My 2009 Economic Forecast

Congratulations to President-elect Obama on his impressive and historic victory! Whether you are happy or sad about the outcome, I’m sure you share my relief that the longest presidential election campaign in history is finally over. Only 1,460 shopping days until election day 2012.

As we turn our attention to the year ahead, I want to let you know about my 2009 Economic Forecast for Wholesale Distribution webcast next week on Thursday, November 13, at 2:00 PM EST. Some Drug Channels readers may want to sign up even though the event is not specifically about the pharmaceutical industry.

On this webcast, I will give you a working familiarity with just about every major macroeconomic issue that’s currently in the news. You will also get a 30+ page report with detailed, written commentary on every slide. The event is being supported in part by IBM Corporation.

Some of the topics that I’ll cover include:

• U.S. Macro Economic Outlook, including GDP and Employment
• The credit crunch and the bailout
• Exports, Commodity Prices, and the Dollar
• B2B Industry Outlook for Manufacturing, Construction, and Retail industries
• 2009 Forecasts for 19 Wholesale Distribution Sectors (drug wholesalers are one of these 19 sectors)

And now for something completely different

Why am I doing this webcast?

Well, only 75-80% of my time is spent on pharmaceutical supply chain and pharmacy economics issues – consulting, research projects, speaking engagements, litigation expert work, etc. I spend the balance of my time as a business economist/consultant focusing on general supply chain economics for a wide range of business-to-business markets. You can read a sample of my macroeconomics writing on my other (non-pharma) blog:

• Mostly Bad News in Q3 Snapshot of U.S. Economy
• Commodity Deflation is Closing the Growth Gap
• How Economists See 2009

Of course, you Drug Channels readers are my favorites. Just don’t tell the readers of Distribution Trends!

I’ll return to my regularly scheduled programming in the next post. In the meantime, enjoy the hypnotic ad below and feel free to email me any economic questions that you’d like me to address on next Thursday’s webcast.