Tagged: NC Economy

As Charlotte grows, so too do surrounding towns and cities. Small farming communities or sleepy textile mill towns have transformed into independent, vibrant towns with their own identities - how did they get there? Many people work in Charlotte but live all over the metro area. What makes those towns and cities home? How do they maintain their own identities and preserve their histories without being absorbed as another outlying suburb of Charlotte? We'll look at the unique challenges towns face, their relationship with the city of Charlotte and the state and find out how they distinguish themselves. How do small towns like Belmont, Matthews and Huntersville creatively stimulate economic growth? We'll find out from the people responsible for their growth and success in a wide-ranging conversation about smart growth, development, town identity and more, when Charlotte Talks.

UNC Charlotte professor John Connaughton says that the North Carolina economy will grow modestly in 2013 after losing some traction in 2012. In his quarterly forecast for the state, Connaughton outlines how growth in the first half of the year will be slow as a result of several factors. Things like continued uncertainty in Europe, tax increases and spending cuts, and rising gasoline prices will affect how quickly our state’s economy gets off the ground. But North Carolina will prosper. He also says that although we avoided going over the fiscal cliff, we did not dodge tax increases or spending cuts. Economics can be a tricky thing to grasp, but Connaughton will help us understand it all, when Charlotte Talks.

The combination of tax raises and spending cuts, known as the fiscal cliff, begins taking effect on Wednesday. If no compromise is reached in Washington, North Carolina could lose nearly 30,000 jobs and three percent of its economic output, according to a July report from George Mason University. That’s next year alone. Overall, North Carolina would face more than a $120 billion in cuts over the next decade.

John Connaughton, Director of the Babson Capital Economic Forecast, has joined us every business quarter this year to forecast the months ahead and to look back at the year so far. This quarter we'll look back over the whole year as well as taking a peek into economic health for North Carolina in 2013. We'll also look at how the fiscal cliff issue may affect North Carolina directly and whether Dr. Connaughton thinks a second recession is looming or whether we are on the road to recovery. Our economic year in review and a prediction of things to come, when Charlotte Talks.