It’s the economy

I missed yesterday’s Economic Club of Hampton Roads meeting – been fighting a cold for the past few days. The first part of the event is a presentation by the ODU Economic Forecasting Project. In it, the team presents its “scorecard,” which compares the actual economic indicators to those projected by them for the previous year. (I don’t see that on the website right this minute.) The team then presents their forecast for the current year. You can view that here (pdf).

The second part is a luncheon with a nationally recognized speaker. This year, the speaker was Mark Zandi from Moody’s Economy.com Inc., who has been a frequent visitor to this event. According to The Virginian Pilot, Zandi said that parts of the country are already in a recession, much of it brought on by the housing market. Hampton Roads, though, is in pretty good shape.

Hampton Roads has seen fewer subprime problems than the nation and relatively stable housing prices, making the local horizon slightly less cloudy, Zandi said after his talk. “It’s insulated from the financial storm that’s affecting the rest of the country,” he said of the region. “You’re going to weather very well.”

Hampton Roads has rarely participated in the highs and lows of the economic cycle. This is mainly due to the military presence in the region.

Zandi also talked about the economic stimulus package being considered, saying that “he would like to see money go to states to bolster spending on Medicaid, education and transportation projects – providing immediate benefits to families, workers and contractors.”

“When we do a stimulus,” he said, “we want something that can go into the economy today.”

Good point and one that I hope Congress considers as they work on this package.