Elliott Dubin and intern Emma Snyder of the MTC, using data from a number of sources, provides a snapshot of current economic condition of the states; and, a forecast of economic conditions in the near future. Needless to say, the current economic conditions of the states vary widely; and, even short-term predictions of the economy are not always precise.
Try a little thought experiment where someone asks a group of people a simple question: “How is the economy doing right now? Probably, the people glare at the questioner who has the audacity to disturb the small talk that usually takes place at situations like this with such a question. Someone boasts that they know the economy is doing amazingly well because they read an article in the business section of their favorite newspaper. Another person, a teacher, opines that the economy is performing badly because he knows several people who are currently unemployed and actively seeking work with no success. Still another, states that the economy is doing quite well now but they believe it will take a turn for the worse very soon. The problem is that all the respondents are, or, may be correct because it is practically impossible to describe the condition of an economy as complex as our $21 trillion economy, as measured by the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in just a few words. This short paper, tries to provide a broad overview of the economic conditions in the US as a whole; and for individual states. The fiscal conditions of state and local governments are imperfectly correlated with changes, past and projected, in the economic conditions of the nation and of the individual states.
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