Bill Testa has a fascinating post on the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) coming into Midwestern states. The two with the most? Indiana and Michigan. I would never have guessed this.

The Business Research Center at Indiana University (BRC) has recently issued an extensive report that reviews the global environment for FDI with an emphasis on Indiana and surrounding Midwest states. According to U.S. government data as of 2005, Indiana�s economy ranks 8th in the nation and first in the region as measured by the ratio of FDI to state economic output. (Michigan also exceeds the U.S. average.) As measured by jobs, the United Kingdom and Japan were virtually tied as the number one source of FDI into Indiana, each accounting for 32,000 jobs.

Could it be that voters this November in those two states might actually look with favor on political candidates that support free trade? McCain was heckled in Michigan during the primary there in part for saying jobs that had left Michigan were not coming back. He could point out that new jobs are coming in, by the very same mechanism.

Labels: economics, politics