(bright upbeat music) - And welcome to Forum 360, a program that offers a global outlook topic with a local view.

I'm your host Bill Steven Saus.

It's a pleasure to have you viewing us today.

We have a special guest from the University of Akron.

She is a veteran of the United States Air Force, a economist, and her name is Dr. Amanda Weinstein.

- Bill, thank you for having me.

- Pleasure to have you with us.

You're a Professor at the University, the Associate Professor at the University of Akron.

And you did your training at The Ohio State University in Columbus.

- The the is important.

(laughs) - The Ohio State University, Columbus.

And you received your Master's and your PhD from the university in Columbus OSU.

And you're also a commissioned officer in active reserve currently with the United States Air Force.

And you got your Bachelor's Degree in Colorado Springs at the United States Air Force Academy.

I'm just so thankful to have you to talk about the economy here in Northeast Ohio.

Could I get a little background about, how you got involved in studying economics and what drove you to the Air Force and your background?

- Yeah, so I've always loved numbers and math and I heard a friend say, you know, you should try the Air Force.

They're very technical, it's a technical program.

They've got a great math program there.

And I was always interested in serving in some way and serving my country and making my country a better place.

So it seemed like a perfect fit for me.

So I went to the Air Force Academy, got my background in math, I got all my numbers and it was a way to serve my country.

And then the more that I-- classes in the Air Force, a lot of them were operations research and business type classes.

I wanted something to apply those numbers to our economy, to something real that was really mattered to our lives, for our jobs, our livelihoods and to me, that was economics.

- [Bill] Excellent.

- I got my numbers and I got, helping our community through our economy.

- It's interesting that we always think of political and economic, political factors with economics and your husband, who is also an Air Force Academy graduate and an officer in the Air Force, Casey Weinstein, happens to be our state representative, your Hudson residents.

He's a state representative for the Northern Summit County Area.

So you probably can pick and talk about some political issues also that goes with the economic, which I'm pretty sure that that is quite an impact in Ohio for instance, the political climate, is it favorable now for the future of the economic growth here in Northeast Ohio?

Do you believe now?

- I think we are at a place we need to be favorable to thinking about doing things differently.

And so we need to be open to taking risks and to thinking big ideas, whether that's big ideas on infrastructure, or education and we need to think of a new way to do things.

And I think it's been a actually for me wonderful having my husband interested in policy 'cause that's kind of where we connect I think, is I love policy and I love economic policy and he loves actually boots on the ground, doing the policy through legislation.

And so we kind of find common ground there.

And so I think we push each other to think about how we could do things differently in Ohio.

And I hope we're at a place where we can start to think about, you know moving forward and regaining our leadership et al.

and the nation's economy.

- Excellent, now University of Akron has a long history of not only being a manufacturing center, but connected to the Air Force.

There was the Goodyear Aerospace, McDonald Douglas and different aeronautics programs started there, while you're teaching at the University of Akron, what are you trying to relay to the students you might have and work with faculty members to convey what the Northeast Ohio area regional economy is gonna look like?

- So as an urban and regional economist we talk about why do places grow?

Why do they shrink?

What's going on?

And it's always changing.

It's very dynamic.

So the things that made Akron grow 100 years ago, are it's incredible transportation infrastructure.

We had the Ohio and Erie Canal.

This was a massive investment.

We almost bankrupted the state to put this infrastructure investment in place.

This was a big, bold idea, Ohio and Akron, especially is a place of big, bold ideas.

And actually Akron itself was the first place to come up with this public education system through the Akron School of Law.

And we had a workforce ready to take on these big ideas, these new manufacturing processes.

And so we were just ready to lead our nation's economy with these big, bold ideas and a workforce ready to do it.

Now with this manufacturing base, it really gave us the legacy to be who we are, to be the big city we are, to be the big region that we are.

And I think the nation sometimes discounts us, not realizing how big we are.

People think like, "Oh, Ohio, it's a bunch of farmers."

And they're like, "Actually we have more big cities than you might have in your state, in a lot of states.

- [Bill] Absolutely.

