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B2B Stories

Simon Says: Tariffs and Effects on Jobs

Manufacturing employment in the United States has fallen by 58,000 since April, when President Trump announced his tariffs on “liberation day” to stand at 12.7 million in September. Five straight months of losses in an industry that tariffs were supposed to protect. A week ago, at the economic forecast breakfast, we analyzed the impact of tariffs on manufacturing, as well as the agriculture and service sectors. Using data from 2012-2023 on all metro areas of Georgia, we find that tariffs do have a positive impact on manufacturing employment, but it

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe and Brandon Day December 9, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

New leadership in place at Cyber Command

One of the units at Metro Augusta’s largest employers has a new Commanding General during a change of command ceremony. MG Christopher Eubank was elevated at Fort Gordon. He is the sixth commanding general for ARCYBER. He replaced LTG Maria Barrett. ARCYBER’s 16,500 soldiers, civilians, and contractors represent more than one-third of Fort Gordon’s total employment of military and civilians. Presiding over the ceremony was 41st Chief of Staff of the Army, GEN Randy George, the 41st Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. He said command and control are

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Dana Lynn McIntyre December 8, 2025 No Comments
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8th and 9th location opens in Columbia County

Benchmark Physical Therapy is opening locations in two new Columbia County shopping centers. They are opening in The Commons at West Lake on Furys Ferry Road, and Greenpoint Commercial Retail in Appling. Here are the following services Benchmark offers: Physical Therapy Telehealth Physical Therapy Work & Industry Headaches Instrument-Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTM) Manual Therapy Orthopedics Geriatric Therapy Arthritis Management Pre/Post Surgical Back Pain Neck Pain Shoulder Pain Elbow Pain Hand & Wrist Pain Ankle Pain Knee Pain Chronic Pain Generalized Weakness   Benchmark accepts insurance and typically suggests 3x’s

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Neil Gordon December 8, 2025 No Comments
Awards

Local Credit Union Earns impressive Georgia recognition

The awards keep coming for a local credit union. If you are one of the 200,000-plus SRP members in the CSRA, you are part of the best of the best according to Forbes magazine. The Forbes List of America’s Best–In–State Credit Unions 2025 recognizes institutions that are most valued by residents in each state and have excelled in meeting the unique needs and expectations of their local communities. Accepting the award given prior to Thanksgiving were the following SRP executives: Back row, left to right – Kevin Toole, Chief Lending

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Neil Gordon December 5, 2025 No Comments
Awards

Award-winning companies utilize 100+ more employees to grow

The Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce wrapped up its 2025 series of Member Executive Luncheons with the traditional flourish. Today, Vinea Capital and PC Techware have an extra award on the mantle. The chamber announced with winners of the 2025 Corporation of the Year as the 2025 Entrepreneur of the Year. Russell Wyatt, founder and CEO of PC Techware, was named entrepreneur of the year. The award pointed to Wyatt’s leadership in innovation, while more than doubling the company’s number of employees in three years. That workforce is 100% local,

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Dana Lynn McIntyre December 5, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

Simon Says: Students break down economic forecast in CSRA

Yesterday, I gave my economic forecast with the help of two undergraduate economics students, Kacey Axon and Brandon Day. Due to the 40 + day delay caused by the feds shutting down the government, we’ve had an absence of local economic data for several months. This week, Kacey and I concentrate on long-term growth and summarize her research. Next Tuesday, we will cover Brandon’s analysis. In economics, when we talk about growth, we talk about an increase in real GDP. GDP is gross domestic product and is the total market

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe with Kacey Axon December 3, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

Checking the pulse of the Metro Augusta economy

About 100 CSRA professionals, educators, and business students attended the annual economic forecast, unlike any other in the previous 17 years of the breakfast event. Dr. Simon Medcalfe, Professor of Economics and Finance in the Hull College of Business, and a columnist for ABD, cautioned that there is no local economic data past Augusta, making it difficult to forecast for next year. However, it created an opportunity to look at long-term practices and how they can influence economic growth and development. “When economists talk about economic growth, we’re talking about

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Dana Lynn McIntyre December 3, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

Potential funding for a Veteran’s cemetery in Augusta

There is one 90 miles away from Augusta, and now Georgia’s senior U.S. senator has joined the call to create a state Veterans Cemetery in Richmond County. A news release from Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, said he has secured $150 million in a bipartisan funding bill for Grants for Construction of Veterans Cemeteries. In a letter, Ossoff wrote to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins, said there should be enough funding to create

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Dana Lynn McIntyre December 2, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

Solid steps for businesses to protect themselves against fraud

A common fear among business owners is protecting their finances against fraud. An expert representing a CSRA bank branch shared ways fraudsters take business assets and simple steps to prevent it. Kerry Huettner, SVP, Treasury Management Officer with Ameris Bank, was the speaker for the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce’s final Third Thursday Business Builder program for 2025. Huettner has been in the banking business for 25 years. He said it used to be that he would talk with a customer about fraud once a month. Now it happens multiple

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Dana Lynn McIntyre December 1, 2025 No Comments
B2B Stories

Simon Says: Long-Term Economic Growth

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the delayed September jobs report last week. Employment growth was strong, with 119,000 new jobs created, but the unemployment rate edged up to 4.4%. There is no indication, yet, when metro-level data will be made available. For my economic forecast next week, I will therefore look at some more long-term drivers of economic growth as well as some current policies. Obviously, tariffs have been in the economic news this year, and an analysis of their impact in Georgia will be presented. The current administration

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe, AU Economics Professor November 25, 2025 No Comments
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