"Personal income is one of the most watched measure of the economy. It includes all income received by persons. The most important component is earnings. We just had released from the federal government the second quarter of this year, 2007, for personal income growth in all states. And the good news is North Carolina ranked very, very high," Dr. Walden says. "In fact we ranked number 10 among all states in growth in personal income in the second quarter of 2007. In the Southeast we were first only to Florida. That is, Florida beat us by just by a little bit. So we were very good also here in the Southeast.

"And this pattern -- that is, we in North Carolina doing very well in personal income growth -- is a pattern we have seen in other business cycles. That is, we have big slumps in personal income during recessions then when the economy gets back on track and going, North Carolina does very well.

"So we are sort of slow out of the gate from a recession, but we pick up steam much greater later," he concludes. "And again that's reflected in these good numbers on personal income."