Page 8A
BUSINESS
East Oregonian
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Businesses, cities cashing in on total solar eclipse crowds
By ADRIAN SAINZ
Associated Press
BARTLETT, Tenn. — Millions
of eyes will be fixed on the sky
when a total solar eclipse crosses
the U.S. in August, and it’s likely
many of them will be safely behind
the special glasses churned out by a
Tennessee company.
American Paper Optics ramped
up production for this year’s eclipse
and expects to make 50 million
paper and plastic eclipse glasses.
John Jerit, the company’s CEO and
president, said they began preparing
about two years ago. During his
almost 27 years making safety
glasses, he’s only seen one total
solar eclipse, in France in 1999, but
will be going to Nashville for this
one.
“It’s a life experience,” Jerit said
during an interview at his compa-
ny’s office in the Memphis suburb
of Bartlett. “When that two minutes
is over, or however long you’ve got,
the question that you really want to
hear is, ‘When is the next one?’”
His company is one of many
businesses — hotels, campgrounds
and stores — taking advantage of
the total solar eclipse — when the
moon passes between Earth and the
sun. The moon’s shadow will fall in
a diagonal ribbon across the U.S.,
from Oregon to South Carolina.
The rest of the U.S. will experience
a partial eclipse, along with Canada,
Central America and a bit of South
America.
Cities and towns along the path
of totality — where there will be
about 2½ minutes of darkness
— are gearing up for the crowds.
St. Joseph, Missouri, population
76,000, is in a prime location
and officials are bracing for tens
of thousands of eclipse watchers
to descend on the city, said Beth
Conway, spokeswoman for the
St. Joseph Convention Center and
Visitors Bureau.
The city’s restaurants, gas
stations and stores are preparing
for the onslaught — the city’s
largest arts and music festival with
the nickname “Total Eclipse of the
Arts” is scheduled on the weekend
leading up to the eclipse on Monday,
Aug. 21.
“This is essentially our Super
Bowl,” Conway said. “If we see
anywhere near the amount of
“When that two
minutes is over, or
however long you’ve
got, the question that
you really want to
hear is, ‘When is the
next one?’
— John Jerit,
CEO and president,
American Paper Optics
AP Photo/Adrian Sainz
American Paper Optics President and CEO John Jerit looks at a display of solar eclipse glasses in
Bartlett, Tenn., on June 21. Jerit said the company began preparing about two years ago for the Au-
gust 2017 event.
people that they’re telling us, it will
probably be the biggest event in our
history.”
The city has gotten into the act
as well, selling eclipse glasses,
posters and blue and yellow T-shirts
decorated with a drawing of the
city’s skyline and an iconic railroad
bridge, and with the slogan “Right
in the Middle of it All.”
Conway said a benefactor
donated 100,000 safety glasses
designed for the city and proceeds
are going to local museums and
charities.
Sales have been “amazing,
phenomenal,” she said. “It’s just
blown our minds.”
At the Tennessee factory, a
constant whirring sound fills the
factory as large sheets of paper are
fed into machines. One cuts out the
eyeholes in the pre-printed frames,
another inserts the protective film
lenses. Then the glasses are punched
out of the sheets and packaged.
AP Photo/Adrian Sainz
Cardboard frames for solar eclipse glasses are stacked in the
American Paper Optics. The company is one of many businesses
— hotels, campgrounds and stores — taking advantage of the to-
tal solar eclipse — when the moon passes between Earth and the
sun. The moon’s shadow will fall in a diagonal ribbon across the
U.S., from Oregon to South Carolina.
About 50,000 glasses can roll
off the assembly line per hour, Jerit
said. Paper glasses cost about 20 to
25 cents to make, and they are sold
to distributors for about 45 cents,
but prices vary depending on order
size. They’re sold retail for about
$2. The plastic versions are about
$15.
Staring at the sun during an
eclipse — or anytime — can cause
eye damage. The only safe way is
to protect your eyes with special
filters in glasses or other devices.
NASA lists four companies,
including American Paper Optics,
whose glasses meet international
standards.
“It’s eye protection for enjoy-
ment,” said Jerit, whose main
business is making 3-D glasses.
Besides retail outlets, the
company sells the glasses to cities,
universities and space-related enti-
ties like NASA and the Adventure
Science Center in Nashville. Some
are custom-designed, like the ones
for St. Jude Children’s Research
Hospital which are decorated with
children’s drawings. Under the
wacky category: glasses to make
the wearer look like an astronaut,
space cowboy or a green alien.
