Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
major funding for carolina business review is provided by
grant fortune aunt international accounting tax and business advisory
organization dedicated to serving middle market companies grant fortune a passion
for the business of accounting
no bond health including presbyterian in charlotte in forsyth in winston-salem
our affiliate hard hospitals of the cleveland clinic consistently ranked
number one in the nation for heart care
blue cross and blue shield of south carolina proudly serving south
carolinians since nineteen forty six and by
sunoko
a global manufacturer of consumer and industrial packaging products and
provider of packaging services with more than three hundred operations in thirty
five countries
well i am not sure what is more attention grabbing the volatility our
day-to-day feelings about this economic thrill ride we've been on for the last
few years
where the pace in the picture of political rhetoric is we slide into the
fall elections
welcome and thank you again for watching the most widely watched source for
carolina business and public policy and chris william in
with summer now in full stride we keep one-foot in vacation down at the beach
in the other in our business
it pays to stay up to date on the issues that really do matter and we will on
this program in joining our dialogue again later south carolina treasurer
curtis loftis
major funding also by the duke endowment private foundation in charlotte
enriching communities in the carolinas through higher education health care
rural churches and children's services
and by blue cross and blue shield of north carolina
who was responsible for rising health care costs join blue cross and blue
shield of north carolina and many others in a candid discussion at let's talk
cost dot com
this addition of carolina business review was reported july thirteenth
twenty twelve
this week's program
doctor michael groups are toma common
doctor scott my conference in university
and special guest
critics loved it
treasured
of the state of south carolina
philological program happy summer a gentleman welcome program scott and
listen we can't we get to the right job she received you we talk about on this
program ad nauseam
sometimes
uh... jobs have been it
inching down over the last two or three years since we got into this uh...
recovery is very slow recovery
uh... give us a sense of where we are in jobs right now it and try to give us a
sense of it at the thirty thousand ford i mean so so often seems we look at
at the micro
uh... movements about jobs where are we on jobs what are you worried about what
he encouraged about it
proudly
uh... we've been adding about eighty thousand out tonight that was the last
report and
at that pace it's just not enough to move that unemployment needle down at
all looking forward i expected to be between eighteen hundred twenty thousand
up through the election again when you see very little movement the
unemployment rate
and in response to that i think there are some major factors that have caused
this slow movement and in the unemployment rate and some of its
political on some of it has more economic undertones the political side
is
is the toll in the rhetoric in the political uncertainty the fiscal cliff
is made it difficult for businesses to
undertake any hiring at this point
on the second thing is a lot of these people on the people been unemployment
for significant periods of time forty percent of the unemployed population but
unemployed for more than twenty six weeks this signifies to me that there's
a mismatch between skills and white employers want a higher higher
in third i think with under appreciate is the fall on the housing prices have
created collateral problem
they've been underlying mortgage-backed securities that underlie buddhist
rocking twelve have cause credit problems that we would have to see more
credit expansion if we didn't have this big drop of wealth all those things i
think of contributed to the slow pace of the economic recovery and a high sustain
unemployment rates uh... so didn t you know and i mean that's oversimplify this
or not to
plays down at all
so do you think the rate the unemployment rate in the numbers that we
see in a monthly basis do you think that has
more of a psychological effect on us than it does an actual mechanical effect
on on the levers of business and in policy
now i think if there's a there's a real a factor of korea with with twelve point
seven million unemployed people we care about the hardships for those people but
also
with that many unemployed people creates a fiscal strain on the economy as well
you don't have people paying tax revenues in and then you have money
going out to these people in terms of unemployment insurance and other other
uh... social programs so it creates a fiscal strain also these monthly numbers
are important for us because it's a short term barometer signaling the
health of the of the economy that when we have faster employment growth usually
personal income which starts growing rapidly in response to that as well so
all those things are important on a real side but i think there is some mental
aspect to it as well okay okay michael e regionalism let's say to the next level
if we burned off
if we discounted all the political rhetoric and it comes down to a jobs
picture this got tu helped us to alleviate here
