In the midst of all this joyless market watching, this much is clear: the financial markets and the economy are going to get worse before they get worse. Then they will get better. But market watching is never a healthy sport, especially since it tends to make us lose track of the real economy at times like these; that is a mistake, not least because that is where most of us work and live.
Over the past couple weeks the real economy has shown a bit of resilience and here in Indiana really great news has been lost in the wake of the financial market turmoil.
Nationally, the unemployment rate remains near the 50-year average and jobless claims last week actually declined. This suggests that firms are hesitant to overreact to financial markets - a good sign for the times.
Here in Indiana we had truly important economic development news that was largely overshadowed by financial markets. Brevini USA, an Italian based manufacturer of wind turbines, announced it would relocate its American headquarters to the Muncie area. I don't usually gush over new job announcements, but this is far more important to Indiana than either the Indiana Economic Development Corp. or the Governor's office were able to explain given all the background noise of the financial markets. Brevini USA will add 450 new jobs paying $46,000 annually on average. These are great jobs by any standard, and especially welcomed in East Central Indiana.
Several years ago, while working at another university research center, I spent much time analyzing sites for a similar, though smaller European wind turbine plant. The company was very interested in the local community, was open to working with the university and community college, and was excited about the transportation infrastructure available in the region. Despite huge economic development incentives and much local interest, they ultimately chose not to locate in the community. Their primary concern was availability of the right workforce.
Fast forward to 2008, and a larger, better company producing better wind turbines chooses East Central Indiana for production and management. Of course all the same factors matter, but here in Indiana there is promise of the right labor force and effective cooperation from Ivy Tech and Ball State.
This is a new corporate headquarters of a company, in a rapidly growing, very competitive industry that has huge potential to spill over into other firms engaged in green manufacturing. In affirming the good things that are happening in Indiana, it is hard to find a better example.
If this were merely a bright spot I probably wouldn't mention it, though bright spots nowadays are worthy of mention. Rather this announcement points to what many in the state have been saying for a while: Strong public policy that favors a market economy, continual effort to strengthen and focus attention on human capital, and the really big infrastructure investments we are making in Indiana will matter a lot more in our lives than will a few bad weeks in the stock markets.