Category Archives: Center for Business and Economic Insight

CBEI Central Wisconsin Spring 2022 Economic Report

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CBEI

Just Like Old Times by Scott Wallace, Ph.D.Director and Editor, CBEI; Professor of EconomicsUW-Stevens Point School of Business and Economics Photo Album | Digital Report Recent times have been both interesting and challenging with the spread of the Delta variant interrupting a return to normalcy that we were all looking forward to. Now, the emergence […]

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Insight Spotlight: The Growing Trend to Overcome the Labor Shortage

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by Christopher Spranger,Founder and CEO of Spranger Business Solutions It was Wednesday March 11, 2020, and my wife and I were out to dinner with friends at a local sports bar. As we waited for our food, one of the TVs was showing the broadcast of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder playing against the Utah […]

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Bahr on WPR: How the Federal Reserve is moving to address inflation

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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell

With the Fed expected to raise interest rates, Prof. Kevin Bahr, chief analyst of the UW-Stevens Point Center for Business and Economic Insight, joined host Rob Ferrett on WPR’s “Central Time” on March 16 to talk about the last time that happened, and what we can expect to see in the economy as a result. […]

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Global Oil vs. U.S. Oil Prices, and Prices at the Pump

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Global Oil vs. U.S. Oil Prices, and Prices at the Pump

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that inflation increased 0.8 percent in February on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 0.6 percent in January. For the 12-month period ending in February, the annualized inflation rate was 7.9 percent, the largest 12-month increase since 1982. A key driver of U.S. inflation has been surging […]

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Wisconsin Trade with the Russian Federation

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Wisconsin Trade with the Russian Federation

No matter how long the military conflict continues, the growing atrocities committed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine will likely result in the United States and its allies sustaining economic sanctions against Russia for a prolonged period of time. This blog will take a quick look at international trade between Wisconsin and Russia. Although overall […]

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Leading economist John List ’92 speaks about scaling ideas and The Voltage Effect

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John List

University of Chicago professor of economics, Walmart chief economist and UW-Stevens Point Distinguished Alumnus John List ’92 returned to campus March 3-4 to speak about his experiences of scaling great ideas and shared stories from the White House and Chicago Heights schools to Uber and Lift. [View Photos] List presented “The Voltage Effect: How to […]

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The Economics and Politics of Russian Energy

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The Economics and Politics of Russian Energy

As the military tensions heat up between Russia and the Ukraine and the political tensions increase between the United States and Russia, this blog provides a brief summary of Russia’s energy importance. Russia is a major player in global energy and is particularly important for Europe and China. Table 1 below shows the 10 largest […]

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Long-term Inflation, Globalization and Supply Chains

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Long-term Inflation, Globalization and Supply Chains

Inflation has been a relatively hot topic of discussion with the annualized inflation rate hitting 7.5% in January, the highest rate since the early 1980s. Inflationary pressures resulted from a combination of increased demand as the economy rebounded from COVID, and reduced supply because of COVID related supply chain issues. This blog will look at […]

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The January Stock Market (and Interest Rates)

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The January Stock Market (and Interest Rates)

The stock market has been up, down, and all around in January. For the week ending Jan. 21, 2022, the S&P 500, a benchmark for large company stocks (a large-cap index), fell 5.7% and the NASDAQ, a technology heavy stock index, declined 7.6%. That was the worst week for the market since the first quarter […]

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CBEI Central Wisconsin Fall 2021 Report

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Interesting Times Recent times have been both interesting and challenging with the spread of the Delta variant interrupting a return to normalcy that we were all looking forward to. Now, the emergence of the Omicron variant promises to keep things interesting as we head into the holiday season and the new year. Speaking of interesting […]

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