GoLocal 1-on-1 Interview with Moody's Zandi at RIPEC Dinner

GoLocal 1-on-1 Interview with Moody's Zandi at RIPEC Dinner

On Monday, GoLocalProv's Kate Nagle caught up with Mark Zandi, Chief Economist and Co-founder of Moody's Economy.com, who delivered the keynote address at the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council's (RIPEC) 73rd Annual Meeting at the Rhode Island Convention Center. 

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Dr. Zandi "is a respected economist, a trusted adviser to policymakers, and an influential source of economic analysis for businesses, journalists and the public," said RIPEC in a release.  

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One-on-One with Zandi

GoLocal asked the questions -- and Zandi provided the answers -- on Monday. 

Q. Rhode Island has consistently been at the bottom of national economic rankings for the last several years -- why is this the case, and what can Rhode Island do to get out of this?

A. Well I think it's a number of things - the cost structure here is high relative to competition in the southern U.S. and other parts of the world - the cost of doing business is just uncompetitive which makes it hard to grow quickly.

There's an ambivalence to growth. If you go to Austin, Texas; Orlando, Florida; or Denver, Colorado - everyone's cheering for growth, looking for opportunity and wants development. I don't think you get the same kind of support here. And I come from [Philadelphia], with a similar ambivalence to growth. People like their city. Change is something they're not quite sure about

Q. Can you speak to other small states that have come out of the recession -- what would you advise?

A. It's important to focus on long run. There's no smoking gun, something you can do which will change things over night. So it's about educating the workforce, making sure kids that grow up here get the right kind of education, and kids that go to the universities here stay here. If we have an educated workforce that will attract jobs. That doesn't help next month or even year, but it makes a difference over the long run.

Q. There's been discussion about the City of Providence broaching the possibility of a bankruptcy  - what would you say to this?

A. I'm not familiar with what's going on here with regards to bankruptcy. It's something that you should be careful to go down that path. I will say this -- bankruptcy will be an issue for more and more municipalities going forward, with cities with looming liabilities with aging populations, and cities that are older and slower growing.