And Northeast, Ohio has a mix of farming.

We have some of the larger counties that still depend on farming, - Absolutely.

- but we have Cleveland obviously, a major lake port large industrial base with automotives, Akron of course with rubber industry, tires and aeronautics.

Cleveland has the NASA Glenn space, NASA Center.

We have Youngstown steel industry, it's kind of shifting.

Canton, a lot of manufacturing.

So, you see a lot of groups working together.

What do you think the next step for the local economy will be in terms of production and how our production is helping or hurting our economy?

- I think historically with a manufacturing base we had a very kind of outward focus.

How do we produce goods and services that other states or the other countries need?

And that is really what brought us to where we are.

But now I think we need to actually think inward.

So now if you look at who gets jobs, those jobs are going to goods and services that actually service the local area.

So when you look at, so we kind of call these non-footloose jobs.

So the footloose jobs, manufacturing jobs, where you're providing goods, it can go to any state, they can be produced in a lot of places, but non-footloose jobs.

These are jobs that have to be here.

These are goods and services that we consume here.

So this would be like local healthcare, local education, even bars, restaurants, local mom, and pop shops.

And these are things that make Ohio and our towns nice to live.

So I think we really need to start thinking more inward, right?

What does my neighbor need?

What are the goods and services my town needs?

What would make my town nicer?

And these are the types of things that a lot of cities are now thinking about when they get more jobs, what are the goods and services that make our town a nice place to live?

- How is the global economy affecting our region?

Obviously we were doing a lot of import, export with the pandemic, COVID-19 pandemic, it's curtailed some of that, but how do you see Northeast Ohio fitting into the global economy?

Not just the local and the mom and pop shops, but you know working with the bigger picture, the macroeconomics.

- So globalization is a huge force that is a hard one to contend to.

And Ohio has been more affected by globalization than other states, Texas, Florida, Georgia.

We feel it here in Ohio that other states just don't feel it.

So what that means is we've lost jobs to outsourcing, we've lost jobs because of globalization.

Because now a lot of these goods and services that can be produced anywhere are produced in other places where they can produce them at a lower cost.

- [Bill] All right?

- And so we feel that here in Northeast Ohio.

And so what that means is we need to think more not just about the goods that we can ship other places but what are the goods that we want here in Ohio?

What does my neighbor want?

What does that my town want?

And so we need to shift our focus a little bit more to these local goods and services.

- And of course you, from the Air Force background Department of Defense, we do have a lot of defense related industry.

Do you see that picking up?

Obviously the global outlook would be to maintain our defensive posture around the world.

So do you see Ohio, Northeast Ohio picking up some of those jobs?

- I do.

- Defense jobs.

So I think, yeah, so we have aerospace industry.

We have advanced manufacturing with instrumentation, and I think what we need to do is, we can't just rely on any one industry, whether it's manufacturing, whether it's defense, but we also need to think about how do we build on that, which is-- - Diversify.

- All right, Which is really what we did back when we had all off these manufacturing jobs start off.

We had, we produced a lot of oats.

So from that we got Quaker oats in Akron, right?

So we thought about what do we have now and how do we build on that?

So we need to think about, we have manufacturing now, how do we build on that?

We have defense now, how do we build on that?

So maybe we build on defense in our instrumentation into the green economy.

- Right.

- How do we think about advanced instrumentation for renewable energies?

And I think there's so many unique opportunities we have to build on top of what we have.

Industry diversity is one of the number one indicators of the long run success of an area.

So we need to think about how do we build bigger?

How do we build more, more industries?

- As an educator, teaching a young folks in the University of Akron setting, what are some of the things people are asking you?

What are some of the things students are really looking for when they want to find out about the economic outlooks going on?

- A lot of the students, I think a lot of students and a lot of people I talk to, they have an innate feeling that Ohio is falling behind.

That Northeast, Ohio is falling behind and we have a lot of the good pieces here.

We have built in great infrastructure, roads, people and they just wanna know why, why is Ohio falling behind?

I think they feel it, I think they feel it with their families.

