Today’s economic forecast held at the Vernon Chamber by Jack Kyser of the LAEDC once again contained more red ink and negative numbers than those I had attended previous to a year ago.

Retail is not expected to have any significant growth during the all-important holiday season, the real estate market, albeit showing slight improvement, is still suffering. Job loss continues without any significant uptick in the immediate future. Banks aren’t lending, businesses are closing and the consumer isn’t consuming.

Threats specific to LA are the aggressiveness of other states to lure companies with promises of lower taxes and better living standards for their employees and the Panama construction that will place competitive pressure on the LA and Long Beach Ports (thanks to past union decisions). Lastly, Sacramento continues to ignore the impact their decisions make on businesses.

On the positive side education and health care are two areas of the economy that continue to expand. Although it is a negative impact on the economy I do appreciate seeing personal savings increase, as I have long held the position that a nation of spenders does not provide future stability.

There it is—a wrap up in 4 short sentences, so where do we go from here? Well businesses on the edge may not be able to hold on long, those run efficiently will continue to grow later and new ideas and innovation will preserver. Some things never change.