The Daily Inter Lake
As the country officially enters a recession, Montanans are wondering how the local and state economies will be affected.
Economic researchers and experts from throughout the Montana University System will be in Kalispell on Feb. 10 to fill in some of those blanks as they present the 34th annual Montana Economic Outlook Seminar.
It's part of a nine-city seminar schedule planned for January, February and March.
"It's shaping up to be an economic story that won't skip over Montana," Patrick Barkey said. He's the director for the Bureau of Business and Economic Research which sponsors the seminars each year. "It will be a challenging year for businesses, households and governments alike."
This year's seminar theme is "Montana's Transportation Future: Opportunities Around the Next Curve."
It features Steve Albert, director of the Western Transportation Institute, discussing the connection between Montana's transportation system and its economy. As in the past, economist Paul Polzin will highlight the latest economic trends and explain what they mean for Montana. He will present an economic forecast specifically for the Kalispell area.
Polzin will do the same in Great Falls, Missoula, Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Sidney and Miles City.
The forecasts are particularly timely because they incorporate the most current data and analysis, Polzin said, some as recent as this month.
Bureau researchers and other experts will examine recent trends and the outlook for Montana's important industries - tourism, real estate, health care, agriculture, manufacturing and forest products.
The series begins in Helena on Jan. 27. Each one runs from 8 a.m. until the end of the luncheon, about 1 p.m.
Kalispell's seminar will be in the Hilton Garden Inn on U.S. 93 at the south end of the city. The $80 registration fee includes the seminar, a proceedings booklet, lunch and a one-year subscription to the Montana Business Quarterly, the state's award-winning business journal (a $35 value).
Continuing education credits are available for a $20 processing fee.
For more information or to register, visit the Web site www.bber.umt.edu or call 406-243-5113.
Tox
What transportation future? Our economy's been based mostly on building and servicing ever more housing sprawl, which can only be sustained by low oil prices, while our officials and city "planners" have done nothing to configure infrastructure in the landscape for public transportation. We've been building ourselves into deep hole of oil dependency - and doing it with borrowed money while banking on the future. We almost hit $150/barrel earlier this year when the economy was still moving, until the near bankruptcy of our "financial industry" "saved" us from higher prices by freezing up the economy. Now everybody is hurting and wants the economy running again by doing more of the same. Great. Let's just build more stuff, without any kind of longterm transportation plan. China's and India's economies are growing at 10% and 8% respectively, with about 2.5 billionpeople, who are gonna pick up the slack in oil demand real fast. They're producing and selling stuff the rest of the world actually wants. We aren't. We're gonna do our best to help 'em out by buying their stuff at the new Super Wal-Mart....and stay in denial until we can't pay for driving there, nor even commuting to work anymore.