So my dad is actually a millwright and a lot of families that were in these type of manufacturing plants.

They feel this and they want to know what they can do.

And so we talk a lot about these fundamentals that are, have been true for decades and decades, but also things that are changing.

What do we need to do well that we've always needed to do well?

And what do we need to step into that's new for us?

- One of the sources we were looking at said that the gross domestic product is projected to recover a little faster than employment and made a note that after projected losses in 2020 and 2021 for both the us and Northeast Ohio a rebound will be expected in 2022.

So there's hope for let's move out of the pandemic, right?

Where do you think people are going to be going first to restore the economy?

You're saying it was going down a little bit.

Where do you see it increasing first?

- So, if you look at the pandemic, where you look at the places and the jobs that suffered first, even before the shutdown it was where we stopped spending our money.

We stopped going to restaurants.

We stopped going to those shops and those are the businesses that felt it most inwardly.

They just felt the pandemic almost instantly when we stopped shopping.

So when we think about the recovery, when we feel comfortable that this pandemic is finally over.

We are gonna wanna do all these things we have not been doing.

So if you look back to when we had, the last big pandemic and 1918, the Spanish flu, right?

What did we do?

We had the roaring twenties, right?

Where did we go spend all our time and money?

Yes.

All right.

And so we had people go spend it in restaurants, in bars.

We wanna see people again.

- So that's gonna open up this economy.

- Absolutely.

- And in some of the cities, we were always, I guess you could say it was a negative calling us the rust belt in Northeast, Ohio, Akron, Canton, the Youngstown, Cleveland, the rust belt.

But you did bring up that a lot of those are changing.

We're going to climate change, global economy, looking for different means of energy, moving away from some of the coal and oil and gas to electric.

And we're hoping that you see changes here.

What are some of the positives you see in the global climate change economy?

- I see a lot of hope in my students.

- Good.

- So when I talk to my students, I find that my students are very open to any policies all energy, and they are not as closed minded about this was the way we've always done things.

There look to other states, other countries, how could we possibly do things?

And I think we're ready for that with climate change, we're ready to think about how can we address this?

And in my class, we're talking about what are market-based ways we can address this.

So even talk about, I know we don't like to talk about, but a carbon tax, things like that and my students tend to be more open than I hear policymakers open to talking about that.

- Excellent.

Our guest today is Dr. Amanda Weinstein.

And this is Forum 360 a program where we take a global outlook and bring it down to Northeast Ohio or local view.

Today, we're talking with Dr. Amanda Weinstein because of her background as a University of Akron Economics, Associate Professor who teaches young people here in Northeast Ohio about the economy.

And she has a background from the Ohio State University.

Tell us a little bit what you studied and some of your expertise while you were at the Ohio State University.

- So when I was at Ohio State and studying economics, what I really wanted was a way to help my local economy.

To me, the national economy just seemed too big.

It seemed too much of an immovable force but my local town, my city, my region it seemed like something that I could have a real change and real impact on, but it also seemed like something where I could talk with real people and I could see what was going on and I could feel it more than I could in the national economy.

So I studied Urban and Regional Economics which is really thinking locally, it could be your local town, your local city, your region, Northeast, Ohio, a state, really what makes those places grow and succeed?

What makes the people in those places succeed?

- Now you talked a little bit earlier in the program about infrastructure and the national economy is talking about moving to improve infrastructure.

What do you see here in Northeast, Ohio that stand out to you that if you were advising the political economic experts, what would you tell them?

Where should we go with the infrastructure?

What would you suggest?

- So we need to think about what infrastructure is.

Infrastructure is and has always been a way that we connect markets.

Like the Ohio and Erie Canal, roads, rail, right?

It was a way to connect people to markets.

So today, when we think about our markets, we still need roads, bridges, rail.

We still need all of that.

- [Bill] Airports, airports.

- We still need airports, right?

This is the way that we connect people to markets, goods to markets.

But now we also need to think broader, markets are also in my computer.

I buy things online.

People sell things online.

So markets now are not just about, we don't just get there through roads.

We get there through internet.

