Over at Bacon’s Rebellion, D.J. Rippert asks if the state’s economy is tanking.
I believe he was trying to portray the following evidence as cause for concern:
If you don’t know by now, predicting how economies move is super hard – and I’m not even going to pretend to know where the Virginia economy is headed here.
I would argue, however, that Virginia’s economy is not “tanking.” And here’s why:
For one, economic growth of eight percent is huge. In fact, compared to national trends, Virginia is still doing pretty well:
GDP growth has been bouncing between zero and two percent – so I wouldn’t panic if Virginia’s GDP falls and is still well above the national average.
Here are some other macroeconomic indicators that don’t resemble any kind of “tanking.”
Again, it’d be short-sighted to just throw up some graphs and make broad claims about the future of the state. The general decline of total wages and salaries is certainly cause for concern – as are other indicators. But for now, don’t panic!
[This post was cross-posted at Frank Muraca’s personal blog.]