States’ Economic Recovery From COVID-19 Pandemic Is Widely Varied

The good people at GoBankingRates.com have compiled a short list of “States Whose Economies Are Failing vs. States Whose Economies Are Thriving,” which was written by Certified Financial Planner and Registered Investment Adviser John Csiszar, who, following his graduation from UCLA with a B.A. in English and a specialization in Business, worked in the financial services industry for 18 years.

Mr. Csiszar also earned the Certified Life Underwriter designation, while simultaneously working for a major, full-service Wall Street broker-dealer, and forming his own investment advisory firm, which managed over $100 million in client assets, in addition to providing investment advisory services, financial planning, and other related services.

His financial specialties include performing financial analysis, risk-avoidance strategies, long-term savings techniques, capital preservation tips, personalized investment advice, and daily budgeting.

In addition to that stellar financial profile, he further demonstrated diverse entrepreneurial skills by opening and managing a boutique travel company, and is a published author of 5 educational books on topics ranging from information technology to the element aluminum which are aimed toward the young adult market. He has also written extensively for numerous renown publications, and has authored several thousands of articles on personal financial planning, and financial services.

In his most recent article for GoBankingRates.com, “States Whose Economies Are Failing vs. States Whose Economies Are Thriving,” he lists 15 states each in 2 categories: States Whose Economies Are Failing, and States Whose Economies Are Thriving. The general purpose of the article and enumeration is to examine how states are faring in their economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. By examining 60% of the 50 states, it provides a relatively decent picture of the overall state of the states, and how they are each faring as individual parts of the greater national economy.

He notes specifically that because “the U.S. is such a large country, with a wide diversity of states and economies, the recovery is

Remarks by President Barack Obama at Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Amazon Distribution Center on Jobs for the Middle Class, 07/30/13

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

July 30, 2013

Remarks by the President on Jobs for the Middle Class, 07/30/13

Amazon Chattanooga Fulfillment Center
Chattanooga, Tennessee

2:00 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Chattanooga!  (Applause.)  It is good to be back in Tennessee.  (Applause.)  It’s great to be here at Amazon.  (Applause.)

I want to thank Lydia for the introduction and sharing her story.  Give Lydia a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  So this is something here.  I just finished getting a tour of just one little corner of this massive facility — size of 28 football fields.  Last year, during the busiest day of the Christmas rush, customers around the world ordered more than 300 items from Amazon every second, and a lot of those traveled through this building.  So this is kind of like the North Pole of the south right here.  (Applause.)  Got a bunch of good-looking elves here.

Before we start, I want to recognize your general manager, Mike Thomas.  (Applause.)  My tour guide and your vice president, Dave Clark.  (Applause.)  You’ve got the Mayor of Chattanooga, Andy Berke.  (Applause.)  And you’ve got one of the finest gentlemen I know, your Congressman, Jim Cooper.  (Applause.)  So thank you all for being here.

So I’ve come here today to talk a little more about something I was discussing last week, and that’s what we need to do as a country to secure a better bargain for the middle class -– a national strategy to make sure that every single person who’s willing to work hard in this country has a chance to succeed in the 21st century economy.  (Applause.)

Now, you heard from Lydia, so you know — because many of you went through it — over the past four and a half years, we’ve been fighting our way back from the worst recession since the Great Depression, and it cost millions of Americans their jobs and their homes and their savings.  And part of what it did is it laid bare the long-term erosion that’s been happening when it comes to middle-class security.

But because the American people are resilient, we bounced back.  Together, we’ve righted the ship.  We took on a broken health care system.  We invested in new American technologies to reverse our addiction to foreign oil.  Changed a tax code that had become tilted too much in favor of the wealthy at the expense of working families.  Saved the auto industry, and thanks to GM and the UAW working together, we’re bringing jobs back here to America, including 1,800 autoworkers in Spring Hill.  (Applause.)  1,800 workers in Spring Hill are on the job today where a plant was once closed.

Today, our businesses have created 7.2 million new jobs over the last 40 months.  This year, we’re off to our best private-sector jobs growth since 1999.  We now sell more products made in America to the rest of the world than ever before.  (Applause.)  We produce more renewable energy than ever.  We produce more natural gas than anybody else in the world.  (Applause.)  Health care costs are growing at the slowest rate in 50 years.  Our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years.  (Applause.)

So thanks to hardworking folks like you, thanks to the grit and resilience of the American people, we’ve been able to clear away some of the rubble from the financial crisis.  We’ve started to lay a new foundation for a stronger, more durable America — the kind of economic growth that’s broad-based, the foundation required to make this century another American century.

But as I said last week, and as any middle-class family will tell you, we’re not there yet.  Even before the financial crisis hit, we were going through a decade where a few at the top were doing better and better, but most families were working harder and harder just to get by.  And reversing that trend should be Washington’s highest priority.  (Applause.)  It’s my highest priority.

But so far, for most of this year, we’ve seen

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