The host of public television’s Carolina Business Review selects the key figures influencing the Tar Heel economy.

The start of another major election year is three months away. Unfortunately for the country, and for some of the candidates, a summer that began with a bit of economic hope ended with a lot of pessimism. Politicians have had to face up to a cold, hard reality: The sour economy isn’t likely to be much sweeter come campaign season.

Numbers have special power, not the least their ability to measure more precisely than words.

Participation in the annual ranking of private companies is voluntary and has been since the list started in 1984.

LINCOLNTON — Lincolnton Furniture will begin production at a 311,000-square-foot factory here by year-end. CEO Bruce Cochrane says the plant will employ 130 by 2013.

Open Grounds Farm Inc. (cover story, September) took a direct hit from Hurricane Irene, though preparation and timing were on the side of the largest farm in the eastern U.S.

In September, Gov. Beverly Perdue announced that completion of the Greensboro Urban Loop will be accelerated with Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle (GARVEE) bonds, which borrow against future federal support to pay for present projects.

DURHAM — Metabolon, which tests medicines and other products for drug companies and universities, raised $13.1 million in venture capital. It plans to expand its business and add 20 employees to its 105-person workforce by the end of this year.

By any measure, Wilkes Hardware Co. doesn’t stack up to its one-time crosstown rival.

Around midnight, the spring sky spawned a twister that tore through Belmont, a small town just across the Catawba River from Charlotte. It ripped an 82,000-square-foot warehouse in half, strewing structural steel and sheets of siding like shrapnel and soaking the ruins in rain.

It appears I have become an extremist. I know this because other people have declared it to be so.