Bloggers on business, economics and the capital markets should help the auto workers being bought out by Detroit’s big three auto makers create new businesses, find new jobs and attract new employers to their communities. I offered some of my ideas about what banks in communities affected by Detroit’s down sizing can do to help their local auto workers and small businesses recover from the job losses. But those ideas were written late at night off the top of my head. I’m sure that bloggers with more experience in local economic development have even more practical ideas to offer. I"m wondering whether there is a blog or message board for downsized communities and workers?

Here are some topics that need to be addressed:

1. How can highly unionized communities attract new employers?
2. How can auto workers, managers and folks on the factory floors, apply their skills to new careers?
3. How can displaced auto workers leave town for new careers without taking financial baths when they sell their homes?
4. How can local businesses make what their communities are in terms of location, culture and economics attractive to new employers?
5. How can employers looking for places to put new offices and factories get the best deals from communities that have lost big employers such as the auto makers?
6. Do financial incentives for employers make sense for communities that have lost large employers?
7. What does it take to convert an auto or auto parts factory into a facility that can be used by another manufacturer, distributor or whatever?
8. How long will it take for a community that’s lost a big employer or most of the jobs provided by a big employer to recover?
9. What are the best case studies of communities that have lost big employers and recovered from those losses?
10. Are there good case studies of worker retraining programs that have helped workers whose employers have shut down?
11. Who are the leading economic development consultants and academics who have helped downsized communities recover?
12. Where can communities get lists of employers looking for new locations, and how can they reach the decision makers at those employers?
13. Will the federal government give the downsized communities any preferences when it locates or relocates offices that will create good jobs?
14. What are the chances that foreign auto makers would take over land and factories abandoned by the Detroit auto makers?
15. Why will or won’t Americans buy more Detorit-built cars to save the Detroit auto makers’ workers jobs?
16. How can the UAW’s locals make their communities more attractive to potential employers?

I’ll think of more questions, I’m sure. Yours, fellow bloggers and readers?

A Detroit Free Press editorial explain’s the Ford situation. Tip of the hat to Gongol.com .

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is here. It doesn’t look current or on top of the current crisis.

When I use the Economics Search Engine to search for “economic development reserch”, I find some promising resources. I’m looking for good articles on economic research for depressed areas or for areas that have lost major employers. No luck yet. Suggetions?

The Upjohn Institute for Employment Research focuses on Michigan issues and looks promising. It might pay to check out some of its papers and call some of its researchers.

One of the links at the Upjohn Institute is the International Economic Recovery Institute.

Some of my links in the third column, which I haven’t looked at for a long time, including the economics resources cited by Power Reporting , are good resources for journalists, bloggers and economic development researchers.