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Session 22: Emerging Regional Issues
“The Real Estate Market Has Peaked…So What’s Next?”
“Exurberance: Is it Rational or Irrational in the Las Vegas Housing Market?
“Manufacturing in the Midwest: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”
Sponsor: NABE Regional Utility Roundtable
Presentations
James Diffley's slides (PDF)
R. Keith Schwer's slides (PDF)
Links of Interest
Speakers
Rosemary Marcuss
Deputy Director
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Rosemary Marcuss is the Deputy Director of the US Bureau of Economic Analysis and is the Past President of NABE. She was a member of the Board of Directors of NABE from 2000 to 2003.
From 1983 to 1998, she was the Assistant Director for Tax Analysis, U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO), where she was responsible for Congressional tax receipts forecasts and tax policy analysis. She has also been: Senior Manager and Economist, Data Resources, Inc.; Assistant to the President, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; junior staff member, Council of Economic Advisers; Director, National Tax Association; Member: District of Columbia Tax Revision Commission.
She has a Ph.D. University of Maryland, where she had a National Science Foundation Fellowship.
James Diffley
Group Managing Director, U.S. Regional Services
Global Insight
James Diffley is Managing Director of Global Insight’s U.S. Regional Services Group, with overall responsibility for Regional Services, including the Regional Core Macroeconomic Service and the Global Insight Real Estate & Construction Service. Since 1998, he has supervised the quarterly economic forecast of the 50 states and over 300 metropolitan areas of the United States. He regularly makes presentations of these regional economic forecasts and analysis to clients, conferences, governmental bodies, and the press.
He is also responsible for customized consulting projects. These have included long-term projections of cigarette consumption, forecasts of capital gains realizations, analysis of the economic impact of the securities industry on New York State, analysis of the impact of changing oil prices on local economies, and the economic impact of various facilities locations.
Diffley came to Global Insight through WEFA, Inc. Prior to joining WEFA, Diffley was supervising tax analyst with the New Jersey Division of Taxation's Office of Tax Analysis from 1988 to 1996, where he was responsible for developing the state economic forecast for the state executive budget and for business tax revenue forecasting. Diffley did his Doctorate of Philosophy training in economics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, completing all requirements but the dissertation. From 1982 to 1987, he was on the economics faculty at Adelphi University in New York.
Keith Schwer
Director, Center for Business and Economic Research
University of Nevada Las Vegas
R. Keith Schwer is director of The Center for Business and Economic Research and a member of the UNLV Economics Department faculty. Specializing in economic impact analysis, econometric modeling, feasibility analysis, and survey research, Dr. Schwer is recognized as an authority on the business and economic environment of Las Vegas, the state of Nevada, and the region. He manages the annual Las Vegas Perspective survey, serves on numerous state and local advisory boards, and acts as a resource person for televison, radio, and print media. Professor Schwer has more than 25 years of experience in business and economics research in major university programs in Maryland, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, and Wyoming. He authors many reports and conducts both basic and applied research. Some of his recent academic research has appeared in the Annals of Regional Science, Journal of Applied Economics, the Review of Regional Studies, the Journal of Gambling Studies, the Journal of Insurance Issues, Review of Black Political Economy, Environment and Planning A, Journal of Cultural Economics, Environment and Behavior, Journal of Travel Research, International RegionalScience Review, Journal of Media Economics, and the Journal of Applied Business Research. He is a member of the American Economic Association, the Western Economics Association, the Western Regional Science Association, and the Southern Nevada Area Population Projections and Estimation Committee. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Maryland, and has two decades of teaching experience at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
William Strauss
Senior Economist/Economic Advisor
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
William A. Strauss is a senior economist and economic advisor in the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, which he joined in 1982. His chief responsibilities include analyzing the current performance of both the Midwest economy and the manufacturing sector for use in monetary policy. He also produces the monthly Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index, organizes the Bank's Economic Outlook Symposium and its Auto Outlook Symposium. He also conducts several economic workshops and industrial roundtables throughout the year. He has taught economics and statistics as an adjunct faculty member both for Loyola University, Chicago and Webster University, Chicago. He currently teaches at the University of Chicago, Graham School of General Studies. His research paper topics include analysis of the manufacturing sector, the auto sector, the Midwest regional economy, the trade-weighted dollar, business cycles, and Federal Reserve payments operations. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Crain's Chicago Business, Business Week, Investor's Daily, The Economist and many other publications from around the country. Mr. Strauss has also been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows. He is a past president of the Chicago Association of Business Economists and currently serves as a member of the Advisory Council for the University of Illinois at Chicago's Center for Economic Education. Mr. Strauss earned a BA in economics and geography from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and an MA in economics from Northwestern University.
