May 2013 Conference

Consumers at the Crossroad

Professor Curtin will discuss the current state of consumer demand and prospects for the future. The decline in GDP trend growth has been attributed to more cautious consumer spending and to slower growth in the labor force. Needless to say, these two trends have produced a dynamic that acts as a mutual reinforcement process. During most of the past fifty years, the opposite dynamic dominated, making the American consumer the driving force of global economic growth. Is the American consumer now poised to shed these concerns and promote a more rapid economic expansion, or will spending and labor force participation rates remain tepid? Or will the growing divide among consumers mean that both reactions will be present? Which group will dominate in the year ahead?

Richard Curtin

Research Professor and Director
Surveys of Consumers
University of Michigan

A Case for An Atlanta Construction Boom

With home rental buyers circling the market carcasses like vultures and the traditional buyers out of hibernation, Metro Atlanta Home inventory is reaching historic lows. Household formation is on the move, competitive interest rates in the cellar and metro in migration points to an extending housing shortage which could last a generation. The construction industry under normal conditions should be charging ahead with new development, but is constrained by a paralysis in the lending sector.

Is it really time for a new construction boom? Will the apartment development currently under way satisfy demand? What is holding the market in check?

Richard Curtin is a Research Professor and the Director of the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers. Professor Curtin’s monthly report on consumer confidence is one of the most closely followed economic indicators, with findings from his research extensively reported in the international media. His research is widely used by businesses and financial institutions, by federal agencies responsible for monetary and fiscal policies, as well as by academic researchers. Data from the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers are an official component of the Index of Leading Economic Indicators.

Through frequent presentations and published articles, Professor Curtin has reported on his research in behavioral economics, including the theory and measurement of expectations, consumer saving and spending behavior, household income and wealth, reactions to change economic opportunities, public policy preferences, and entrepreneurship.

The success of this research has prompted more than five dozen other countries to implement surveys of consumer confidence patterned after the University of Michigan’s. During the past several years, Professor Curtin has consulted with scholars and government officials in several countries, helping to establish consumer surveys in China, Hungary, Jamaica, Indonesia, Russia, and Trinidad, among other countries.

He is a member of the American Economic Association, the National Association for Business Economics, the Association of Consumer Research, the International Association for Research in Economic Psychology, and a member of the Center for International Research on Economic Tendency Surveys. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Business Cycle Measurement and Analysis. Dr. Curtin received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan in 1975.

Georgia native, Frank K. Norton, Jr. joined his family's business, The Norton Agency, in 1986 as manager of both Commercial and Residential Real Estate Divisions. He was promoted to President of the holding company in 1997 becoming CEO Chairman in 2007 and today manages a network of 52 associated real estate, investment and financial services businesses with an annual volume exceeding $500 million.

Well recognized for his excellent marketing skills and keen business intuition, Frank has presented, for the past 25 years, an economic forecast outlining growth and business trends for Georgia and the Southeastern United States region. The report, based on a wealth of data collected by Norton's Native Intelligence Division, is a resource that guides many area companies and organizations in making their business decisions. He is a noted and colorful speaker on economic, demographic and real estate trends, giving 25 + talks annually.

His clients include The Atlanta Falcons, 3 School Systems, Northeast Georgia Medical Center and The Longstreet Clinic.

Frank is also partner in Southern Capital Funds, a private group of closed end real estate funds geared toward long-term and opportunistic investments throughout Georgia.

In 2007 he recast his family's brokerage company to zero in on the troubled distressed asset market segment. Today NortonREO.com manages and markets currently a portfolio of residential and commercial stressed assets over $300 million, 49 banks and institutions, including the FDIC, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Since 2007 the REO team has been involved in $700 million in asset product sales.

Professionally, Frank holds Broker's licenses in the states of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina. He is a member of the National Association of Realtors and the Council of Commercial Investment Managers.

Besides his obvious commitment to the business of Real Estate, Frank is also involved with a number of community organizations. He is an assistant Scout Master to Boy Scout Troop 16, acting as the Eagle Scout Advisor, having achieved the Eagle Scout level at the age of 13 and the designation of Boy Scout of the Year for the State of Georgia at 15. He regularly donates his "birds", whimsical drawings he has hanging in 12 Southeastern galleries, to charitable groups for their fundraising.

He graduated from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Building Construction, College of Architecture and became, at 25, the youngest manager in the history of Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis Commercial Real Estate. Frank and his wife of 30 years, Nancy, have two daughters Teddie, and Emilie and a son, Tripp.