So we need to think about broadband.

We now have an economy today that's very different than the one even 50 years ago, most families are dual working families where both mom and dad are working, which means they can't get to work, yes without a road.

They also can't get to work without their kids in school.

So we need to be thinking about infrastructure, how do we connect people to markets in a much bigger, broader way.

- Now talk about the military.

Do you see a lot of jobs opening up for young folks wanting to get involved in the military?

The various parts Navy Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard.

- Yeah, so a lot of people don't realize that the military is actually the biggest employer for young people in our country.

And they gain a lot of amazing experience in the military.

So I know I might be biased since I was in the military but you gain a lot of leadership, technical skills and I did a report on veterans, and veterans actually out earn non-veterans, they're more, highly skilled on every level of skills than every, better.

And then I even tell people even social skills, right?

So we don't have to think about veterans as these people, people, social skills, but man you have to be when you're in the military because you are working with your unit, your people, you have to have those social skills too.

And so I see a lot of great opportunity for young people in the military.

If we just think about it in a different way, there's amazing skillsets, amazing opportunities, it's a great way to start a career.

- Well, there is part of the economy that we definitely want to thank you for being a part of, you and your husband, Casey.

Federal Reserve Chief Powell at the federal level, has said and it was reported in The Wall Street Journal recently that the US economy appears to be at an inflection point.

The Wall Street Journal says with output and job growth poised to accelerate as long as the pandemic retreats.

So that's probably your philosophy.

You want to see the pandemic retreat and get more people out into the restaurants, more people out into the other stores and not just depend upon your computer, but go out and meet people.

So we're gonna talk a little bit about that.

Information you think will help people open up, what are some things that the economists hope people will do right to get started again?

- We just want to get people back out in our economy.

You're absolutely right, in restaurants, in bars, in shopping, in museums and all of the stores and all of the things we used to go to.

So when I think about economics, I think about economics is really a field where we are more than the sum of our parts.

- Okay.

- But we can only be more than the sum of our parts when we're out together.

When we are out working together, when we're doing things together.

- Well, we see construction improving, construction work.

Healthcare, you talked about healthcare in Northeast Ohio, the Cleveland Clinic, branching out into all the areas of Northeast Ohio, University Hospital, there's a lot of the smaller hospitals involved, they're merging physicians, nurses, technicians.

So, Northeast Ohio is picking up in that area, correct?

You see that?

- Absolutely, we have an amazing healthcare and education infrastructure.

So eds and meds are what we call it are great, have been great for economic growth in the last few decades.

And we have that, and I think we honestly don't realize how great we are in those two fields.

- Real estate is another fascinating, right now the market is pretty healthy.

Buyers and sellers are, so that's a fairly a good sign.

There's also talk about future inflation as an economist.

Do you see inflation having a relevance for 2021, 2022 right now?

- I'm not worried about inflation in general right now.

I'm more worried about when we think about price increases.

For me, it's more in the housing sector.

So housing is a big part of our budget and when we have a lack of supply, so we've had a pretty robust housing market but we have had is a lack of supply.

So we see those prices going up.

So with those housing prices going up, especially for people in the lower income brackets that's a large share of their budget, that lack of supply and those housing prices that are going up can really affect their budgets, their well-being.

- Not only housing, but once people move into a neighborhood they need clothes, they need food, they need a shelter.

So a lot of the traditional malls and shopping centers, they've gone up and down and you see them being revitalized.

I see reports in Akron and Canton and Youngstown area where they are gonna try to revitalize some of the older malls and bring in new blood, into retail.

Do you see that also coming?

- So I don't think we'll see a return to our traditional mall, the way that I grew up in a mall, hanging out with my friends.

I don't think we'll see a return to that, but do think we'll re envision the mall spaces we have.

So we may see them be a health centers, community centers, senior centers, we may see them have a lot of different purposes that we do with that land.

So we kind of overbuilt malls and had too much retail space if you compare the US to basically any other country.

And it's pretty interesting when you look at the mall was really a response of where people started living in the suburbs.

