On July 15, 2020, the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce's monthly "On Topic" presenter was Dr. Alfie Meek. Director of the Center for Economic Development Services at the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²). Dr. Meek shared an insightful mid-year economic update and his opinions about what's coming next. He touched on many important points in a short amount of time.
One key takeaway is the economy cannot fully begin to recover until students are back in schools for onsite learning. Why? It's not feasible for a majority of parents to stay at home with their children to attend virtual school and hold down a full time job. Additionally, there are parents whose jobs cannot be performed remotely and therefore they cannot work to earn an income to support their families.
Another key takeway is past recessions happened by "accident" or a series of unforeseen events. The current resssion is "by design" caused by the shut down. Dr. Meek commented the economy is not a light switch that is easily turned off and on. He explained our economy was easy to shut down, but how it's going to take much longer to return to pre-COVID-19 trends. In other words, Dr. Meek is of the opinion it will take until the first quarter of 2023 for the economic recovery to be fully realized.
Click now for the presentation recording.
Disclaimer: The opinions shared in this presentation are those of Dr. Alfie Meek.
