Two Ankeny businessmen seem to sum up the worry and the confusion that has settled in many minds about today’s economic turmoil. Steve Boal is the chief financial office for Accumold, an Ankeny company.
“We do micromolding, which is very small plastics usually for electronics: medical devices, hearing aids, fiber optic connectors, microelectronics like for cell phones,” Boal says.
The company makes both the mold and the plastic part that comes out of the mold, something that the Chinese, for example, haven’t mastered yet. Sixty-five percent of their products are shipped out of the country.
“Our business, what we’re seeing there, is actually pretty strong — a lot of new projects, a lot of new business. The larger, global economy is probably what is of concern to us,” Boal says. “If the whole world economy starts going down, we are going to be effected one way or another.”
If you can’t understand what’s happening on Wall Street, dont’ get too discouraged. Boal says he doesn’t either. “I’m not sure that I fully grasp, you know, how dire the situation is,” Boal says. “Nobody can seem to explain that me so that I can get my mind around that.”
Another Ankeny businessman, Don Lamberti founded Casey’s General Stores in 1968 and now runs 1500 Casey’s convenience stores in the Midwest. “I worry that in today’s market that someone — an entrepreneur or a person with an idea or a product — with not be able to take that idea to the marketplace,” Lamberti says.
Lamberti raised the issue Tuesday during a forum with Republican presidential candidate John McCain. McCain said congress faces a “confidence restoration challenge” in addressing the Wall Street crisis.
“When we go to the American people we have to make sure that they have the confidence, which they do not today, that the changes that we make will be to their benefit and not for political reasons or for reasons of helping people on Wall Street,” McCain told the crowd in Des Moines.
Larry Morris, a financial advisor who was in the crowd, didn’t look at his own 401(k) on Monday when the market fell precipitously. “I was afraid to do so,” Morris said. “I’m fearful it’s going to keep dropping like a stone unless we get the right leadership in our country.”
Boal, the Accumold CFO, was also in the crowd at the McCain event in Des Moines.