It was all about the suburbs and getting to the people in the suburbs, but the retail spaces that are doing well now look more like our downtowns did 100 years ago.

So they're outdoor, there's a lot to them.

So here we think multi-use space, not just a place to go buy clothes, but a place to go have lunch, a playground for your kids, a place to walk around outside.

So we need to think about shopping, restaurants, entertainment, all in a setting that almost feels like a modern version of our old downtowns from 100 years ago.

- Wow!

That's a good way to go back to that style.

Amanda Weinstein, you have quite a background in developing regional economics from studying at the Ohio State University, The Ohio State University, what do you think your future will be in teaching?

What are you researching right now?

What are some of your personal projects you'd like to like to evolve into?

- So one of my personal projects right now that I'm really excited about is a lot of what I do looks at cities where we have a lot of data.

So where we have a lot of people also means a lot of data points, but where we don't have a lot of data points is in rural areas, which means rural areas don't have the same data-driven policy advice that big cities do.

And that's a big gap in the research and a big gap for policy makers in those rural areas.

So right now I have developed a methodology to use this kind of lack of data, but to use the data that we do have in a way that gives policy makers in these small towns data-driven advice for the types of things that make their town better.

- Okay.

- Nice places to live, better quality of life.

What is data-driven advice that say, this can help your small town succeed.

- Let's say a community in our Northeast Ohio, Western Pennsylvania area wants to get some more background.

They can call your number (330) 972-7975, that's (330) 972-7975.

And check with Dr. Weinstein and find out how an economist can and their whole staff, the faculty at the University of Akron can provide assistance.

So if you are looking for more information about economics, the University of Akron can provide that for you.

Her email address is aweinstein@uakron.edu.

We've got a couple of minutes left.

Workers are changing in terms of retirement, we have a lot of the boomers retiring, and we are wondering how you think that's affecting Northeast Ohio's economy.

More people, aging, we got the office of aging and various communities for our state.

How do you see the elderly?

And as we grow older how's that affecting our Northeast Ohio economy?

- So, I it affects our economy, actually, similarly to the younger generations which we don't hear them often compare to similar.

But if you look at what they want, a lot of retirees, they want a nice place to live.

One reason why they go to Florida because it's sunny, it's nice, it's built to be a nice place to live.

But that's actually what younger generations want too.

So a lot of retirees and younger generations, they don't want the six bedroom house with two acres of land to mow.

So they're very similar in that respect in terms of what they want and housing and living.

And so I think Northeast Ohio needs to be thinking about that when we think about our communities, when we think about our housing and how do we think about, how do we downsize for older generations but also for younger generations as well.

- Make it an efficient economy here in Northeast Ohio?

Well, we are very thankful that Dr. Amy Weinstein has been a part of our Forum 360.

I'm Bill Steven Saus, hope to have this type of program on in the future.

Dr. Weinstein, we got about a minute left last comment as to what you hope we'll see here in Ohio?

- Yeah, so when it comes to our economy, I think a lot of people can feel intimidated talking about our economy.

I don't know the stats, I don't know about GDP, What do I have to say?

But I think what we need to do is feel more empowered We all know about our economy because we're the ones out there shopping and we're the ones out there buying and buying things for our family and for our kids, we all know a lot about our economy.

So when we want to see our economy doing well, we need to think about our families and our neighborhoods and what do we know?

And we have a lot more knowledge about our economy than I think a lot of economists sell us.

- [Bill] Excellent.

Well, thanks, that's a great outlook for Northeast Ohio.

Thank you for your service in the United States Air Force.

Thank you for having your husband share some of your time with us, Casey Weinstein, both Hudson residents.

We appreciate and we hope that the Forum 360 viewers will enjoy understanding the economy a little bit better here in Northeast Ohio.

(bright upbeat music) Thank you.

- Tank you Bill.

- [Narrator] Forum 360 is brought to you by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Akron Community Foundation, Hudson Community Television, The Rubber City Radio Group, Shaw Jewish Community Center of Akron, Blue Green, Electric Impulse Communications and Forum 360 Supporters.