So, gas is speeding toward $4 a gallon, the dollar is headed downhill equally as fast, people can't afford to keep their homes, the national economy is tanking -- with Michigan leading the way.

What is to like about this situation? Actually, for those of us involved in the auto industry, the short-term pain may bring some long-term gain. For amid all the gloom and doom, there could be a bright side for the U.S. auto industry and for Michigan itself.

The steep decline of the dollar against the euro has changed the way the leading world automakers consider their global manufacturing footprints.

A few years ago, it looked like the spate of new Asian brand plants, located mostly in southern states, was slowing, while American automakers were eager to close U.S. plants and shift production to Mexico, China -- or in a few special cases, import vehicles from Europe.

Now that the economics of vehicle production in America have been changed by the dollar/euro currency shift, domestic automakers are starting to reconsider their off-shoring strategies and may start exporting cars to Europe from the United States. One Japanese automaker, Mitsubishi, will even be exporting an Illinois-made model to China, which is quite a turnaround.

Meanwhile, the Europeans are lining up to build new plants on this side of the Atlantic. BMW just announced it will invest $750 million and boost production at its Spartanburg, S.C., plant by 90,000 vehicles a year. Some of those will be exported to Europe.

Following on BMW's heels is the VW Group, which produced cars here in the 1980s. Now the German automaker is ready to do it again, with a plan to build not just VWs but also Audis in America, possibly in two plants. VW plans to offer new, less expensive models to U.S. consumers.

Another European brand struggling with the debilitating effect of the weak dollar is Volvo. Instead of continuing to import its smallest C30 model from Europe, Volvo is now reportedly considering building the car in a plant belonging to its parent company, Ford.

All this activity is good news for our struggling national economy because there is nothing like a multi-hundred million dollar manufacturing facility to infuse economic life into a region. Beyond the thousands of jobs created by the plant, there are many thousands more created in supplier companies and dependent local businesses.

The question is whether this trend will help Michigan, where the entrenched union presence and uncompetitive wages and benefits have deterred foreign owned automakers from establishing new manufacturing operations. That is a situation only the unions can rectify. But even without union cooperation, Michigan can continue to benefit from an influx of research and development operations, such as those being established and expanded by Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai and others.

As for the rising cost of fuel, the silver lining lies in the fact that automakers are starting to look much more seriously at introducing superior compacts to the U.S. market, cars like the forthcoming Ford Fiesta. We can also expect more game-changing technologies, such as the two-mode hybrid system developed by General Motors, which transforms the fuel economy of larger sport utility vehicles such as the new Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid.