The U.S. economy is stronger than anyone thinks, but the doom-and-gloom attitude in the national media threatens to cause more problems than might happen otherwise.
U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt brought that message to Carterville on Tuesday as he toured MSW Inc. Restaurant Finishings, a company owned and operated by two Carthage High School graduates, Curt McCoy and John Stark.
Blunt and a group of about 20 business leaders and local media toured MSW’s plant, where about 80 employees make restaurant benches, booths, tables and other furnishings in their plant on County Road 200 east of Carterville.
Blunt spoke of MSW’s ability to compete, using American workers and American ingenuity in an industry where many of its competitors have moved oversees.
He said he hopes that changes in the tax code included in the recent economic stimulus package will encourage restaurants to remodel sooner and more often, providing more business for MSW.
Blunt also accused the national media of talking the country into an economic downturn.
“What I’m concerned about now in this country is everyone in the national news media wants to talk all the time about how now is not the time to buy a house or how unemployment, which is at about 4.8 percent is somehow a historic problem,” Blunt said. “It’s actually at a historic low number by any historic standards but we’re going to talk ourselves into an economic problem if we’re not careful.”
Blunt admitted that fuel prices were high and that was causing other prices to increase, but he said other indicators pointed to a strong economy.
“The job situation in Missouri is a lot better than it was a few years ago,” Blunt said. In the month of February, our unemployment in Missouri actually went down, it’s a little above the national average, but lower than it was earlier this year. Housing sales surprised everybody by being significantly higher on an annualized basis than anybody thought. Try to find that story anywhere.”
Ron Pence, vice president of Arvest Bank, who accompanied Blunt on the tour of MSW, said the housing slump has hit this area, but other indicators point to an economy that is still growing.
“It is not strong, but it is not slow at this particular point,” Pence said. “It is a fairly normal economy right now, the only thing that’s probably out of the ordainary right now is housing. But you still see businesses investing in town, they’re expanding, you see the casino bringing jobs in and all of that kind of stuff. The economy is still growing, but it’s changing.”
