In Business

A shopper leaves a Target store in Boston. Discount retailer Target Corp. said Thursday more shoppers came to its stores in November and spent more than a year earlier, helping a key revenue figure rise 5.5 percent during the month, more than expected.
(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Generous discounts lured Americans to stores and online for holiday gifts in November, providing cheer and delivering the best gains for retailers in four years.

That raises hopes, already buoyed by reports of crowded malls and early numbers, for a strong holiday shopping season and is an encouraging sign for the economic recovery.

The International Council of Shopping Centers’ index reported a 5.8 percent gain, much better than the 3 to 4 percent increase expected.
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(Photograph by Tony V. Martin/The Times.)

“We didn’t get into this economic crisis overnight. We won’t get out of it overnight.”

David Bochnowski pulls no punches when discussions turn to the local, state and national economic situations.

“Community banks, traditional bankers in communities across the country, did not engage in the practices that caused the meltdown of our financial system,” says the chairman and CEO of Northwest Indiana Bancorp and Peoples Bank. “That was caused by the practices of unregulated mortgage originators and mortgage brokers.”

The consequence of this upheaval is the deepest, longest-lasting recession in American history, he says.

“This is taking much longer, and we haven’t seen the rapid recovery of other recessions of the past, particularly those of the 1980s, when we emerged stronger,” Bochnowski says, adding that changes will come slowly if current circumstances are any indication.

During his recently-completed tenure as chairman of the government relations committee of the American Bankers Association, Bochnowski had a unique perspective on the recession and how the federal government is handling it.
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Traders gather near the post where General Motors Co. stock trades at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

General Motors returned to Wall Street with the satisfying roar of a muscle car’s engine, embraced by traders at the New York Stock Exchange who stood in a crowd eight deep for the chance to buy a piece of a resurrected American icon.

Elsewhere, the moment was more complex.

The White House walked a fine line, stressing that the government was eager to get out of the automotive business while also taking credit for a taxpayer bailout that helped save the industry, not to mention tens of thousands of jobs.
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Economic activity increases by $2 for every dollar spent on unemployment insurance, according to a study the U.S. Department of Labor released Tuesday.

The federal agency said the multiyear study used economic models to analyze the impact of the unemployment insurance program. The Department of Labor said the benefits at the macroeconomic level and individual families outweigh the payroll costs to employers.

In a summary of the report, benefits to unemployed workers were called an “economic stabilizer” and the payments helped boost gross domestic product by $315 billion from the start of the recession through the second quarter of this year.
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Numbers show economic conditions didn’t crumble as bad in Northwest Indiana during the recession as they did about 30 years ago.

But the resulting recovery over the next year will be slow and filled with uncertainty as the region, state and nation cope with stagnant growth in employment and gross domestic product, said speakers from Indiana University and Purdue University on Friday during their annual economic forecast.

Timothy Slaper, director of economic analysis at the Indiana Business Research Center at IU’s Kelley School of Business, said the recession has been “diabolically consistent” in the pain it has dealt. The economic cycle spanning December 2007 to June 2009 and the subsequent recovery have been the worst since the Great Depression, Slaper said.
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Loretta Singleton-Henderson, left, who has been unemployed for two years, Carolyn Trueheart, center, who has been unemployed for one year, and Dennis Spain, right, who has been unemployed for two months, listen to others during a meeting at the Philadelphia Unemployment Project in Philadelphia. Employers added the most jobs in five months in October, with the education and health care sectors leading the way. But the unemployment rate emained stuck at 9.6 percent for the third straight month. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The jobs crisis eased a bit in October as companies stepped up hiring, suggesting further gains ahead.

Hiring remains far too weak to drive down unemployment, now stuck at 9.6 percent. And the newly elected Congress will come under pressure to take steps to accelerate job growth.

Still, the burst of hiring—159,000 net jobs added by private employers—raised hopes that companies are finally emerging from the hiring stall seen during much of the summer.
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Michael Griffin, center, clerk-treasurer for the town of Highland, speaks October 20 during the quarterly Times Board of Economists luncheon at Innsbrook Country Club in Merrillville. (Photograph by The Times.)

Northwest Indiana business leaders say the most powerful economic stimulus yet may be just around the corner: the end of the 2010 midterm elections.

“No matter what happens with these elections, at least they will be over with and people will settle down and we’ll have more consumer confidence,” said Bill McCabe, broker/owner at Century 21 Executive Realty in Schererville.

McCabe was one of 16 business leaders at the Times Board of Economists quarterly meeting at Innsbrook Country Club on October 20, all of whom cast a vote for getting the elections over with and getting on with the business of America.
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U.S. Steel Gary Works, along Lake Michigan's southern shore, is the company's largest plant, churning out more than 7 million tons of steel a year. Officials say the recession, which sent automobile sales and steel production tumbling, forced region manufactures to become more adroit.

Eileen Chmielewski, of Crown Point, said Oct. 2, 2008, was the worst day of her life. She lost her job working for an insurance company in Chicago.

More than two years later, she continues to struggle making ends meet as she is only employed part time in Northwest Indiana, netting a fraction of her former full-time pay. While she’s thankful for her job, the recession brought economic pain that was difficult for her and her two children to foresee.

“Who wants to be in this position? Nobody. Nobody,” Chmielewski said. “We do what we have to do. I never thought I’d be let go. . . . it’s devastating.”
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Indiana University Northwest Chancellor William Lowe speaks during a news conference Wednesday morning to announce the start of Money Smart Week. At left is Dian Reyome, of Centier Bank, and Dave Ryan, executive director of the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce, who was dressed as Ben Franklin. (Photograph by The Times.)

Indiana University Northwest is celebrating its fifth year as a host site for Money Smart Week Indiana—six days of presentations by community groups, financial institutions, educational organizations and government agencies geared to help local consumers better manage their finances.

The event will begin Saturday and culminate with a free financial fair October 23 on the Gary campus.

IU Northwest Chancellor William Lowe said the event supporting financial and economic literacy is one way the university demonstrates its commitment to its students and residents of community, particularly in tough economic times.
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Job seekers fill out applications on Sept. 1 at the Genesis Convention Center during the second annual Community Stimulus Career Fair hosted by the Gary Employment Resource Center. Nearly 50 businesses and educational institutions collected resumes and spoke to hundreds of applicants in search of employment and job training.
(Photograph by The Times.)

The longest recession the country has endured since World War II ended in June 2009, a report issued Monday indicates.

But Don Coffin, economics professor at Indiana University Northwest, said the expected news doesn’t mean much to the average person.

“I think everyone in the world who looks at this stuff said June 2009 looked like the bottom,” Coffin said. “The real issue is whether this provides people with any information not about what happened last year and a quarter, but what does it mean going forward? You need to be thinking more about where the economy is now and where it is going.”
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