Tag: Economic Outlook Conference

Economic Outlook conference held

By Tung Nguyen, Transcript Correspondent

International economies were dull and dry in the last decade and will be prolonged by Donald Trump in the next few years.

Ian Sheldon, a visiting professor from the Ohio State University, presented his thoughts to Ohio Wesleyan University students and faculty in the Benes room in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center Nov. 15.

“Things are getting better at a slow pace,” Sheldon said.

 

The U.S., along with Japan and the United Kingdom, will face minimal growths of less than 2 percent in 2017, predicted by the Sputnik News.

On the other hand, Sheldon showed that the economic growths among developing countries are positively forecasted. Both China and India, with the corresponding 6.2 percent and 7.5 percent economic growths, are the new world’s potential challengers.

“Besides, Brazil and Russia will bounce back from the long-term economic recession,” Sheldon said.

Mark Schweitzer, a speaker from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, agreed with Sheldon that on a large scale, the world economies will slightly improve.

However, both Sheldon and Schweitzer emphasized the downfall on the microeconomics scale. They predicted that the unemployment rates will be higher than the pre-crisis levels.

“The United Kingdom, especially after Brexit, will suffer signi cantly from the currency depreciation,” Sheldon said.

Along with the domestic struggles, the international trade system will also be affected by political changes.

“Trump will end the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and, as a result, pull down the economy’s growths of not only the United States, but also the other 10 members,” Schweitzer said.

Bob Gitter, an economics professor from OWU, said that by killing TPP, Trump will increase the unemployment rate and market prices.

Furthermore, Sheldon said that president-elect Trump will put a 35 percent tariff on Mexico and 45 percent tariff on China.

“No more cheap labors and no more cheap products,” Sheldon said. “With the economy’s recession, the United States’ citizens will be slightly in troubles.”

Bill Lafayette, another speaker from Regionomics Inc., showed that the central area of Ohio’s economy still remain stable in spite of the recession.

“The area’s population is gradually increasing and luckily, so is the employment rate,” he said.

Gitter said, “The world economies is facing significant changes but it is better than staying stagnate.”

Eleventh annual Economic Outlook Conference held

By: Evan Walsh, Transcript Correspondent

Panelist Ben Ayers. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.
Panelist Ben Ayers. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.

Folks pay a lot for financial advice.

Ohio Wesleyan students who attended the eleventh annual Economic Outlook Conference on Nov. 17 didn’t have to. This Tuesday, a panel of prominent economists led a lecture and answered curious students’ questions about the future of the economy.

Students like junior Brooks Gilmore, an OWU Economics Management Fellow, were pleased they went.

“I’ve come every year I’ve been at OWU. I’ll come next year, too, because I think this is an opportunity for students to take advantage of a learning experience outside of class,” Gilmore said.

Like the name might suggest, the Economic Outlook Conference anticipates what we can expect our economy to do at a local, national and global level.

Their projections for economic success were predicated primarily on the rising levels of employment and the Federal Reserve controlling hyper­-inflation to maintain the strength of the dollar.

Panelist George Mokrzan. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.
Panelist George Mokrzan. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.

Each of the three panelists were genuinely optimistic about the immediate and long-­term success of the economy.

However, during the question and answer part of the conference they came to a disagreement about the extent to which the economy will grow and the effects of government policy.

Senior economist at Nationwide Economics Ben Ayers, compared the national gross domestic product with changing levels of employment.

His research validated his suspicion that employment and GDP are those forces most responsible for making our economy a consumer economy.

George Mokrzan, the director of economics at Huntington Trust agreed with Ayers’s assertion that employment across the country has helped the recovery process. Still, he noted that regional improvements in the “rust­belt,” as it still mistakenly called, are actually ahead of the national average.

Panelist Mark Schweitzer. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.
Panelist Mark Schweitzer. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.

Mark Schweitzer, senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, was the last to present. He touched upon some of the previous comments with respect to the Federal Reserve policies that control the economy’s pace of recovery.

“The Volcker Rule and other monetary moves will slow inflation without hurting consumption,” Schweitzer said.

Some stuck around to speak with the panel members for their insight as professionals.

“Employment prospects for students are much higher now than they were a few years ago,” Mokrzan said. “There is still a premium on higher education, so stay in school.”

The conference, held in the Benes Room, was put together by the Woltemade Center with members of the economics department moderating.