The Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) will hold its mid-year economic update in Billings on August 2, 7-8:30 am, at the DoubleTree.

It has been an eventful year for the economy already. The torrid pace of economic growth of last year has given us surging inflation, very tight labor markets, and empty store shelves in 2022. And now the prospect of the Federal Reserve finally taking action against inflation to cool down growth has spooked financial markets and awakened recession fears. Are those fears overblown? These will be among the subjects discussed during its program, which will also be held in several other major Montana cities.

The event will feature Dr. Patrick Barkey, Director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research since 2008 at the University of Montana. Dr. Barkey has been involved with economic forecasting and policy research for more than 30 years, in both the private and public sectors. Before coming to Montana he served as Director of the Bureau of Business Research at Ball State University in Indiana for fourteen years. His recent research has been on the economic impact of energy development, the property tax treatment of the telecommunications industry and the economic impact of trade with Canada.

Also among the speakers will be Simona Stan, Professor of marketing at the University of Montana. Since last year, she is also the Wilson Logistics Faculty Fellow. Stan has a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Missouri and a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sibiu, Romania. She taught for five years at the University of Oregon. Prior to her academic life, she was a production engineer and manager in Romania. At UM, she teaches Logistics and Transportation and Global Supply Chain Management along with a selection of marketing courses at undergraduate and master level. Her current research interests are in global logistics and supply chains, sales, and services marketing.The program will be presented in Bozeman on August 2; Great Falls, August 3; Missoula, August 4; and Kalispell, August 4. For more information contact the BBER’s website www.bber.umt.edu