Banks and Blue States
Brent Tantillo • November 20, 2009 • Uncategorized
A couple of interesting items from the most recent issue of Forbes Magazine. The first is a study from the FBI and FDIC revealing that:
Since 1979 the average number of bank robberies in the U.S. has been a dismaying 11 per 100 commercial bank branches. But in the past year, despite the recession, bank robberies are down to only 6 per 100. The industry gives lots of the credit to those overly friendly greeters who many banks have seemingly poached from Wal-Mart ( WMT – news – people ) stores.
Branches are now pressing guards, tellers and even branch managers to say hello and look every entering customer in the face. It makes customers feel welcome and crooks a bit intimidated. “The last thing a bank robber wants is to be noticed,” says W. Douglas Johnson, head of security policy analysis at the American Bankers Association.
The other fascinating piece of information in the most recent issue of Forbes comes from Rich Karlgaard’s column entitled the “Blue State Blues.” Karlgaard notes that:
The key factor here may well be economic opportunity. Virtually all the supposedly top-ranked cities cited in this media narrative have suffered below-average job growth throughout the decade. Some, like Portland and New York, have added almost no new jobs; others like San Francisco, Boston and Chicago have actually lost positions over the past decade.
In contrast, even after the current doldrums, San Antonio, Orlando, Houston, Dallas and Phoenix all boast at least 5% more jobs now than a decade ago. Among the large-narrative magnet regions only one–government-bloated greater Washington–has enjoyed strong employment growth.
It should be noted the difference between the cities that are growing and those that are not: the ones that are growing, with the exception of Orlando, are all in red states. And the reason for this growth according to Karlgaard is that red states spend more wisely for the future investing in things like port facilities to take advantage of the planned widening of Panama Canal versus bloated social spending.
Comments
Leave a Reply
