The Great Depression Ahead

Columbia's Harry S. Dent Jr. published The

Great Boom Ahead in 1992, following the baby boomers as they approached age 49 and as they approached their last major house purchase. On average for the past century, Americans tended to buy their last big house around age 49. From there, they downsized. The big house purchase brought with it all kinds of collateral collections: art, automobiles, lawn furniture, lawn maintenance equipment, appliances, furniture, entertainment electronics, and the like, all pointing to an economic boom, which is exactly what happened. The boom is over. Now we have Dent's next book and his next,

and likely accurate, prediction, The Great

Depression Ahead. Dent will be talking about

The Great Depression Ahead in the conference center at Brookland Baptist Church on Thursday, March 19, at 6:30 pm. A book signing begins at 7:45 pm. The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. For reservations, call 750.4848.

The ravages of innumeracy On Thursday, February 26, a Columbia Airport executive cited the annual passenger count at his airport: 1.2 million passengers for the past year, which includes people arriving and departing, essentially counting many of the same people twice. The Columbia Airport executive then authoritatively stated - and was quoted without reporter input - the passenger count for Charlotte was 14 million, while the Charlotte/Douglas Web site reports more than 39 million passengers, total, for 2008.

Further ravages of innumeracy In an economic impact study, USC's number crunchers found the state gets $3.68 back for every dollar invested by the state in film production. Taking the same raw input, the College of Charleston numbers people disclosed a payback of $0.81 for every dollar invested. South Carolina allocates an annual $15 million to subsidize film productions. The subsidies are supposed to work as incentives to attract film production, but if the impact can be as much as $55.2 million (USC) or as little as $12.l million (C of C) for the same $15 million invested, and no one knows which, the Senate Film Incentives Study Committee has an axioms audience waiting for its report due in another week.

Unemployment increases Over 2008, Rhode Island suffered the highest increase in its unemployment, 2.6 percentage points, soaring from 5.2 percent in 2007 to 7.8 percent in 2008. For the year, Michigan had the highest unemployment, 8.4 percent. California had 7.2 percent; South Carolina, 6.9%, an increase of 1.3 percentage points over 2007. The Bureau of Labor Statistics averaged monthly unemployment rates for each state to calculate annual figures. The national average last year was 5.8 percent.

Research ranking The University of Texas at Dallas recently ranked America's top 100 business schools based on research contributions between 2004- 2008. The No. 1 school was the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. No. 2 was the Fuqua School at Duke University. Harvard, for once, came in down at No. 7, and Stanford, surprisingly, was No. 8. The Kenan- Flagler Business School at UNC- Chapel Hill was No. 26. The Moore School of Business at USC was No. 41, well ahead of Notre Dame (Mendoza, No. 45), City University of New York (Baruch, No. 46), University of Miami (No. 48), Rice University (Jones, No. 50), University of Georgia (No. 61), Tulane University (Freeman, No. 66), Vanderbilt (Owen, No. 67), Georgetown University (McDonough, No. 70), University of Virginia (Darden, No. 74), and Clemson University (No. 88).

N.C.: Per person, we get less than what S.C. gets? South Carolina has a bit below 4.5 million people, and Georgia has a little more than 9.5 million people, so it's logical South Carolina gets $8 billion from the economic stimulus bill and Georgia gets $16 billion. However, North Carolina has just over 9 million people, not much less than Georgia, and North Carolina gets only $6 billion.

Driving gambling Underground Atlanta City Council unanimously adopted a resolution pushing the Georgia Lottery Board to approve a proposal to install up to 5,000 video lottery terminals for gambling in Underground Atlanta. As conceptualized by developer Dan O'Leary, the plan is to build a half- billion- dollar casino/hotel complex, $50 million to renovate Underground Atlanta and $450 million to build a hotel. Approval for a casino- style gambling hall with card tables and roulette wheels would have to go to the Georgia General Assembly, which has resisted legalized gambling other than the lottery. The 5,000 video lottery terminals proposal, though, appears to have a fair chance for approval. The class of patrons populating video terminals, like the crowd in South Carolina sitting before video poker machines, might not help upgrade downtown Atlanta. A full casino must be on the Atlanta City Council minds as part of their long- term strategy.