The Atlanta Fed’s 2007 Annual Report “The Southeast Economy: A Larger Perspective”

The Atlanta Fed’s 2007 Annual Report examines the evolution of the dynamic Southeastern economy, from its agrarian roots to its current state, and looks to the challenges the region’s economy faces in the future.  Click here to go to the report.

Some snippets:

The primary challenge facing the Southeast is elevating the education level of the region’s people to meet the demands of the present and future job market.

In 2007, after decades of huge in-flows, more people left Florida than moved in.

Service sector jobs in the Southeast represent 84 percent of total jobs.

Signs of a slowing economy were numerous: Employment growth decelerated, banks saw profits and lending growth decline, retail sales began to slacken, and real estate activity fell on virtually all fronts.  In the second half of 2007, the Southeast created the fewest jobs it had produced in a six-month period since the first half of 2003. The rate of job growth for the year decelerated to 1.1 percent, down from 1.7 percent in 2006.

Why so many “bugs” in Merida?

One of the first things I noticed on my recent trip to Merida, Yucatan, Mexico was a surprising number of “bugs” on the streets. When I say “bugs” I’m referring not to insects, but to those lovable, cultic Volkswagen Beetles. Not the new Beetles, but the original VW Beetles, with their air-cooled, rear engines. I thought they quit making Beetles in the seventies. Actually, they stopped importing them to the United States in the seventies. It turns out that these VW bugs, with very minor design changes, were produced in Puebla, Mexico until July of 2003. And that’s why there are so many “bugs” in Merida, and the rest of Mexico for that matter.

(NOTE: I had a 1974 Beetle, and loved it.)