The Daily Bulletin Archive

By Mary A. Durlak

Should you invest in stocks? Stay in cash? Save or spend?

Bruce Fisher, director of the Center for Economic and Policy Studies, will moderate a panel discussion, “The Economics and Finance Forecast for 2010–2011” on Thursday, March 18, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center North. The panel of faculty members from Buffalo State’s Economics and Finance Department will discuss local, national, and international economic prospects; whether stock prices will continue to rise through 2010; and where the country’s economy is in this recovery cycle. The event is free and open to the public.

The panelists are Theodore F. Byrley, department chair and associate professor; William T. Ganley, professor; Ted Schmidt, associate professor; and Kevin Qian, assistant professor.

“We will talk about the prospects for economic growth over the next year and a half,” said Byrley. The discussion will include the economies in Europe and in developing countries as well as in the United States, with a look specifically at Western New York’s economy, including inflation, wages, and jobs.

Byrley believes that the United States may experience major structural change as the American middle-class lifestyle adapts to a changing world. However, he considers himself an optimist, and he points to the fact that he accurately predicted the market rebound that has occurred since the Dow Jones industrial average hit 7,553 in November 2008, followed by its low point of 6,547 in March 2009. (As of this writing, it stands at 10,444.)

This is the third panel offered by campus economics experts since Wall Street indices dropped rapidly beginning in September 2008. The first presentation, theWall Street Meltdown, was held on September 30, 2008; the second, Why We’re Not Out of the Woods Yet, was held on October 16, 2008.