Steven Lanza Steven Lanza, 52, is an economist, a research associate at the University of Connecticut and executive editor of its quarterly The Connecticut Economy, having been with the publication since its inception in 1994. He resides in Storrs. Do you know where the governor can find a few hundred million dollars? [laughs] Maybe in the sofa cushions of the executive office building? I don’t know. The recovery has stumbled a bit in Connecticut in recent quarters. Income growth has slowed, especially in Fairfield County, and that’s certainly done a number on the budget. Plus, when times are tough, people look to government for public services so there’s a greater demand there, so that’s opening up the hole, which looks like it’s getting bigger as you project out into the future—not the direction you want to see things going. They always say, “Just cut waste, fraud and abuse!” [laughs] That’s where you start. How much impact do the state government’s financial woes have on the rest of the economy? Certainly, the state government sets the stage and the environment for business and job growth, but not all of that is in its control. Maybe we’ve got 15 percent control over our future—and that might even be kind of high. There’s only so much we can do, but that doesn’t mean throw up your arms and don’t try to do anything. It means you have to have public policy that makes sense. So why can’t connecticut break out of its economic rut? Part of what troubles me reading media reports about our troubled economy is that they suggest that Connecticut is somehow unique in being stuck in this rut, and that things are better elsewhere. I think that we have an inferiority complex—I’m not sure where it comes from, maybe from not being New York or not having a city like Boston within our borders—but Connecticut is still tops in the country in terms of per capita income, and we’re among the most highly educated populations in the country, so we’re smart, we’re productive, we earn high incomes, and yeah, we’re suffering from some slow job growth right now, but it’s slow going everywhere, not just here in Connecticut. What’s the biggest challenge in presenting economic information to a wider audience? Getting past the fear and snooze factors of it. That’s also the challenge with teaching— communicating the importance and relevance of it, and not putting students to sleep. Sometimes that’s really tough, especially if you’re teaching a class at night. Have you ever had a student try and turn in something you wrote? No. I have had two different students turn in the same paper in two different classes, though! As I was reading through, it sure seemed familiar, but the real giveaway was on the last page. I could see that my remarks, and in fact, the final grade I’d given the paper, were erased and whited out. I could still see through it! It wasn’t even a good grade; I’d given the paper a C- or something like that. When I confronted the student, he hit his head with his hand and said, “Oh, shoot! I forgot to put the photocopied page on as the last page. I gave you the original!” So he didn’t deny it! [laughs] So I said, “Couldn’t you find a better paper than this one? It wasn’t very good.” And he said, “Well, it was the one my roommate had, so . . . .” How do you handle people who ask you for financial advice? [laughs] I guess I tell them, “If you could see my personal finances, you wouldn’t be asking me that question!” I tell them there are better places to go. Where should the Connecticut economy be by President’s day? The best thing for us would be for the U.S. economy to really start picking up strength. For us to come together and solve our problems at the national level, which would give a boost to Connecticut’s economy and maybe turn around some of these forecasts we have for budget problems going forward. Ideally, we would like to be gaining jobs again, seeing a rebound in the recovery and then hopefully by the end of year, really ramping up those gains and starting to show some momentum, and adding back 3,000 to 4,000 jobs per quarter. A lot of analysts looking at the economic picture think that, for a variety of largely self-inflicted reasons, 2013 will be touch-andgo, but 2014 will be stronger. Unless there’s some other unforeseen obstacle, I expect job growth to gain some traction in 2014. So Should we be stuffing our mattresses with cash? Actually, that’s the worst thing we could do, right? If everyone had that view, the economy would take a header for sure. We want folks out there spending their money and creating jobs for other people. So no, don’t stuff your money in your mattress! Is Connecticut still a great location for a MLB franchise, as you have written? That actually was one of my favorite pieces [in The Connecticut Economy]! Peter Gammons had said that a major league team was scouting Connecticut for a possible relocation. That may have just been to get a better deal back home, but the Bridgeport-Stamford area came up high on the radar apparently. I was like, “You’ve gotta be kidding me—this can’t be true!” So just to satisfy my curiosity, I built a little model to predict the location of a baseball team, without planning to do an article, and Bridgeport-Stamford area came out as viable. I was like, “Holy smokes! There really is something to it!” That’s what sometimes looking at the numbers can do. It can surprise you. For our full Q&A with Steve Lanza, visit connecticutmag.com.