Detroit Economic Club

Pelosi, Dingell Clash Over Push for Tough Fuel-Efficiency Rules

date: June 15, 2007
SOURCE: Bloomberg

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the leading challenger to Democratic-frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton, got a tepid response at the Detroit Economic Club when he gave a speech there last month endorsing CAFE standards similar to those advocated by Markey.

Clinton, a senator from New York, appeared at a union hall in Detroit a few weeks later and received a warmer reception by endorsing higher fuel-efficiency standards without setting specific targets.

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Obama's Inconvienent Truths

date: May 31, 2007
SOURCE: Time Magazine

It may not be all that unusual for a Democrat to castigate automakers in an environmental speech. But when Obama did the castigating, it was in front of the Detroit Economic Club. Nor did he help his chances of winning the endorsements of the city's big unions by asserting that any aid Washington gives the automakers for their soaring health-care costs should be tied to improving fuel efficiency.

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Barack's Sister Souljah Moment?

date: May 11, 2007
SOURCE: Newsweek

Nine years ago this week, Al Gore warmed up his run for the presidency by making a visit to Motown and speaking to the Detroit Economic Club. I covered that speech and recall that Gore was entering hostile territory. Detroit, an SUV boomtown in those days, was deeply skeptical of the vice president, who famously called for the death of the internal-combustion engine.

This week, Sen. Barack Obama attempted to fuel his presidential run with a scalding speech to the Detroit Economic Club, castigating Motown's big wheels for driving our dependence on foreign oil.

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Guardian Stretches Out Overseas

date: March 15, 2007
SOURCE: The Oakland Press

Gerson said Guardian, founded in Detroit in 1932, first ventured abroad in 1981 by opening a plant in Luxembourg. It now has more than 15 percent of the European market for flat glass used in construction, he said as he opened a discussion of the benefits of trade and investment at a meeting of the Detroit Economic Club in Birmingham earlier this week.

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Scholarships Meant to Aid Manufacturing

date: March 13, 2007
SOURCE: The Oakland Press

During a discussion in Birmingham sponsored by the Detroit Economic Club on Monday, John Bruton, the European Union ambassador to the United States, said innovation is critical to reviving the Michigan economy.

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Romney Appeals to Fiscal Conservatives

date: February 9, 2007
SOURCE: ABC News

Speaking to the Detroit Economic Club, the former Massachusetts governor addressed an issue that has riled the GOP base, who contend that the party's loss of power last November was based, in part, on excessive spending.

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Romney Not Afraid to be Branded a Capitalist

date: February 8, 2007
SOURCE: Newsweek

Romney, the Harvard Business School grad who made his mark on Boston's business community as a founder of the multibillion-dollar investment firm Bain Capital, spoke to the Detroit Economic Club in his home state of Michigan.

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Romney, Battered Over Social Issues, Shifts Focus to Economics

date: February 7, 2007
SOURCE: Bloomberg

In a speech today at the Detroit Economic Club, the former Massachusetts governor will call for making President George W. Bush's tax cuts, due to expire in 2010, permanent; new accounts that would let Americans shield savings and investment income from taxation; and a ``national tort reform'' drive to limit the power of trial lawyers.

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BT CEO: Globalization Is More Opportunity Than Threat

date: January 23, 2007
SOURCE: Telecommunications Magazine

Speaking at the Detroit Economic Club here today, BT Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Verwaayen countered the commonly held view that globalization is a dire threat to established companies and industrialized nations. He encouraged the audience of business leaders to embrace the disruptive change that's sweeping away established economic models.

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Three for the Road

date: November 17, 2006
SOURCE: Newsweek

"Expanding the alliance to include an American partner makes sense," he told the Motor City's power elite (including GM's CFO) in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club. "But we are in no hurry. We can wait for the next opportunity to emerge, and it may take some time."

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DeVos May Lose Michigan Votes for Putting Amway Jobs in China

date: October 23, 2006
SOURCE: Bloomberg

``You know the truth of what's going on across America -- 5.1 million new jobs nationally while Michigan lost 85,000,'' DeVos told the Detroit Economic Club on Oct. 12. ``We are now in a single-state depression.''

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Bush's Hands-Off Approach on Auto-Industry Woes Riles Michigan

date: September 13, 2006
SOURCE: Bloomberg

Bush's hands-off approach drew jeers last week from a prominent union leader. ``President Bush, unfortunately, appears to be in the Detroit-doesn't-matter-anymore camp,'' United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club on Sept. 7, 2006.

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