uh... is that what this election is going to be about of the follies the
presidential election of definitely a mandate it's going to be over
anywhere from five fifty percent of sixty percent of americans organising
cops and the economy organization the number one issue
that they're going to be voting on
and certainly with unemployment at a point two percent it doesn't look like
it's going to be trending down any time soon
that the magic number for a lot of
historical perspective it is seven point four that was the unemployment rate went
ronald reagan was running for reelection he got re-elected but everybody over
seven point four percent unemployment has not gotten reelected it doesn't look
like even with the if jobs were added two hundred thousand each month you
still wouldn't get to that magic number so from from big perspective from you
know it it looks like obama's got a real challenging uphill
the other aspect that i would throw into this mixes
you have to look at it state by state and then a number of battleground states
they unemployment rate in the states are actually below the unemployment for the
nation so take for example ohio are some other states are true battlegrounds
their unemployment uh... pictures much better than the nation as a whole so
obama's got any kind of cushion having won three hundred sixty five electoral
votes he can give up a substantial number and still get to two seventy in
terms of the electoral allocate in in allen let's let's take this is just a
little bit further let's stay with you for just a second year at least in
in in new york north st
uh... the gubernatorial race macquarie
dalton
uh... the latest polls about a seven percentage points japanese and korean
the leak in that
connected
tighter will that get tighter
that will get tighter i mean i think right now of the pool
have got macquarie polling about fifteen twenty percent of democratic support
they will typically tend to come home uh... you you generally tend to expect
about ninety percent of democrats to vote democratic
so i'd think if the presidential election is as close as it looks like
it's going to be in north carolina right now it's up forty six forty five split
between obama and romney according to some of the most recent polling that
number at the given poor levels ploy gonna collapse as well get much tighter
and you know you could filter down even to state level congressional level uh...
certainly in north carolina as well
uh... scott's come back to you about we've got shot join treasure coming up
in just a moment so certainly a lot to shoe warning to our dialogue that
i like 'em back to work the the supreme court's decision couple weeks ago we all
know what it is now is that we'll look at it economically when you look at a
businessman
pretty much the decision had been made awhile ago now
that that seem to be the direction it ended up in indo highest court in this
land and all of a sudden we're throwing uncertainty and what is the impact on on
business what is the impact on the economy now that were passed its yeah i
i think
blather debate since the decision has been on the mandate is a attacks are not
going that most places
what we should do what we should be focusing on which we focusing on whether
that's
good economic policy
um...
the reason it was put in place or who is to achieve two things one was to cookie
in increased coverage in until was to bend the cost curve down
the program certainly will increase coverage
and skeptical on whether a little ben the cost curve down we have plenty of
examples are in history others the government getting involved with
something in trying to reduce costs by a very increasing the intensity in which
they bargainer mandating prices
and we know that typically has little effect on on them rating which prices
grow and the overall quality quality usually fault in response to that ok but
what we're going to cut off there are coming up next week on the program
uh... is a hot company and i i was once it's a hot little company but
uh... it was small but getting bigger other research triangle park they've got
some of the gates money now
there in the very sexy field abiola manoa tech
the name of the company is liquidity a andy ceo's name is neil file where he
will be here next week and then in two weeks on this program we're going to be
talking about private equity and venture capital you can't help
but here those terms when we talk about business these days and they've
certainly come to the forefront will find out what private equity is doing in
this economy
in two weeks on this program in any organization any kind of size
the chief financial officer of the c_f_o_ was the one most likely to be to
really be able to articulate empirically
what the state of health that business that particular business is it
well for any state in these union that responsibility falls to the treasurer's
office joining us again
his palmetto state treasurer curtis loftis your honor welcome the program
buses again
on thank you sir uh...
uh... mister treasure lucky let's start with
mcm probably one of your biggest issues i'm sure it isn't
the dean
and sleeping in drinking this issue
and that is such a long term system you have been the in the port of flag on the
ground
about reforming it why does it need to be reformed in indeed
passionate way that you're talking about represent is initially and uh...
