From Daily Planet Staff Reports

Economist James F. Smith, who earlier addressed the national and world economies, was asked most of  the questions during a 15-minute question-and-answer session in the Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville on July 23.

Addressing the Ninth Annual “Asheville Metro Economy Outlook, ” sponsored by the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, were Tom Tveidt, director of the Asheville Metro Business Research Center; and James F. Smith, chief economist for Parsec Financial and a professor at Western Carolina University.

A man opened the Q&A by asking Smith’s opinion about the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “bail-outs.”
“The congressional budget office put out information that they’ll find it (the bail-outs) costing us $25 billion,” Smith answered.

“Some people have suggested auctioning them office, which makes a lot of sense — therefore, the government probably won’t do that!” the economist quipped, prompting much laughter from the chamber audience.

Another questioner asked Smith about the widening U.S. trade deficit and the declining value of the dollar.
“They’re all irrevelevant,” Smith replied. “More people want to invest here than we (Americans) want to invest abroad.”

A man asked, “What would it take to convice you that the financial crisis is over — or about over?”

“When I see special devices put in by the Fed go away,” inasmuch as “all of those things exist because the markets are broken worldwide,” Smith said.

“This is the longest-running financial panic since the Great Depression, so nobody knows” what will follow, he added. “The recession of 1929-30 turned into the Great Depression.”

On a lighter note, Smith said, presidents Herbert “Hoover and (Jimmy) Carter were the two engineer presidents — we’ll never have another” because voters will not forget their disasterous policies. The crowd laughed at Smith’s stab at humor.

A man asked if the government is “ever going to do a better job of monitoring the credit card companies?”
“I hope not,” Smith replied. “I spent many years working for credit card companies ... It’s pretty thoroughly regulated.”

Serious compaints on credit card companies tend to be referred to the U.S. Justice Department and “it works,” Smith said. “We have one of the deepest and best capital markets” in the world.

Someone asked Tveidt if he sees a trend for the new population growth toward downtown — or elsewhere.
“There’s no hard data” available showing a major shift in housing to the downtown Asheville area, Tveidt replied.

In a reference to Tveidt’s address, another questioner noted, “I’m one of those new guys from Florida, who moved here ... How different is Asheville” from the rest of Western North Carolina?