Economist sees Florida bouncing back quicker than rest of country

With businesses set to reopen next week, does that mean we’ll see Florida’s economy climb back up?

The one-time chief economist for Wells Fargo believes so – and he thinks we’ll bounce back faster than much of the country.

John Silvia, the founder of Dynamic Economic Strategy, sees what we see: an economy that looks and feels bad.

“Right now there isn’t a lot of good news in terms of retail sales or production or employment,” he said.

But Silvia said we could recover in three to six months.

“Particularly, Florida will be out by the fourth quarter because we have a very different economy than most of the country.”

Why?

“We don’t have the big housing decline. And there’s isn’t a fundamental economic reason why we have this recession. It really is the virus and then the shutdowns,” Silvia said.

However, he doesn’t see every worker who lost a job getting that job back. The service industry adapted to changing times – and so did other businesses.

“There’s is no doubt there are industries that’ll be permanently changed. If you’re talking about amusement parks which are important in Florida, if you’re talking about movie theaters,” he said.

How can you protect yourself right now?

“Being cautious with respect to how you spend your money, where you’re investing if you’re investing at all, and just doing the basics.”

Silvia said these past few months staying put have taught us how little we actually need.

“We can get along without a lot of other spending and I think that’s really going to help us going forward,” he said.

Silvia said he has confidence that corporate America has recognized that some of the old business models do not work anymore. He believes some companies may have to reorganize through bankruptcy, but that doesn’t mean going out of business.