out of control civil justice system that adds a huge cost burden to American enterprise."

But in a press conference after his speech with William Clay Ford Jr., chairman of Ford Motor Co., Ford also mentioned other possible aspects of the policy that might raise Republican hackles.

Ford said his auto company is profitable virtually everywhere except the United States, then pointedly noted that "most countries where we operate, the employer doesn't carry the health care burden" as Ford does in the U.S. -- a hint of a desire for health care reform that would remove employers from responsibility for providing insurance.

And Ford said a national manufacturing policy should address "trade policies .. some markets are not open to us, some are only open in theory," signaling taking a tougher stand on free trade.

Monday's Economic Club event was also the official announcement of the club's plans for The Naitonal Summit: A Gathering To Define America's Future."

The summit, co-chaired by Liveris and Ford, intends to convene leaders in business, politics and academe on four issues -- technology, energy, the environment and manufacturing.

At this point, plans call for each day of the summit June 15-17 to start with a kickoff plenary session of experts, followed by a "town hall of town halls," meetings of 200 to 300 people on the four topics, with an audience both in person and online responding electronically to a series of questions to help shape recommendations. Each day will end with a closing session called "Summit Up," summarizing the ongoing discussion and reporting on the electronic voting data.

There will also be a CEO summit and a "C-suite" for event leaders, a future leaders program for high school and university studetns and an "Innovation Celebration" meant to match up entrepreneurs, venture cpaital and researchers to create economic growth.

Liveris said the need for the event is dire. The U.S. economy has lost 3.7 million manufacturing jobs in the past 10 years -- half a million just since the end of 2006.

He said the nation needs an industrial policy that treasures "what first made it strong -- a vibrant industrial and manufacturing base that drives innovation, technology and creates jobs ... Ladies and gentlemen, let us never forget that the very life force and strength of this great country begins here, in America's heartland."

Liveris said the corporate tax rate in the U.S. is the second highest in the industrialized world. And he portrayed regulation as a hodgepodge, bewilderingly complex $10,000-per-worker burden that should be replaced by "sound regulation based on sound science based on logic."

Liveris also said the U.S. desperately needs a comprehensive energy policy that basically looks at all forms of energy and says "yes."

As in, yes to offshore oil drilling. Yes to more funding for energy efficiency. Yes to more money for developing to renewable energy. Yes to more nuclear power plants. Yes to an "Apollo-like R&D project to put America's brains to work, to solve the carbon capture and sequestration question so we can use -- safely and responsibly -- that 200 year supply of coal beneath our feet."

Liveris faulted Congress for failing to pass an extension of the Renewable Energy Tax Credit.
But he didn't blame a particular party for what he described as Washington's many failures.
Liveris said the "only path forward is one of collaboration and coordination, public and private sectors, Republicans and Democrats, industry and envrionmentalists, working together with the goal of finding and removing obstacles. And we need to start where the major challenges of our day intersect, on manufacturing, on jobs, on energy and the environment."

To listen to highlights of the event, visit www.econclub.org.

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TOM WALSH


Summit on economy, energy is coming to Detroit in June


BY TOM WALSH • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • September 22, 2008

In a bold attempt to make Detroit the stage for an unprecedented national debate and dialogue on the economic and energy future of the United States, the Detroit Economic Club will host what it's calling the National Summit from June 15-17 at Ford Field.

Corporate chief executives from across the nation, superstar academics and, it's hoped, the next president of the United States will join in the three-day event, said Beth Chappell, president of the Economic Club and instigator of the summit.

Chappell will formally announce details of the summit today, after Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris speaks to the club at Cobo Center in Detroit.

"The inspiration to do this came from listening to the voices at our podium, time after time, calling for collaboration and the urgency to tackle key issues for the future of our country, the future of our children and grandchildren," Chappell told me. She has been working on the idea for nearly two years and has raised more than $2 million in pledges from sponsors to finance the event, whose cochairs will be Liveris and Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr.

Chappell said the event will not be focused on Detroit, Michigan or the auto industry, but rather on key national issues of technology, energy, environment and manufacturing. Think of the World Economic Forum's annual gathering of the mighty and powerful in Davos, Switzerland, but with a U.S. focus.

Registration information will likely be posted on www.nationalsummit.org after Jan. 1, she said.

Each day of the summit will begin with a session featuring a panel of nationally known leaders discussing a specific issue, followed by town hall sessions that will include electronic voting on ideas and solutions.

One session will feature cross-industry CEOs, government officials and others who summarize discussions and report on the voting data.

Another element of the event will be what Chappell called an "innovation celebration," in which inventors and entrepreneurs can connect with corporations and venture capitalists.

"This is totally nonpolitical, nonpartisan, which makes the Detroit Economic Club uniquely suited to host this kind of national conversation," Chappell said.

The Detroit club, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year and does not pay its speakers, often turns up on lists of the nation's most respected podiums for speakers on business and public policy issues.

Just as Switzerland is an appropriately neutral site for the World Economic Forum shindig in Davos, a heartland city such as Detroit is a natural for the National Summit.

Chappell hasn't yet pinned down an extensive list of national CEOs and political figures who will participate.

But if she and the club pull this off and get a ton of national attention, it will be an impressive feather in the cap of the club and its home city and state.

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

Posted: Sunday, 21 September 2008 2:49PM

Detroit Economic Club To Host National Economic Summit

The Detroit Economic Club will announce today plans to host a national economic summit June 15-17 at Ford Field in Detroit.The event has an imposing ambition. In an interview with WWJ Newsradio 950, Economic Club president and CEO Beth Chappell said the event will seek to "define America's future."

Chappell said the event will convene major-company CEOs, prominent government officials, academics, authors and other experts, and will be centered in the economic areas of technology, energy, the environment and manufacturing.

"What we are asking people to do is put our industry silos and partisan politics in our pockets for a few days and focus on our future as a country,"

Chappell said. The event also intends to celebrate American invention.

The timing of the event, she said, is no accident -- next June should be "the perfect time to engage the next administration in these issues."

Chappell said the Economic Club started planning the event about 18 months ago, long before more recent economic shocks like $4 a gallon gas and the financial markets' mortgage and derivatives meltdown.

More details of the event are to be released Monday at an Economic Club luncheon featuring a speech from Dow Chemical Co. CEO Andrew Liveris about the Midland chemical giant's transition from a commodity chemical maker to a highly profitable specialty chemicals firm with large stakes in the future of electronics and renewable energy.

More at http://www.econclub.org/.

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