construct that
i'm not from the finance or a woman businessman so i jump into this half
hour anselm
their open eyed and i think things that others do in a week
we have a system that their
all across the country that is a large plans
and their dealmaking operations they do a fine job of making deals when you push
a push the curtain open
is like the wizard of oz there's nobody there the the back office the
contract management at the reconciliation all these things that are
so important to a business
just isn't there and across the country who uses the r_u_c_ is just not there
across the country is in the eighties rewritten to find a plan
that actually reconciles fees back to source darkness a contract
implemented some very important to the fees could be thirty forty fifty million
dollars a manager
and so these are important things
very we're the largest source uh...
incoming cash
to wall street
pension plans
and yet we act as if where the beverage industry we should be driving the bus we
should be driving the negotiations and not accepting the terms comes to us
indian to beat big plans
the partnerships are we doing the funds we we'll send money to are still opaque
and we've got a crackdown is in staking value
from our people
and uh... we're not rich people we need to value supa so is this about you know
there's a lot of ways to go with this was treasure is this it is this about
is about saving the state money is this about about returns on pension system is
this about
in response re echo of what happened in two thousand it with the too big to fail
ho mentality what it did somebody everything uh... we paid about three
hundred and forty million dollars last years and things we were one point eight
million dollars a day
as a lot of money
you know and we do we get our benefit i think not
i think group for the returns that we had
we pay too much money
here if you do that every year in these along from horizons
if you do that every year you have to think about big money in the week
assay is seven point five percent are
assume rate of return
so if we have a paper if if you're a hundred million dollars
over thirty years in every year you put that in there is a lot of money the move
toward alternate i think it's a good in helping alike alternative investment or
have a problem with others
but we've got to be able to manage those
and still today when we invest money
we put money into with affectively a bond holders
the g_p_ has all the journal partner has all
of the power
they keep the books they do the valuations and they give us the
information that they want to give
it's very frustrating full just assume that we know
what happens with that
but you know giddy treasure any c_i_o_ in essence specific questions about
investments
logistic
let me give you guys a chance jump in here please fill
so we have recently south carolina's reason restructured its expansion
planning and
the report came out tat
just interviewed last few days that the unfunded liabilities been reduced from
fourteen point four twelve point four billion
uh... do you think these are positive steps that that we've made is that all
that needs to be done
in terms of reforming by the pension plan wolf we may seem good stepchildren
the longer rising gives us a lot of the building we don't have to fix things the
very first day
i think this on she's a pretty rosy you just take your wallet
in year one we said that we would make seven access with the year one just
closed out the other day will probably make one percent
seven seven half-percent one-percent you've lost a lot of money
next year does and i think the plans to make seven point five percent
now of course will be a long term horizon but you don't wanna star all
in such a deficit
uh... the johnson we did some things they stop some of the bleeding from the
pinch inside the plant side
and that was excellent
but uh...
i'm not
sanguine about all this i don't think we should go crazy because there's an
unfunded liability
we have to keep you trend straight and i think the trend will be a little better
which if people do if it is a quick largest religious and what are you
getting support from the state house
do bush packard you get somebody help
that's a let's really outside of the retirement system
wind anybody attempts real reform
and positive wrong for reform
you don't get lots of when it's always active you know every politician sells
optimization and you did a great job
but when the camera scott own there's nobody around
and so it's a bit of a lonely job ashlie nobody takes omens big battles causes
bloody
even when i'll win these big battles assumed it would end up in but i'm a bit
of an accidental politician i think i was gonna be in politics ahmedabad
reelection vienna password of for four
years and uh... will make a difference the four years and hear these big
big money issues that
yeah twenty five billion dollars or department of transportation which is
three or four hundred million dollars on a whack we discover that
there were fighting not that great staff they have a small things but these big
was on my mind waiting hint it was that's what makes a difference
especially saving money
north carolina's legislatures polygon tackle
as as they have been planning to do for some time to help major tax report
any particular suggestions or advice
that uh... north carolinians could fit a from which you've seen so far in terms
of if they're successful were they tell us if you don't really have a terrible
tax 'cause i've been there involving causes the problems of general assembly
but we have i think we have as many exemptions
as we do taxes
as to say you know that you need tax training and not go on on the other way
around as those types of things images new seriousness about it and where we
have blue-ribbon committee at a blue-ribbon committee
uh... i was hoping that i was gonna be able to gets some of this invested
commission off my plate sooner
because i want to wade into this again most politicians are afraid of
tax reform
people were liberals we did it is like a gas tax
you mean you know richard s sex in twenty years you can complain about the
bridget fonda
and you can complain about your face being
chalk for that's what we have in south carolina so we got to have these
conversations
i don't think there
careering
conversations i think the uh... adults and voters or adults
cash flow problems early on they have need to them and we're dropping working
with the kids to decide
so we've got to have a better tax code is one of his investors in the
significant problems we have in south carolina
it so let's take it look stupid
of second until some of the dead is south carolina and let's talk about how
you
the mister treasure how do you on
how do you take hani al you form an idea and sell this idea
he taking on debt and how much debt to you take and make sure you making a
future investment in your not so focused on
on fiscal stewardship in conservative fiscal policies
without making that forward investment that clearly
needs to be made with a special talk about instruction those bridges b uh...
