(Charlotte, NC) I’m sitting in the audience at the ACCRA conference (American Chamber of Commerce Research Association). Seated next to me are some of the biggest brains in community research: Jeffrey Blodgett from CERC, Amy Dobrzeniecki from NIST, Colleen Flannery from the U.S. Census Bureau, and Dr. Albert Parish, Jr., a mathematical whiz and economic rock star.
Needless to say, I’m not here to teach. I’m here to learn. And I’ll blog from the front lines for the next couple days.
This morning’s speaker, Daniel R. DiMicco, Vice Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nucor Corporation, was dynamic, but a real buzz-kill. My rose-colored glasses will never fit the same way again. He brought hard statistics from the front lines of the global Free Market. Think the U.S. is doing just fine in the global economy? Think again. According to Mr. DiMicco:
- Do your own research; don’t rely on the pablum spewed from the squawk box. Listen to what’s going on in your city and your state.
- The countries that DID SIGN the Kyoto treaty are sending their coal-burning plants to countries that did NOT sign the treat.
- The stock market is one giant manipulation, all based on speculation.
- We’ve got to help our cities and states work in a global environment. In nine out of ten cases, our communities are competing with foreign governments, not independent companies.
The winds of globalization are blowing. Check your downtown: if you don’t have a single organization doing work globally, then your economy is in decline.
