Trustmark official says economy will be OK|History indicates ‘robust recovery,’ Ralston tells Rotary
Published 12:00 am Friday, December 4, 2009
The president of Trustmark Wealth Management is bullish about the economy.
Doug Ralston, head of the Jackson-based Trustmark Bank subsidiary, told the Vicksburg Rotary club Thursday that analyzing a century of economic trends reveals what some call The Great Recession to be “the kind of contraction (that) virtually guarantees a robust recovery.”
Standard economic indicators confirmed months ago that the recession had ended, Ralston said, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the recovery will be neither tepid nor jobless.
Statistics for average work-week hours as well as rising levels of overtime pay are signals that manufacturing operations are rebounding, he said. “These are the first seedlings of improved employment, and we’ve been seeing them over the last few months.”
Ralston also noted that investors like Warren Buffet were buying, referencing the billionaire’s recent bid to purchase Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.
“Prices become so low that people eventually remove their wallets from their hip pocket,” Ralston said. Economic growth — investment, manufacturing and technological improvements — result from lowered prices.
“Expectations for this economy are as low as they have ever been, and expectations for the recovery are as low as they’ve ever been,” he said. “But in all things economic and in all things financial, people usually don’t get what they expect.”
Ralston, who has 24 years in the field of capital markets, has been with Trustmark since 1991. He is a graduate of Murray State University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance.
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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com