Wouldn’t You Rather Be in North Dakota?

I asked my wife the other day if there were any place in the modern industrialized world that might not be in a recession. We figured that such a place simply could not exist – this recession was too deep and too pervasive. Well, we were wrong. The December 6 New York Times noted that North Dakota is not only facing the most miniscule foreclosure rate, but car sales are 27% higher than last year! Farmers have had a bumper crop, construction is non-stop – no massive layoffs here. The damned state budget even has a $1.2 billion surplus!

There’s even a job shortage. At Microsoft’s Fargo “campus,” for example, they need additional construction workers to accommodate their $70 million expansion efforts. In a state with a total population of 635,837, there are 13,000 job openings. State officials have traveled to “the layoff State” – Michigan – to look for workers. The Times noted at one state employment office, there were more people working at the facility than people needing help!

The denizens of this fair state are blasé about their good fortune; they chalk it up to their fiscally conservative nature. Take the Times interview of a co-owner of a car dealership that sells Toyotas, Dodges and Scions in Bismarck, Justin Theel: “We feel like we have been living in a bubble. We see the national news every day. We know things are tough. But around here, our people have gone to their jobs every day knowing that they’re going to get a paycheck and that they’ll go back the next day… Our banks don’t do those goofy loans.” Ja, sure, ya betcha, Justin! Makes me kind of warm and fuzzy all over. I said “warm” Justin… and I hear tell, I do, that yer winters are pretty bitter up dere, eh?

Skeptics remind us that sooner or later, the economic malaise that impacts North Dakota’s customers and the economic pressures felt in neighboring states are eventually going to disrupt a good bit of this seeming insulation from the financial crisis that plagues the rest of the world. And some local manufacturing concerns have already felt the downturn in demand that has already required some contractions.

Still the lessons sitting in Bismarck, Fargo and all of those other surrounding frozen places are good ones for lots of people in cities like New York, Los Angeles, and even Washington, D.C. These people make real things, grow real crops and, shock and surprise, even save their money in bank accounts not dreaming that their home is a closet piggy bank. They don’t construct “financial instruments” with risk-based analysis valuations, they don’t borrow mountains more than they earn and they are grateful for what they have.

Okay, I admit it, I am a tad jealous. It’s miserable watching the markets tank, people lose their homes… and when a bunch of my friends and colleagues lost jobs in the entertainment industry layoffs (Viacom laid off 850 on December 5^th, and NBCUni chopped 500 off its payroll), the pain I thought I was feeling in my life made me feel selfish and ashamed. Funny how if you provide real values, work hard and live within your means, life can be good… very good. But then there is the winter thing…

I’m Peter Dekom, and I approve this message.