News Briefs

Register for the June 14 teleconference at 2 p.m. Eastern on “Pain at the Pump: How High Could Gasoline Prices Go in 2007?” sponsored by the Regional Utility Roundtable. Speakers are John C. Felmy, American Petroleum Institute, and Howard K. Gruenspecht, Energy Information Administration. They will explore the reasons behind the recent surge in gas prices and the outlook for the remainder of 2007. Registration is complimentary for Regional Utility Roundtable members, $5 for other NABE members, and $50 for non-members. Register at: http://nabe.com/rt/reg/events.html.

Mark your calendar for Tuesday, July 10, 11 a.m. Eastern, when the Manufacturing Roundtable will present a teleconference on the steel industry, “Death Spirals, Summer Swoons, Volcanic Rebounds and All That--Whither Goes Steel?” The speaker will be Peter Marcus, a steel securities analyst, founder of World Steel Dynamics (WSD), and a consultant to the steel industry. Sign up at: http://nabe.com/rt/mfg/events.html.

Watch for release of NABE’s Second Quarter Industry Survey on Monday, July 23.

NABE held its second Media Seminar for journalists and journalism students in New York City on May 2. Board member Stuart Hoffman demonstrated how NABE’s forecast aggregation experiment works, casting his “votes” online for estimates of payroll employment that were reported later than week. Former U.S. Treasury Under Secretary Peter Fisher of BlackRock, which hosted the seminar in Manhattan, was the newsmaker speaker. Board member Catherine Mann presented data on international trends, former Bureau of Labor Statistics economist Deborah Klein focused on employment and related statistics, and NABE News editor and former economics reporter Pam Ginsbach made a presentation on inflation measures.

NABE has scheduled two econometric seminars. Register now for an Aug. 20-23 program on "Econometrics for the Business Analyst" in Chicago, and "Advanced Statistical Techniques for Economic Forecasting” on Oct. 15-18 in Atlanta. Register soon for savings.

The NABE Foundation has launched is annual appeal, asking members and supporters to come together to build on the foundation’s programs. The NABE Foundation supports the education and enhancement of the profession through various charitable activities and educational opportunities. For the business economist, this is the chance to give back to the profession that provides one’s livelihood. For more information, visit the Foundation’s website.

The April Industry Survey received excellent media coverage upon its April 23 release, according to Melissa Golding, NABE press officer. Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America and the survey’s main spokesperson, was interviewed by Associated Press Radio, CNN Radio, Bloomberg Radio, Voice of America Radio, Wall Street Journal Radio Network, and Bloomberg TV. Industry Survey Committee Member Sara Johnson of Global Insight spoke to Bloomberg News about the survey. Among the other media outlets that have done reports on the survey are Dow Jones, United Press International, Reuters, the Associated Press (multiple reports), and Finfacts Ireland.

The May Outlook Survey has received some terrific media coverage since its release on May 21. NABE President Carl Tannenbaum has done many interviews about the survey with such outlets as CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg News, USA Today, Associated Press Radio, CNN Radio, and the Wall Street Journal Radio Network. Survey Committee Member John Silvia of Wachovia did a survey interview with Biz Radio 1360/1320 in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. Among the other outlets that have run survey articles thus far are the Associated Press, Reuters, National Public Radio, Bloomberg News, Xinhua (China), Forbes.com, the Financial Times, MarketWatch, SmartMoney.com, RP News Wires, the Wichita Eagle, Finfacts Ireland, Yahoo! News, CNBC.com, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Google Business News, and Resource Investor.