Feb 24

Good News! The Economy is Reasonably Healthy.

U.S. Conference of Mayors:

Number of homes in foreclosure in Tennessee: almost 33,000 as of November 2007

Projected loss to the Gross Metropolitan Product of Nashville this year: $901.6 million

Memphis: $482 million

Knoxville: $311.9 million

Kingsport/Bristol: $109.9 million

Chattanooga: $166.3 million

Bill Hobbs:

The economy isn’t failing. Has it hit a rough patch? For certain. The subprime mortgage crisis, though it affects about 2 percent of all current mortgages, has put a dent in the housing market. But employment remains strong and inflation remains low. Nationally, the economy has not yet suffered one month of negative growth, much less the two consecutive quarters (six months) that are required before the economy can be said to be in recession. In Tennessee, most economic signs remain reasonably healthy. [Emphasis mine.]

7 thoughts on “Good News! The Economy is Reasonably Healthy.”

  1. It’s even worse than that. According to the Nashville Business Journal, 1/29/2008, Tennessee had 45, 834 houses foreclosed — 1% of all homes in Tennessee, 1 out of every 100 homeowning families. That makes it rank 11th in the nation in foreclosures. Moreover, the foreclosure rate has accelerated in 2008. According to national sources, it’s on track to be at least 8th in the nation and perhaps as high as 6th.

    Rather grim, really. I don’t understand the compulsion to sugarcoat the pervasive negative effects that the subprime crash is having on the economy as a whole.

  2. I think it’s clear that Bill Hobbs has found John Conlee’s rose-colored glasses and they show him “only the beauty, ’cause they hide all the truth.”

  6. I don’t think it’s spin so much as Hobbs just letting Tennesseans know that the unofficial theme song for the TNGOP is “If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time.”

Comments are closed.