In 2009, the Bowden Investment Group beat the market.

The student group, which meets as a class and receives course credit, has been investing in the market for 10 years. It completed its 10th year of investing by again besting its benchmark index, the S&P 500. The Bowden Investment Fund (BIF) had an annual return of 28.93 percent in 2009, compared to 26.45 percent for the S&P. That’s according to its annual report. [PDF]

The BIF consists of stocks from numerous industrial sectors including: consumer discretionary, consumer staples, health care, industrials, information technology, and materials industries. No individual sector is to make up more than 20% of the portfolio’s holdings. The BIG has recently chosen to stay away from the financial industry as many companies in that sector continue to recover from the crisis of 2008 and face greater governmental regulations that will likely have negative effects on profitability for some time.

The report also explains that, “In January of 2000 the BIG began with an account balance of $10,678.21, and has grown to an ending balance on December 31st, 2009, of $71,651.83. While the BIG would like to take sole credit for the growth of the fund, the investing decisions of the group as a whole over the last ten years is only a part of the reason for the success and growth of this fund. Over the last 10 years, the Bowden Investment Group has been the recipient of financial donations from our generous supporters which have allowed us to grow the value of our portfolio, expand our investing options, and enhance the educational experience of group members.”

The Center for Entrepreneurship, which is housed within Walker College, has released its latest newsletter. Among the news items is efforts to increase outreach programs with a Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Grant.

Appalachian State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship expanded outreach initiatives throughout the region through a $50,000 grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in 2009. The goal was to introduce and expand entrepreneurial programs in northwestern North Carolina, focusing on the following counties: Watauga, Ashe, Avery, Wilkes, Caldwell, Mitchell, Yancey and Alleghany. Center staff met with representatives from the counties in our region to define projects that we could develop or support to encourage entrepreneurial development. We initiated several new major projects and have supported others. It is estimated that more than 450 community members were directly impacted by these activities throughout 2009.

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation was established in 1936 as a memorial to the youngest son of the founder of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The Foundation has now made grants totaling more than $432 million to recipients in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties. The Foundation currently gives special attention to certain focus areas: community economic development, the environment, democracy and civic engagement, pre-collegiate education, and social justice and equity.

For a complete list of our outreach activities, click here.

Due to expected winter weather, the Business Career and Internship Expo has been rescheduled. Originally set for February 5, it will now be held March 19 in Raley Hall. Recruiters will be welcome to meet students from the College’s many majors and speak with them during specific interview sessions.

A new series of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility seminars are underway, which are held each Spring semester within Walker College. This will be the third year that various faculty members discuss business topics from an ethical perspective. Among the many subjects already discussed was health care reform in the United States, as presented by Dr. Susan Roggenkamp.

Roggenkamp, program director for the Health Care Management Program, used many of her points in a lecture she delivered at the 2008 Wachovia Ethics Conference. Entitled “Who Should Pay for Healthcare,” her report focused on the projected costs of the current health care system, and how those costs could be best met. She opened by introducing what she considered a stronger description of the country’s health-care system.

Our outcomes are poor because we do not have a health-care system; we have a sick-care system. We pay for health care largely on a piece-rate system –insurance companies reimburse health professionals for providing medical services. This puts the emphasis on treating people after they become sick with acute or chronic health conditions, not preventing illness and disease. The result is that our national health care expenditures go up dramatically and the health of our citizens on the whole is not as good as it should be. In our current market-based system with its financing incentives, how does a health care provider earn revenue on a patient who is healthy and not receiving services? We teach our students that in a market-based system, maximizing profit is a goal. How do health providers – doctors and hospitals for example– maximize profit? Do more services. How does an insurance company maximize profit? Reimburse less for services. So we have this agonizing tension in our system – providers doing more and more services, because that’s how they earn revenue, and insurers trying to pay them less and less for those services.

Roggenkamp goes further in discussing inefficiencies in the current system, and the problem of those without insurance. She then offers three solutions - focusing on primary and preventive care, rewarding effective health care and universal coverage.

You can read her full report online [DOC].

Dr. Harry Davis,chief economist for the North Carolina Bankers Association, spoke Wednesday at the Greater Statesville Development Corporation annual meeting. He discussed the recent recession, which he says started in December 2007 and ended May 2009. But even though it is done, full recovery could be years off.

During a talk titled “How Strong Will Our Economy Be?” Davis said the current — or recently passed — recession was “the deepest” since the storied Great Depression of the 1930s.

For example, Davis said, household wealth in the United States declined $14 trillion from the end of 2007 to the middle of last year and that’s when economic trends started turning a corner. By the end of 2009, household wealth saw a net gain of $2 trillion.

