Western Montana InBusiness – January 2010 – Outlook 2010 – Where Does Montana’s Economy Stand?

Regional economists use phrases such as "cautiously optimistic" and "slow recovery" when they talk about the year ahead.

As the words are spoken, one can sense the hand-wringing that accompanies such assessments as they are made on the other end of the telephone.

Because the reputations of Larry Swanson, regional economist for the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, and Pat Barkey, director of the Missoula-based Bureau of Business and Economic Research, are based on their data-reading savvy and interpretation skills, they won’t voice the sentence I’m about to print.

Nobody wants to be wrong on this forecast;, too many factors – not to mention emotions – are tied to our economy.

But this is what they want to say, so I’ll just put it out there.

By BETSY COHEN

Full Publication: http://mtinbusiness.com/inbiz-0110/