infrastructure will wait pastor and what what up uh... really afraid of and i i
hope not uh... i had a long overnight played a minor forces that are going
well i'm afraid of his across the country states it's obscene minimum
infrastructure and the things that people call infrastructure and really
don't
if you're in south carolina you know that i truly six what used to be kind of
a lonely right especially between
colombian charleston
he's just chalk full
a lot of a sport rather there's a lot of other traffic as well and i ninety five
we've got a look at him for structure
with the party it is
uh... i think that
comes back to some of the issues though i was hit transgression can ability
department transportation
design house money will will she said they didn't know we put them on the
front page of the paper about this time last year
and i'm a significant reforms
but unit that in itself people say well you know who cares about that
well the taxpayer caters there don't want to give new guest act to somebody's
michael spend their money properly propel you know that
and actually the dollar's value four dollars tax if they know that there
really get bridges and roads
well then will be four
and so this is a conversations matures into taking
but uh... i i'm not afraid of and i hope that others won't stand up move will
stand up as well
this ties in some to the
pinging conversation causes a lot of talk about uh... pension plans been more
active itni infrastructure we had the canadians do a lot of and diverse excess
water
i've got a ongoing conversation with all of my bare
subs won't know about it don't know that will do that
is certainly that one of the tools in the box in
yet that this type of a bit about the poor charleston um...
you know study back in two thousand eight said roughly eleven percent of the
jobs from south carolina are supported by the poor if we deep in their support
uh... some estimates say that you know any vessel to carry as many as a hundred
more
um... container certainly that would lead to die due to some job creation or
supporting more jobs is there been a study that looks at
the impact of employment of the tax base to better jobs and how
that funding airport will impact the overall state of south carolina sure
hasn't in europe onto the satellite
we need that port needed badly
we're lucky this roles in harbor is a natural horror
harbor if you look at savannah
they have to why i whine in deep in that code corral
assump ten miles offshore
is pitts carr better part of a billion dollars werner's just a little over
three hundred million dollars in the main incidence of that
we're already at forty eight feet
with the right time
thereof of that said we're kind opposed an accelerated the chick everything on
it
uh... it's important it's an issue i i wanna get involved with his well i think
there's too much politics around uh... the port and uh... dual rail capacity i
think they're politicians hold it up
i think there's some parochial interests that need to be
solved
i think there are people who wanna make too much money
when you have a big interest like this and you're talking about
huge sums of money i mean it's hard for the average person understand what
shipping needs
and he said i want to pieces of paper just can't understand it
you've got to make it work
and we've been or he knew about some of these issues between the years it was
time to make something happen and i think that uh... it's something that
that it's not god's will keep its economic base
uh... we've got moved annual quickly did you feel like obama state as a friend
engineer symptoms yeah i did
and he's a clever fell and and i think he's doing well
you know he inherited a bit of a mess but he's a clever feels a little blue it
we have we have was always argued about whether reports for right model causes
you know close on government all that
but that's for another day there are things that can be done
you know and and we've got to finished the portly we've so where's the money
the journals and we did a great job on that
and we've got that's just one of the most important things we can do
supt autos course unified government republican party control but oftentimes
even within unified government there's an awful lot of unity
uh... they can be different factions fighting against one another
with the polarization of politics he said
not a politician that you came from a business perspective
what has really surprised you about the level of polarization and what can be
done if anything
to really kind of overcome into intact
public policy for this isn't of the state support on the south carolina
around the country i'm glad you brought it was very important i've been thinking
