Good news gets out on Columbia Business Week announced Columbia’s national ranking as No. 14 among metro areas in economic standing. As Business Week put it: “Columbia, the state capital and home to the University of South Carolina, has a relatively strong economy. Employment in the Columbia metro peaked in the third quarter of 2007. Gross metropolitan product in the second quarter was down just 2.7% from the peak in the third quarter of last year. Home prices grew 3.5% in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. And the unemployment rate in June was 9.8%, up 3.9 points from a year earlier. Job growth (since peak) rank: 17. Gross Metro Product (since peak) rank: 23. Unemployment change (year over year) rank: 54. Home price change (year over year) rank: 6. Mayor Coble emailed his world as soon as he got the word, essentially saying (after almost 20 years in City Hall), “I did it. I did it all.” Which he did, in fact.

Economic freedom greater here than in Europe, for the most part The Fraser Institute, a Canada–based think tank, ranks 141 countries for federal policies concerning economic freedom. At the top of the list is Hong Kong, albeit part of the mainland since the Brits left; and at the bottom, No. 141 Zimbabwe, which must be a real tough place to start and grow a business. Hong Kong apparently does the best job promoting both internal and external trade, free competition and strong legal protection for private property, according to The Economist. The United States is ranked No. 6, which is flanked by No. 5 Chile and No. 6 Ireland. Switzerland, No. 4, and Britain, No. 9, are ahead of the other European countries, beginning with Denmark, No. 12, and Germany, No. 27. For us South Carolinians, the rankings mean more the closer we get to an enlarged ports system and an expanded Panama Canal, probably coming together in another five years.

State Ports Authority issues outline for the future According to GSA Business, the SPA board’s new plan includes building breakbulk business in Charleston and Georgetown, completing the new Navy Base Terminal’s first phase, implementing a deepening project (to at least 48’ deep) in Charleston and along the Savannah River upstream to the new terminal in Jasper County, and developing new business and enhancing overall communications with stakeholders. Speaking of the future, Denmark–based Maersk Line has recently agreed with the SPA to keep the world’s largest shipping line calling on Charleston until at least 2014, which is about when all the port improvements should be complete and the expanded Panama Canal should be fully operational. Maersk is about 20 percent of the port’s container business.

Tough times in Carolina First The South Financial Group, parent of Carolina First, has posted seven consecutive quarterly losses totaling more than $1 billion. Almost 50 million shares of TSFG traded Wednesday, October 21, pushing down the value of a share of stock to $1.01, a drop of 42 cents, about 29 percent in one day. The day before, TSFG announced its third–quarter loss of more than $340 million. Meanwhile, former chairman and CEO Mack Whittle, who began his retirement departure almost a year ago, presumably enjoys his severance sum of $18 million, a number Governor Sanford protested as too high in context with borrowed federal bailout funds. A bit more than a month ago, Scott Frierson, president of Carolina First, stepped down with no reported job prospects. Frierson had been with the bank since 1988, two years after it was founded. For his 21 years with the bank, two less than Whittle, the CEO of TSFG publicly wished Frierson well with no announced severance package.

Tough times in South Carolina Donald Schunk, Coastal Carolina University economist, reported recently he didn’t see a South Carolina recession recovery for at least another three years. A representative of the S.C. Employment Security Commission declared the state needed to add 2,000 jobs a month for the next five years just to restore lost jobs. The state’s overall job count is almost 98,000 below the December 2007 level when the recession first took hold. In September, S.C.’s jobless rate rose to 11.6 percent. In June, the jobless rate was at an all–time high of 12.1 percent, but then it fell to 11.4 percent for August. The lowest jobless rate in the state is Lexington County’s 8.3 percent. Richland County’s unemployment rate is 9.5 percent.

SCBT, on the other hand Columbia –based SCBT Financial Corp. announced on October 22 earning $2.2 million in net income in the third quarter ending Sept. 30. SCBT added almost $142 million in deposits statewide between June 2008 and June 2009. In Richland County and Lexington County together, SCBT’s deposits were up 41 percent in the last year.