But if the economy is turning a corner, it’s a big corner.

Last year, for instance, the U.S. lost more jobs — 4.2 million — than any year since the 1940s. A total of 7.2 million jobs have vanished since the recession started. And 40 percent of the people who have lost their jobs have been out of work for at least 27 weeks.

And it will probably get a little worse before it gets demonstratively better, Davis said.

He said that following the recessions in 1991 and 2001 it took 23 months and 39 months, respectively, for the lost jobs to return. Experts say it will take five full years for the jobs lost during this recession to come back.

Davis also warned of another economic threat.

And to top it off, Davis said, inflation is on its way.

He said inflation has been mostly kept under control because, despite the fact that the federal government has put more money into circulation (which, theoretically, would cause the dollar to lose some its value), the banks have not been lending at rate that is commensurate with the cash infusion.

But when the banks do open their vaults, Davis said, they will also open the floodgates to inflation.

Today’s GDP report confirms, at least by definition, that the recession is over. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports fourth quarter gross domestic product growth at 5.7 percent. That was the second consecutive quarter to see growth after a full year of losses.

The growth in the fourth quarter was the highest since the third quarter of 2003. The economy rose at 2.2% annual pace in the third quarter of last year.

But even with the strong growth in the second half of 2009, the economy shrunk by 2.4% last year. That was the biggest drop in 63 years and first annual decline for the economy since 1991.

The Washington Post says the strong growth number may be misleading.

Nucor is a good example. Reeling from the downturn last year, the Charlotte-based steelmaker practically stopped buying pig iron, which it uses as raw material. Instead it used up much of the pig iron it had stockpiled for normal times and suddenly didn’t need. For the last quarter of 2008 and the first three quarters of 2009, Nucor bought infrequently.

Now, said the company’s chief executive, Daniel R. DiMicco, “we’ve worked them down to the absolute minimums necessary to meet the demand of market.” So the company has gone back to buying more regularly. But steel demand remains weak, and Nucor’s mills are running at a little over 60 percent of capacity.

A recent study of economic bloggers concluded that a Walker College blog has an impact in the blogosphere. Environmental Economics is maintained by Dr. John Whitehead, chairman of the Department of Economics. He primarily blogs about environmental issues from an economic perspective.

According to Blogometrics, “There are some interesting economics blogs among the second tier of the top portion ranked in Table 2. For instance, a blog devoted to the economics of the environment — Environmental Economics — comes in at 17th.”

That is 17th among “top economics blogs by scholarly impact of contributors.” Also, the report ranks the blog 22nd among “top economics bloggers by scholarly impact.”

The state unemployment rate was released today, along with comments from Walker College professor Harry Davis.

North Carolina’s unemployment rate hit a historic high of 11.2 percent in December as the tally of jobs lost by the state’s workers since the recession started two years ago neared 250,000.

“That’s a pretty significant jump in the unemployment rate when we’ve been into the recovery this long,” said Harry Davis, the chief economist for the North Carolina Bankers Association and an Appalachian State University banking professor.

Many economists believe the national economy started recovering last summer. But job growth lags an economic rebound because companies need convincing that customers won’t quickly disappear again. So unemployment may keep rising at the same time there are other indications that economic prospects are improving.

Since the U.S. fell into recession in Dec. 2007, North Carolina has lost 248,000 nonfarm jobs. Manufacturers have slashed 95,500 workers since that time, while construction companies cut 65,800.

Those two sectors shed 2,100 positions in December, but the month’s biggest loser was the 2,600 jobs cut by leisure and hospitality services like hotels and entertainment companies.

That’s no surprise with consumers worried about their incomes cutting back on luxuries, Davis said. More losses at leisure companies can be expected this year, he said.

But manufacturing and construction job losses have about bottomed out, Davis said.

“We’ve now lost most of the low-paying, low-skilled jobs that are going to go overseas,” he said. “We’ve lost so many that’s probably about run its course.”

Anthony D. Cruver ‘08 CIS was recently named editor/producer for the Daybook Network, a news distribution service and online community owned by What’s Up Interactive and based in north Atlanta. The Daybook Network produces Atlanta Daybook, Dallas Fort/Worth Daybook and Nashville Daybook.

Cruver, a member of the Appalachian State three-time national championship football teams, has editorial and production responsibility for the three daily newswires/media portals serving 4,000+ journalists and community leaders in the three markets.

Just how fast you hit the internet tomorrow could rely on how much work Corning Cable Systems is doing today. The company is a leader in the production of hardware and equipment for telecommunication networks, including optical fiber and cable. It is cutting edge, and it’s CEO is coming to Appalachian State.

