Dear Mrs J, Make sure you don't sell yourselves cheap. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis put Michigan's GDP at $382bn in 2007. This attempts to measure the value added to all goods and services in Michigan - anything from haircuts to assembling a car - but does not include components imported from outside the state.
That $382bn figure puts Michigan into the top 25 economies in the world. Even China's GDP is less than nine times greater.
So how much would it cost to buy $382bn of productive power? No corporation adds nearly as much value; the economist Paul de Grauwe reckoned that in 2000, value added was $67bn for Wal-Mart and $53bn for Exxon, the two largest companies. Their market value at the time was about five times their value added.
If the same ratio applied, buying Michigan would cost China almost $2 trillion - roughly what its State Administration of Foreign Exchange has to spend. All this assumes that Michigan's residents, like Wal-Mart staff, would be free to leave if they didn't like the new management.
Still, don't hold out too long: even before the credit crunch, Michigan's GDP per head was falling in real terms. This may be the right time to sell.
