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In the comments, Luke asks the question

You mentioned the candidates brought up Silbert’s mention of economic development and how you are unsure of how valid it is at the state level.. can you expand on that? Specifically the Mass economy and the gubernatorial race?

Sure. There’s a commonplace, commonsense notion that if only some very local, specific job development and economic development practices (training, luring employers to your area, and the like) were applied on a broader level, you could really grow the Massachusetts (or even national) economy and hence the fiscal pie you’re slicing up for governmental services. To my understanding that notion is partly right, yet mostly facile. 

To start with, the national economy goes up and down with the business cycle but ultimately national monetary (and sometimes fiscal) policy really act as overarching determinants for the national unemployment rate. What’s more both the business cycle and the Fed’s response to it are overwhelming tides against which state-level econ. development can only do so much steering.

Of course, some states can be relative winners and losers in the aggregate employment figures or economic health, and it behooves the political leadership of each state and municipality to position itself the best it can. So economic development is important.

Only the timeframe we’re talking about is different from the timeframe of the immediate business cycle. In 1998-99, Massachusetts was at a peak of prosperity, humming on its three engines of finance, biotech and computer technology. Five years later, it was flying on only one engine (biotech and the health sector). No amount of economic development planning can compensate for that, and it’s disengenuous to pretend otherwise. Over the long run, we can be smarter about how we’re weighted across various economic sectors; then again, in 1998, I’m sure we looked pretty strong and well-diversified.

So that’s my gripe with Silbert’s approach (she’s not the only one, but it’s most prominent in her platform)…. it offers what is best long-term strategizing as a fix for an acute economic slump, and in the process confuses individual, microeconomic practices for the aggegate, macroeconomic climate.