Clark Kinlin, president and CEO of Corning Cable Systems, will be the featured speaker for the 2010 Spring CEO Lecture Series, scheduled for March 25 at 2 p.m. at Farthing Auditorium. He was appointed to the dual roles in 2008, after just one year as chief operating officer. He has served in several different capacities since joining Corning Incorporated in 1981.

Kinlin is featured in the January 2010 issue of Communications News, in which he briefly describes upcoming advances in cabling infrastructure.

Demand for higher bandwidth is stemming from several places, including IP convergence, virtualization, increased storage requirements and new video applications. This demand is driving the need for increased optical connectivity in the LAN and data center.

Advances in Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand speed projections are encouraging. These all point to a need for optical connectivity in networks built with the future in mind. Customers are now deploying optical connectivity solutions operating from 10 Mbps to 10-Gigabit Ethernet, which are also able to support future speed projections.

Corning Incorporated has its own YouTube channel, which features several videos describing its products.

Here is another example of the company’s work, a press release entitled, “Corning Cable Systems Collaborates with Case Western Reserve University in Landmark Gigabit Fiber-to-the-Home Pilot Research Project.”

Corning Cable Systems LLC, part of Corning Incorporated’s (NYSE:GLW) Telecommunications segment, will supply product and design assistance to Case Western Reserve University and its partners in a historic initiative to test the power of super-high-speed Internet access to change people’s lives in inner-city neighborhoods.

The Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at the Mandel School of Applied Social Science at Case estimates that as many as 72% of the households in and around the University in the city of Cleveland have no Internet access. Traditional use of the Internet, however, is the least of their problems, as many families fall well below the definition of poverty. …

Corning Cable Systems’ FlexNAP™ Terminal Distribution System will provide design flexibility to Case Western Reserve University’s fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network. The solution is a cost-effective method of deploying optical fiber in outside plant distribution networks at speeds significantly faster than traditional field installations. Compatible with both aerial and below-ground applications, the cable and network access points are tested and shipped as a complete distribution cable/terminal system.

The CEO Lecture Series with Clark Kinlin is open to the public. Since its inception in Spring 1988, the Series has welcome more than 40 top business leaders to campus to meet with students and share their experience.

Walker College’s Center for Entrepreneurship is pleased to announce its annual Young Entrepreneurs Symposium (Y.E.S.), sponsored by Backyard Burgers. The event will take place February 24, from 3:30 to 5:30pm at the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center.

We have a very exciting lineup of young entrepreneurs who have started businesses in e-commerce, music industries, social entrepreneurship, and culinary arts. The keynote speakers are Jon West ‘06 and Chad Ledford ‘06, founders of the online retail company 3tailer, LLC. The idea of 3tailer began while Chad and Jon were students at Appalachian. They turned a $1,000 investment into a multi-million dollar company that now owns and operates more than thirty ecommerce websites.

Young alumni, current students, and a 13-year-old culinary phenom will also talk about their businesses and participate in panel discussions and presentations. Included in the lineup is the band Do it to Julia, who formed under the Appalachian State record label, Split Rail Records.

Thirteen-year-old pastry artist extraordinaire Daijua Corin is owner and president of Vela Delight in Charlotte. She turned a natural talent for home-style baking into a fun, exciting, and lucrative business.

Jimmy Hunt ‘08 started Yellow Dog Entertainment, LLC, which runs the annual Music on the Mountaintop festival in Boone. It started as a class project at Appalachian and grew into one of the largest musical events the town had seen in nearly a decade. Nearly 2,500 attendees enjoyed a full day of top musical talent in 2008, and more than 4,500 attended in 2009.

Chris Cornwell, a current student majoring in management with a concentration in entrepreneurship, was the 2009 Appalachian Student Entrepreneur of the Year. Chris is a serial entrepreneur, having founded multiple businesses, his latest being a socially responsible endeavor to combat poverty.

Sarah Pinnix is the founder and editor of The High Country Mom Squad, a website/online magazine dedicated to women and families in the High Country.” She created a TV show based on the Mom Squad for local station MTN, and hosts a weekly video chat show online at MomTV.com. She also teaches businesses how to use social media for marketing with her “Talk of the Town” Workshops.

At the end of the Symposium, we will announce our 2010 Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The winner will receive a $2,500 scholarship. The event also include entertainment, snacks and beverages and is open to all Appalachian students, faculty, and staff as well as regional high school students, community colleges, and community members.

RSVP is requested.

For more information contact Julia Rowland at 262-8325 or rowlandja@appstate.edu. We hope to see you there!