????夏洛特是個商業城市。算上郊區的話，這里總共坐落著八家財富500強企業，真是令人感激不盡。這座城市依然堪稱美國的另一個金融中心。但要想弄清楚過去四年來這里所發生的事情，也就是破產、陷入低谷以及它的未來，開始的最佳去處不是市中心Trade街和Tryon街（相當于是這座城市的底格里斯河和幼發拉底河）的交匯處，也不是離南卡羅來納州際公路一步之遙的光鮮辦公區。

????相反，我們得沿著雜亂無章、異常喧鬧的威爾金森大道（Wilkinson Boulevard）來到了海厄特槍店（Hyatt Gun Shop）。該店自稱是美國最大的獨立槍械專賣店。店主拉里?海厄特為人友善、富有洞察力，總是隨身攜帶著手機和沒有擊錘的史密斯?維森（Smith & Wesson）手槍。在經濟衰退之前的繁榮日子里，海厄特生意興隆，把大量的高端獵槍賣給了銀行家們。那時，這些銀行家把夏洛特稱為家鄉，現在依然如此。2007年，生意越來越差，他說這便是早期預警信號。

????但這家槍店已經興盛了53年，具有很強的適應力。海厄特很快發現，槍箱是筆大生意。它們不只是用來存放步槍的。這次是用來放錢。他說：“人們想要在銀行之外找個更加安全的地方?！?/p>

????銀行之外。這在夏洛特曾經是個難以想象的概念。就像是汽車之外的底特律，或者賭博之外的拉斯維加斯。兩家大銀行，也就是美國銀行（Bank of America，在財富美國500強排行榜上排在第13位）和美聯銀行（Wachovia）使夏洛特這個既沒有港口、河流，也沒有頂級研究型大學的地方聲名鵲起，變成了第一流乃至世界級的城市。但后來，這兩家銀行步履踉蹌，因為經濟衰退和風險過于集中而遭受重創。美聯銀行被賣給了富國銀行（Wells Fargo，在財富美國500強排行榜上排在第26位）。美國銀行或許大到不能倒，但這家金融機構仍然面臨著投資者和監管機構的嚴密監督。

????從這座城市的金融核心地帶開始，痛苦和不確定性如同污漬一般蔓延到了整個地區，從柴納格羅夫的工人階級小鎮一直到諾曼湖邊的豪宅。失業率飆升，取消抵押品贖回權的情況大幅增加，仿佛從混凝土到鋼筋、從紅土到一望無垠的磚塊，整個大地都屏住了呼吸，提心吊膽地等待新一輪的打擊。

????但事實并非如此。夏洛特雖然尚未完全恢復，但推土機和起重機已經回來了。曾經幫助這座城市實現發展的鐵銹地帶大遷徙又重新開始了。甚至連高檔連鎖食品雜貨店Dean & Deluca也在擴張。或許，就連邁克爾?喬丹那支時運不濟的山貓隊明年也有機會贏得總冠軍。

????趾高氣昂的夏洛特曾經相信，坐落在這座城市的大公司絕對正確，因而過于唯這些大公司的馬首是瞻。但這次起死回生為這座城市注入了一些謙遜和新的思考。對于政府在重建經濟中的適當角色，美國進行了全國性的討論，而夏洛特的復蘇成為了討論的一部分。

????Charlotte is a corporate town. Counting its suburbs, it's still home to eight Fortune 500 companies, thank you very much. It's still very much the country's other banking center. But to make sense of what's happened here in the past four years -- the bust, the bottom, and what comes next -- the best place to begin isn't at the junction of Trade and Tryon streets downtown (the city's Tigris and Euphrates) or even in the gleaming office parks a stone's throw from the South Carolina state line.

????Instead, let's head down the scrappy jangle of Wilkinson Boulevard to the Hyatt Gun Shop, which calls itself the nation's largest independent gun store. Larry Hyatt, the owner, is a friendly and perceptive man who is never without his cellphone or hammerless Smith & Wesson. In the go-go days before the economy went south, Hyatt had a booming trade selling high-end shotguns to the bankers who called, and still call, Charlotte home. When that business tailed off in 2007, he said it was the canary in the coal mine.

????But a gun store that has thrived for 53 years is an adaptable business, and Hyatt soon found a big seller in gun safes. They weren't just for storing rifles. This time they were for holding money. "People wanted something safer outside of the banks," he says.

????Outside of the banks. It's a concept that was once unimaginable here. Like Detroit outside of cars. Or Vegas outside of gambling. Two big banks -- Bank of America (No. 13) and Wachovia -- put Charlotte on the map, creating a first-class, if not world-class, city out of a place without a harbor, a river, or a major research university. Then they stumbled, each dragged down by the recession and one deal too many. Wachovia was sold to Wells Fargo (No. 26). Bank of America may be too big to fail, but it's an institution still under intense scrutiny from investors and regulators.

????From the city's financial heart, the pain and uncertainty spread like a stain across the region, from the working-class towns of China Grove and Gastonia to the McMansions that line Lake Norman. Unemployment soared. So did foreclosures. It was as if the whole land -- the concrete and steel, the red dirt and the endless brick -- was holding its breath, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

????And then it didn't. Charlotte isn't fully recovered yet, but the bulldozers and cranes have returned. The great migration from the Rustbelt that helped fuel its growth has resumed. Even the Dean & Deluca is expanding. Maybe next year even Michael Jordan's hapless Bobcats will win.

????The gyrations have brought a dose of humility and new thinking to a swaggering region that had come to believe in the infallibility of its largest corporate citizens and perhaps relied too heavily on them for direction. Charlotte's rebound is also part of the larger national debate taking place about the proper role of government in rebuilding the economy.??