For example, one Pontiac Assembly plant in Pontiac, Michigan, "was running three consecutive eight-hour shifts, employing 3,000 people and making 1,300 trucks a day," in 2003, but in the summer of 2009, the plant had only 600 workers and "was running just one shift" (Mahler 2009, p.1). As a result of the failure of GM, the housing bubble, and the explosion of easy credit and 'creative' financing, many Michigan residents "have their homes foreclosed -- Detroit has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation" (Mahler 2009, p.2).

Of course Illinois was not exempt from the effects of the recession. But Illinois' unemployment rate, while high, is not unusually high compared with other states in the region: "the Midwest and West both had jobless rates of 10.2%," according to CNN, in July of 2009, compared with Michigan's 15% at that time. No Midwestern states were immune from the crisis,...
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