What's Happening in Lake City

Yesterday we attended a seminar entitled "What's Happening in the World of Business." It featured David Kohl, PhD. Dr. Kohl is Professor Emeritus, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. He writes weekly web columns at Ag Globe Trotter and Road Warrior of Agriculture, he is obviously a agri-business guru.

The seminar was sponsored by Lake City Bank of which I am a director. Lake City is a $1.6 billion bank with $1 billion in outstanding commercial loans across northern Indiana. I am a jaded seminarer; I now attend them with low expectations. I can attest Dr. Kohl knows his stuff. His ivory tower has a real foundation. He is part of a company that sells milk the oldfashioned way: in glass bottles, delivered to your house! While unpaid CEO the company has turned a loss into a profit.

Here is what I learned. Four areas of the world use 80% of its oil and energy. China is five time less efficient that the United States. In the 1830's China was the World's largest economy. The jury is still out on its experiment to develop a free market economy while maintaining a Communistic social structure. U.S. housing price value has doubled in the past five years, three times more than in the 1970s and 80s. California, Florida, and the mid-Atlantic stages make up the fourth largest economy in the World; Florida's economy is larger than Russia's. People are beginning to take flight from the high housing costs of those markets and landing where there are good schools, hospitals, YMCAs, good roads and close airports, and natural amenities that include water and woodland. Gen-Xers will put less stock in the size of their home and more in their home's equity. What does all of this mean to us? The only constant is change.