about this a lot inoculum was not watch t_v_ news and more than two weeks
channeled pick the jam
i know what they're going to say before they say it you know what the
that network is pushing with a scene in fox in the same ec that matter
and i started uh... got a couple lines in speeches i give a space if i'm
comfortable portion parade
also you know is that were completely you know if it's a good for the
republican group also is that fox thing working
meaningless in for fifteen years and so there wasn't one
and also if i move for a little group also the same thing i haven't seen in in
a cd in this in the sea thing work
and nobody's happy
you know it intelligent folks on both sides of the of the spectrum they
realize that what we're really getting just bad government
you know to serve as a mad about obama care but it was a good deal in his
stomach it it's just bad lol
anaemia and i don't know if anybody and i have a lot of friends are very
intelligent articulate liberals
amit anybody i think just on its face it does look they want to do it
it's terribly expensive it's cumbersome is probably not worth the way they think
so i think on both sides of the spectrum you've got these people just unhappy in
government
not been treasure for sixteen months
and understand why
is amazing what goes on in government i found myself alone all the time
we elect people who are
alone in what way well only somebody anytime i found an issue of great
importance
uh... have very few people who's on the out there on the phone
when people talk about transmission can be letting people love to talk about
fraud waste and abuse
but was the last time you saw some action pointed out
you every time we do stand-up studies audits of of age to be fine problems
beginners we don't have the remaining in debts that is studies and arts
most states have gone agreed-upon procedures efficiently attestation zina
we'd go out of our way i think it's just who we have a elected in office
we elect people who consider themselves the masters not the servants and
therefore
they have a different world dat
and uh... i just reject all you know in south county wheaton claimed on the
republicans
until we like
about class of people who truly suit see themselves as service you always get
this
this um...
and most terrible government
they don't care i would rather have a liberal democrat de ma
it date tenured about the people the state
or if i were a little a republican but if you look across the country look at
what governor jerry they travel around the country they raise money they're
always trying to get on fox msnbc they'll never staying home state if you
knew how little the average governor was in their state working it what they
would have said
hopping on the same without one reason ran for office i started checking into
the constitutional officers in south carolina
their work one two three days a week at the most the got off to have all this
made me mad blessed you should come show up more than one day we well
unfortunately we've just ran out of time because i want to talk to about this tea
party kind of sound that you're making your butt
would you run for governor i don't know how they like to get out of this term
alive
with a key raising the questions i am so if you will be just risen again today
temperament is the thank you for being there michael welcome
butler watcher predictions on this election in north carolina is a lot of
people will started this year
takecare intellectually campus one quicker we can discuss tonight
major funding for carolina business review was provided by
the duke endowment a private foundation in charlotte enriching communities in
the carolinas through higher education healthcare rural churches and children's
services
blue cross and blue shield of north carolina who's responsible for rising
health care costs joined blue cross and blue shield of north carolina and many
others in a candid discussion at let's talk cost dot com
grant fortune and international accounting tax and business advisory
organization dedicated to serving middle market companies grant fortune a passion
for the business of accounting
no font held including presbyterian in charlotte in forsyth in winston-salem
our affiliate heart hospitals of the cleveland clinic consistently ranks
number one in the nation for heart care
blue cross and blue shield of south carolina proudly serving south
carolinians since nineteen forty six sunoko a global manufacturer of consumer
and industrial packaging products and provider of packaging services with more
than three hundred operations and thirty five countries and by viewers like you
think u
promotional consideration provided by business north carolina magazine
for more information visit carolina business review dot com
did