[Mr_250]

I came across this article in Forbes. com today. It is an extensive article which offers some insight at the current stability of CT.

How Did Rich Connecticut Morph Into One Of America's Worst Performing Economies? - Forbes

Do people agree with this? or is it just media hype.

[JayCT]

I am not saying that this is all wrong, but there are a lot of inaccuracies in this. The writer talks about state spending but fails to mention part of the reason the state has to spend more is that Connecticut does not have county governments to handle some of its functions. The article talks about poor job growth but fails to recognize our economy was one of the county's best during the recession and historically goes into a recession later and comes out of it later as well. I could go on but why waste my breath. It is more media hype. Jay

[Beeker2211]

This guy gets a lot of things wrong. For one, he isn't aware of CT's economic cycles that have been around for nearly 120 years: slow slip down later, slow trend up later. He forgets that CT has a fairly booming bio-tech niche industry and high-value manufacturing firms (his "no high-tech region" line whatever that means). That our taxes are high which is true, but not much higher as a % of income than just about any other metropolitan area and less hidden taxes. That CT has two of the most productive cities in the world both per-capita and raw, and four in the top 20 nationally.

He also claims that 300k people moved out in 20 years? A sham number really - most of those are retirees for the weather or young adults to take advantage of individual opportunities afforded to them. Also doesn't mention that CT grew by 4.9% over ten years, with one of the lowest birth-rates nationally. His one accurate claim is that our biggest cities lost people for 40 years. Which is true, but most of that was because highways opened up the interior of the state more. Bridgeport for example had nearly 200k people during the war, mostly in tenement housing.

He claims that small business increased almost everywhere but CT for 20 years, when exactly the opposite is true. He treats Roland with kid-gloves.

If a single year of poor GDP results is a death omen to a jurisdiction, what does this writer say about the UK's performance under austerity?

[Mr_250]

I agree with both of Jay and Beeker. The article had slight under tones of something more. It just caught me off guard because it was in Forbes and not in a local publication.

[JayCT]

Beeker2211 - You make good points which were what I was thinking as well. I thought his comparisons of peak populations in Bridgeport and Waterbury to today was very questionable. He said Waterbury only lost 300 people which was not bad, but Bridgeport lost 700 which was horrible. Huh?

He talked about high crime in our cities but failed to note the state overall has a low crime rate. Does he understand how crime rates are calculated. Jay

[jax12479]

I wouldn't say this is all "hype" -- there is no denying that CT is now one of the worst states in the nation for business and our taxes are outrageous and shameful (especially the estate tax). And IMO, if Malloy is reelected, it will only get worse.

[AMSS]

They could have focused the entire article on corruption especially under Malloy. The lack of transparency at several agencies, ignoring laws the education commissioner is and the recent Bass Pro deal in Bridgeport is quite sickening.

[Mike 75]

Originally Posted by jax12479

I wouldn't say this is all "hype" -- there is no denying that CT is now one of the worst states in the nation for business and our taxes are outrageous and shameful (especially the estate tax). And IMO, if Malloy is reelected, it will only get worse.

Very true. Malloy has been a disappointment (makes me wonder if he really had anything to do with Stamford's success).

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by Mike 75

Very true. Malloy has been a disappointment (makes me wonder if he really had anything to do with Stamford's success).

Yeah, was he just lucky to be in the right place at the right time?

[bobtn]

Excellent article. Much more thorough than what I expected. BTW, that 300k exodus was heavily those in their 20s and 30s, and resulted in the loss of the 6th Congressional seat.