Edward Dodson, a retired Fannie Mae financial analyst, spoke in the township library’s conference room on June 2.
As society has adapted to a post-COVID world, the economy has been a major point of contention and anxiety.
To help Cherry Hill residents better understand the country’s financial issues, the library hosted a lecture on June 2 by Edward J. Dodson, a retired Fannie Mae financial analyst who dubbed his talk “The State of the U.S. Economy and Our Society.”
Dodson, who is on the faculty of the Henry George School of Social Science and Temple University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, but is not an economist, used his two hours to dive into current statistics that give greater insight into America’s financial challenges and how it impacts citizens.
“I am not an economist, but I worked for Fannie Mae for 20 years, and my role there required me to do market analysis, and so I started out looking at the economy in a very narrow way based on the housing market,” said Dodson, explaining how he would create a quarterly analysis on the housing market for his work.
Upon his retirement from Fannie Mae in 2005, Dodson began more extensive study for analysis subscribers, continuing until 2019, when he found he could no longer devote that much time and energy to the work. But with a new administration in the White House, he’s back to it.
“What prompted me to pick it up again was the election of our current president,” he acknowledged, “because I felt we needed a snapshot of where we are as a society, where our economy is right now.”
He explained that economic cycles come and go like clockwork in a curve that takes place over 18 to 18-and-a-half years. Dodson’s best guess on the current economy is that there will be a significant downturn.
“I don’t want to scare you on this, but next year, we’re going to have a recession,” he noted. “It could be one of the worst we ever have. (It) depends a lot on what happens this year in terms of tax policy, in terms of other legislation, in terms of what happens with the tariffs and trade and in economics.”
Dodson went on to describe issues the nation faces, including debt of $36 trillion; individual debt largely made up of mortgages and student loans; the need for infinite growth on a finite planet; and the rising cost of housing caused in part by private equity firms buying up properties.
“If I’m a renter, I’m paying too much rent,” he pointed out. “I can’t save for a down payment, and I don’t have any parents who can come up with the money for my down payment. And so, if the … market crashes because prices are too high for first-time home buyers, then people who are in starter homes and having babies can’t move up. So so they’re stuck in that little house.”
Dodson also described how some older adults are staying in larger houses rather than selling.
“A lot of us who are retired are continuing to hold on to houses we don’t need,” he said. “We should be turning them over to the younger generation of adults with children.”
Dodson also discussed unemployment and how big-box stores and mega-corporations are putting small owners out of business by using automation instead of human labor, at the expense of a healthy economy.
“Small businesses are the source of most new employment in the United States,” he observed. “So if Walmart puts out of business three local grocery stores, they’re not going to hire the same number of people that were employed by those three grocery stores.”
Members of the library audience wanted to know what they should do to prepare for a possible recession. Dodson told them to get out of debt as best they can and accumulate at least six months of expenses in savings.
“When all else fails,” he joked, “fill your basement up with canned goods.”
