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Session 22: U.S. Regional Outlook: Are We in for a Housing ARM-ageddon?
Will adjustable rate mortgages cause the housing apocalypse? – a regional economic outlook.
Links of Interest
Center for Business and Economic Research, UNLV
Presentations
Sean Snaith: Are We In for a Housing ARM-ageddon?
Brian Bethune: US Interest Rate Outlook
James Diffley: The Bubbles Have Burst! What's Next?
Speakers
Sean Snaith
Director, Institute for Economic Competitiveness
University of Central Florida, moderator
Brian A. Bethune
Director, Financial Economics
Global Insight
Dr. Bethune is Director of Financial Economics for Global Insight's United States Macroeconomics Group. Prior to this, he was Manager, Business Economics Group for Caterpillar Inc., and senior financial economist for the Bank of Montreal/Harris Bank Group. He has worked on special assignments at the World Trade Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, and the Institute of International Finance, Washington D.C. Bethune is responsible for high-frequency economic analysis and the weekly financial report. In addition, Bethune develops and supports US macroeconomic model resources for credit and financial markets, interest and borrowing rates, the flow of funds, government debt and deficits, government expenditures, and taxation.
His areas of Expertise at Global Insight include: Federal Reserve analysis and monetary policy decisions; Credit market dynamics, financial regulation, and the flow of funds; Interest rates, borrowing rates, financial modeling, and the yield curve; High-frequency US economic developments and their impact on equity, bond, and currency markets; Government budgets and debt; Government policies: revenues, expenditures, and policy simulations
Bethune is the author of several professional and academic articles that have appeared in publications such as Business Economics, as well as in the Canadian Tax Journal. Bethune holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in international economics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He also holds a Master of Arts from McMaster University, Canada, and a Certificate in Advanced Monetary Economics from the Kiel Institute of World Economics, Kiel, Germany.
James Diffley
Director, U.S. Regional Service
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.
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