April 25, 2011

UCSB's Economic Forecast Project to Host North Santa Barbara County Economic Summit

George Foulsham

UC Santa Barbara's Economic Forecast Project, with support from 102 private, public, and nonprofit sponsors, will present the annual North Santa Barbara County Economic Summit on Friday, May 6, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Marian Theater on the campus of Allan Hancock Community College in Santa Maria.

The summit will feature Dan Walters, a veteran journalist who has been covering state politics in Sacramento since the early days of Jerry Brown's governorship in 1975. Walters has written more than 7,500 columns about California politics and his column now appears in more than 50 California newspapers. In addition, Walters has written for The Wall Street Journal and The Christian Science Monitor, and he is a frequent guest on national television news shows, commenting on California politics.

Walters' book, "The New California: Facing the 21st Century," was published in 1986. He is also the founding editor of the California Politics Almanac; the co-author of a book on lobbying, titled "The Third House: Lobbyists, Money and Power in Sacramento"; and he contributed chapters to two other books, "Remaking California" and "The New Political Geography of California."

Walters will speak at 9 a.m., following a continental breakfast at 8 a.m.

Also speaking is Michael Bryan, vice president and senior economist in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Bryan is responsible for organizing the Atlanta Fed's monetary policy process. He previously served as vice president in the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, where he specialized in business analysis with an emphasis on measuring and tracking inflation trends. Bryan will speak at 10 a.m.

The summit also includes a presentation at 11 a.m. by Peter Rupert, the new director of the UCSB Economic Forecast Project. Rupert will be presenting the economic forecast that covers Santa Barbara County and the tri-counties as a whole. Rupert is a professor of economics at UCSB and was formerly the senior economics adviser for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland for 13 years. Rupert's areas of expertise include macroeconomics, monetary economics, labor economics, and family economics. He is vice chair of UCSB's Department of Economics, as well as associate director of the Laboratory for Aggregate Economics and Finance.

The UCSB Economic Forecast Project was established in 1981 by the Department of Economics to provide the community with information on economic, demographic, and regional business trends in the Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo county areas.

The summit is open to the public, and admission is $75 per person for the half-day event when purchased in advance, or $85 at the door. A copy of the Economic Forecast Report is included with admission. Tickets can be purchased by calling (805) 893-4102, or at the door on the day of the summit. Credit cards (American Express, Visa and MasterCard) are accepted.

Complimentary parking will be provided at the Marian Theater.

About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.