News Briefs

Mark your calendars for the Feb. 23rd teleconference on the outlook for Europe, Asia, and the United States/Canada.  Speakers include Joachim Scheide, Kiel Institute for International Economics; Volcker Wieland, Goethe University of Frankfurt; Craig Alexander, Toronto Dominion Bank; Gene Huang, FedEx Corporation; Lynn Reaser, Bank of America; and Chris Varvares, president, NABE and Macroeconomic Advisers.  The NABE Outlook will also be presented.  The teleconference will begin at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern, and last longer than the usual NABE teleconferences - for 2 1/2 hours. Find more information and registtration for the Global Outlook Teleconference here.


The Professional Development Seminar will be held April 13-15 in Washington, D.C.  The theme is “The Macro Economy: Data and Models.”  Professionals from the federal statistical agencies will discuss the economic data series available, and business economists will describe how the data are used on the job.  Speakers will also cover macroeconomic models—how they forecast and the data they use. Co-chairs of the PDS are former NABE President Rosemary Marcuss and Board member Paul Thomas.
Registration will be available soon on www.nabe.com.  Plan to attend!


The NABE Board of Directors has appointed Rajeev Dhawan to replace Paul Bennett, who has resigned from the board due to job commitments. Dhawan is currently director of the Economic Forecasting Center and associate professor of managerial sciences at Georgia State University in Atlanta.  He has a Ph.D. in economics from University of California at Los Angeles, a M.A. in economics from Delhi School of Economics, and a B.A. in Economics, St. Stephen’s College both at University of Delhi. An active NABE member since 1998, he is a member of the Financial Roundtable, the NABE Outlook and Policy Survey panels, and the Atlanta chapter. He also serves on the Georgia Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors, is a board member of Public Broadcasting Atlanta, and is a past board member of AUBER.

Save the date for an important conference call on Thurs., March 19 at 11 a.m. Eastern on proposed revisions to the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS). OMB has invited data user comments on its proposal that includes a decrease in the number of industries covered in manufacturing and the handling of firms that outsource production, among other issues. Maurine Haver, chair of NABE's Statistics Committee, will start the discussion.  See the Federal Register notice for the proposed changes.

NABE has engaged JDG Associates, Ltd. to conduct the search for a new NABE executive director. A July ’09 (approximate) start is planned with final interviews to take place in May. The cut off date for resumes is Friday, April 17. A position announcement is available on Employment Opportunities. Those wishing to apply or nominate another are urged to submit their resumes or nominees’ contact information to Paul Belford, a Principal at JDG, on a priority basis. His email address is belford@jdgsearch.com. 

The January 2009 NABE Industry Survey has received excellent coverage since its Jan. 26 release, according to Melissa Golding, NABE press officer. NABE President Chris Varvares and survey committee members Sara Johnson and Shawn DuBravac did interviews about the survey with Bloomberg Television, the British Broadcasting Corporation (television), CNN Radio, Voice of America Radio, National Public Radio, ABC Radio (national syndicated service), CBS Radio (national syndicated service), Associated Press Radio (two interviews), the Wall Street Journal Radio Network, Bloomberg Radio, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Herald, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  In addition to these outlets, the survey has received original coverage by dozens of other outlets around the globe.

NABE sponsored two sessions at the January meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) held in San Francisco.  Kevin Kliesen, former NABE board member and economist at St.. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, organized the sessions. The first session featured Robert Hall, chairman of the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee, on “Dating U.S. Business Cycles and Troughs.” In the second session, James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, discussed “Long-run Economic Challenges—A Federal Reserve Perspective.” In both sessions, there were discussants offering different points of view. Highlights of the sessions and links to presentations are here.

Mark your calendar for March 19, when NABE will join with Select Greater Philadelphia as co-sponsors with Villanova University in hosting a half-day conference focusing on regional workforce issues.  The conference will take place on Villanova's campus, starting at 1 p.m. and finish with a reception at 5 p.m., according to Chris Swann, NABE member who is one of the organizers.

Nominations are invited for the 2009 Julius Shiskin Memorial Award for Economic Statistics, given in recognition of unusually original and important contributions in the development of economic statistics or in the use of statistics in interpreting the economy. The award will be presented with an honorarium of $750 plus additional recognition from the sponsors. A nomination form and a list of all previous recipients are available on the ASA Website.  For questions or more information, please contact Steven Paben, Julius Shiskin Award Committee Secretary, via e-mail at paben.steven@bls.gov or phone at 202-691-6147.  Completed nominations must be received by April 1, 2009. 

NABE members are encouraged to participate actively in the 2009 annual meeting in St. Louis, Oct. 10-13, by submitting a paper for the NABE Edmund A. Mennis Contributed Papers Award for papers published in Business Economics. There is a $1,000 prize for the best paper. By March 16, e-mail an abstract of no more than 250 words of a proposed paper (with no author identification) and a biographical sketch to Susan Doolittle, NABE executive director, at doolittle@nabe.com. The guidelines for preparation will be the same as those for all manuscripts submitted to BE, they are printed in BE, and are available on the NABE website or on request from the BE editor.