Politicians, Peers, Publishers, and Press Recognize Mackinac Center Scholars

Four Mackinac Center scholars have been recognized for their expertise in tax policy, municipal management, telecommunications regulation, and economic research.

Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer has named a Mackinac Center scholar to a new city task force. David Littman, Center adjunct scholar and first vice president of Comerica Bank, has been asked to find ways to reduce the city’s tax burden, cited by a Mackinac Center study to be seven times higher than the average for Michigan municipalities. A frequent critic of Detroit city policies, Littman told The Detroit News, “What doesn’t work is socialism. What does work is the marketplace.”

The Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants named Mackinac Center privatization policy analyst Robert Daddow the 1997 “outstanding CPA in government.” In addition to his cost-cutting work as Oakland County’s management and budget director, Daddow is author of a Mackinac Center study and co-author of two Viewpoint commentaries.

Mackinac Center telecommunications policy expert Donald Alexander has assembled and edited a new volume of essays on deregulation by six leading scholars in the field. The book, Telecommunications Policy: Have Regulators Dialed a Wrong Number?, has been added to the Center’s free market and public policy library. Alexander is associate professor of economics at Western Michigan University and co-author of a Mackinac Center Viewpoint.

Dr. John Attarian is the newest member of the Mackinac Center Board of Scholars. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan and his work has appeared in major publications including National Review and The American Enterprise. Attarian assists the Center by researching and writing on a variety of economic issues. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial cited his Mackinac Center Viewpoint on Michigan cigarette taxes.