Green Acres farm near Casper,
Wyoming, is one of the many
farms and parks welcoming eclipse
watchers. The farm has been
turned into a campground with 300
campsites in prime eclipse viewing
territory.
“We have people coming from
Australia, Belgium, several from
Canada. I have a guy from England
coming that’s seen 17 eclipses,” said
manager Dwain Romsa. “We’re a
little more remote than some areas.
It takes more effort to travel here.”
Sluggish but durable: U.S. economy recession-free for eight years
WASHINGTON (AP) —
The U.S. economy acquired
an exclusive label Friday:
Recession-free for eight full
years. Yet the third-longest
economic winning streak
in American history still
doesn’t get much love.
No wonder: Despite its
longevity, this expansion has
delivered subpar gains in its
pace of growth, full-time
hiring and pay increases
since it emerged from the
wreckage of the Great Reces-
sion in June 2009. It’s the
weakest economic recovery
since World War II.
And the gap between
the richest among us and
everyone else has widened.
Still, the economy is
hardly the disaster that Pres-
ident Donald Trump insists
he inherited. Employers have
been hiring steadily, month
after month, since 2010. A
majority of Americans now
enjoy unusual job security.
The government estimated
Friday that the economy
grew at a 2.6 percent annual
rate from April through June.
It wasn’t sizzling. But just
the fact that the economy has
sustained its growth since
mid-2009 represents a major
statistical milestone.
Staying power
The National Bureau of
Economic Research has been
measuring U.S. recessions
and expansions since the
1850s. Over that time — from
President Franklin Pierce’s
administration to Trump’s
— only two expansions have
matched the lifespan of the
one that officially began in
June 2009 and has endured
for 96 months:
• A 106-month expansion
that ran from February 1961
to December 1969, when
President Lyndon Johnson
stoked growth with spending
on domestic programs and
the Vietnam war.
• And a 120-month streak
that began in March 1991 and
ended in March 2001, after
the dotcom bubble burst.
What’s more, the job
market has enjoyed a
remarkable run: Employers
have added jobs for 81
straight months — easily
the longest streak on record.
And the number of Ameri-
cans applying for first-time
unemployment benefits has
stayed below 300,000 for
125 straight weeks. That’s
the longest such streak since
1970, when the population
and workforce were much
smaller.
It’s no boom
Compared with the other
two long-lasting expansions,
the current one looks, well,
weak. America’s gross
domestic product has grown
less than 19 percent over the
past eight years — much less
than the 51 percent growth
posted in the first eight years
of the 1961-1969 expansion
and the 34 percent in the
same span of the 1991-2001
expansion.
Job growth has been
consistent but hardly robust.
A big reason is just how
bleak the job picture was
eight years ago. The Great
Recession wiped out 7.4
million jobs. And the job
market didn’t actually hit
bottom until February 2010
— eight months after the
recession ended.
Over the past eight years,
the number of U.S. jobs
has risen just 12 percent to
146 million. Over the same
span, job gains had surged
30 percent in the 1961-1969
expansion and 18 percent in
the 1991-2001 expansion.
The current recovery
was stunted at the outset by
lingering wreckage from the
financial crisis. Consumers
stopped borrowing after
having charged too much on
their credit cards and having
watched their home values
sink. Banks, struggling with
bad loans, tightened credit.
Since then, the expansion
has been hobbled by a slow-
growing labor force and by
a puzzling slump in worker
productivity, which is the
amount of output produced,
per hour worked.
Job growth exceeded
200,000 a month in 2014 and
2015 but has been trending
lower — 180,000 a month
so far this year — in part
because there are fewer who
want or need a job.
Meager pay gains
Americans
are
still
waiting for shrinking unem-
ployment — the 4.4 percent
jobless rate is near a 16-year
low — to translate into
healthier wages.
Comparisons are difficult
because the government
didn’t track hourly pay for
all private-sector workers
until 2006. But according to
government data gathered
by the Economic Policy
Institute dating to 1947, pay
for rank-and-file workers,
adjusted for inflation, rose
just 3.5 percent from 2009
to 2016. That was a sharp
slowdown from the 6 percent
increase from 1991 to 1998
and 13.5 percent from 1961
to 1968.
Litlle progress for those
who’ve suffered most
As
the
economy
rebounded from the Great
Recession, the very richest
benefited most. Emmanuel
Saez, an economist at the
University of California,
Berkeley, found that 52
percent of income gains
from 2009 to 2015 went
to the richest 1 percent of
Americans. (In the first three
years of the expansion, the
discrepancy was far starker:
The top 1 percent received
91 percent of income gains.)
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