Daniel Howes: National Summit

Auto woes are America's woes

Detroit

On the final day of the National Summit, touted as a forum to chart a path to global competitiveness in the 21st century, Michigan's unemployment rate hit 14.1 percent.

Focuses the mind, eh?

It should. For as much as the three-day summit, a first-of-its-kind event sponsored by the Detroit Economic Club, aimed to separate itself from the parochial problems of the state's bellwether auto industry, it couldn't. Why? Because those troubles, their roots and proposed remedies have so many national implications.

You could hear it in the bare handful of Obama administration representatives who bothered to make the trip to Detroit. In Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's recognition -- finally -- that manufacturers have been shafted in Washington. Or in the props David Sandalow, the Energy Department's assistant secretary for policy and international affairs, gave General Motors Corp.'s Chevy Volt.

Whatever the agenda of the past three days, or the relative lack of corporate and Washington heavy-hitters, this much became clear: A failure of Detroit, its auto industry and what that would portend for the industrial Midwest would be an epic American failure with global repercussions for the sitting administration, American business and the nation's global standing.

A collapse, so far delayed but not totally averted, also would be a stinging verdict on the chronic inability of national leaders in business and government (and invisible labor) to grasp the impact of their decisions, petty politics and ties to special interests who want what they want, whatever the fallout.

If the National Summit accomplished nothing else, it gave those trying to save the U.S.-owned auto industry a platform to remind government, labor and would-be investors that this unfolding debacle was made in more places than Detroit.

It also gave them the chance to warn about the unintended consequences of government reaching too deeply into business decision-making. But they couldn't dare say so, because today's Detroit and more are subject to the "golden rule" -- he who has the gold (government, that is) rules and the subjects stay quiet.

Which is why the summit often sounded less like a conversation and more like a court of appeals. You'll hear people say the summit was a smashing success. You'll hear cynics declare it to be yet one more gassy gabfest -- or, as one wag put it to me, a Detroit Chamber Mackinac Conference on steroids.

They'd both be overstating their arguments, unless the summit's touted "to-do list" -- who says and to whom? -- ends up being as hollow as the usual list of tired promises made on Mackinac every May.

"In concept, the ideas are good," Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon told me early in the summit. "It will be interesting to see if we're going to do something."

Exactly. The Economic Club promises a raft of "measurable outcomes" from the Marriott Renaissance Center confab, including vision statements and the top five "must-do" policy actions in manufacturing, technology, energy and the environment.

Fair enough, far as it goes -- which probably isn't very far. More promising is the door opened by Team Obama's Gary Locke to summit co-chairs, Ford Motor Co.'s Bill Ford Jr. and Dow Chemical Co.'s Andrew Liveris, to push policies that could begin to right competitive imbalances felt most keenly by manufacturers and those who work for them.

It's an opportunity worth exploring, almost immediately, especially if the administration is willing to use its considerable heft to remove barriers instead of add ones in the way of a "we're-from-the-government-and-we're-here-to-help-you" caricature.

"This administration is very focused on the facts, setting clear direction and getting the stakeholders together," says Elizabeth Lowery, General Motors Corp.'s vice president for energy and environment.

We'll see. Time and again this week, summiteers from business called for "public-private" partnerships, for partnerships between business and government, for recognition that many of their foreign rivals benefit from closer ties to their governments.

As much as the summit and the federal government's strong hold on GM and Chrysler Group LLC give Detroit and the industrial heartland a platform to make their case, those ties also give the White House the crises its chief-of-staff says he typically doesn't let go to waste.

Be careful what you wish for.

dchowes@detnews.com (313) 222-2106 Daniel Howes' column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.