President Barack Obama told the American people today that he sees "glimmers of hope" for the economy, but the recession will cause more job losses in the short term.
In a speech about the economy at Georgetown University today, Obama noted progress on several fronts, including: local governments have canceled layoffs of police and teachers; millions of families can take advantage of lower interest rates to refinance their mortgages; small businesses are finding it easier to borrow; and more credit is beginning to flow to support student loans and auto loans.
"But it does not mean that hard times are over," Obama said.
"To begin with, economists on both the left and right agree that the last thing a government should do in the middle of a recession is to cut back on spending. You see, when this recession began, many families sat around their kitchen table and tried to figure out where they could cut back. So do many businesses. That is a completely responsible and understandable reaction. But if every family in America cuts back, then no one is spending any money, which means there are more layoffs, and the economy gets even worse. That's why the government has to step in and temporarily boost spending in order to stimulate demand. And that's exactly what we're doing right now," Obama said. "Second of all, I absolutely agree that our long-term deficit is a major problem that we have to fix. But the fact is that this recovery plan represents only a tiny fraction of that long-term deficit."
Meanwhile, U.S. retail sales dropped a seasonally adjusted 1.1 percent in March, the Commerce Department reported today. The results were still much weaker than expected by economists.
Sales fell in March for nearly every type of store, with the exceptions of food and drugs. Sales of durable goods were soft in March.
The stock market slipped again today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average quickly fell by more than 100 points, but cut those losses by more than half by mid-morning.
Locally, stocks in the BizTimes Stock Index were mixed today. The largest local gainers this morning were Fiserv Inc. (up 44 cents to $36.89) and Harley-Davidson Inc. (up 41 cents to $18.47). The largest local decliners this morning were Associated Banc-Corp (down $1.76 to $16.54) and Snap-on Inc. (down 88 cents to $28.12).

The Obama Administration is determined to employ the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Small Business Administration to make a big dent in the small business credit crunch. The goal for SBA is jump-starting job creation, re-starting lending and promoting investment in small businesses. Read more in today's Milwaukee Biz Blog by SBA Wisconsin Director Eric Ness.

In March, 59 percent of respondents to the BizTimes Poll said they believed their companies will be laying off more employees in 2009. What are the expectations one month later? Take the April poll and see the results so far at www.biztimes.com.

The Milwaukee Common Council voted 12-2 this morning to move forward with artist Janet Zweig's public art proposal for East Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Milwaukee.
Aldermen Robert Donovan and Joe Dudzik were the only members of the council voting against the project, which received rousing support from the city's arts community.
The costs of the project will be about $300,000, but 80 percent of those costs will be covered by the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of a larger streetscaping project.
Zweig plans to place five kiosks on light poles along the street. Inside each kiosk will be animations that use mechanical flap signs depicting familiar scenes of life in Milwaukee.

Orion Energy Systems Inc., a Plymouth-based provider of energy management systems to the commercial and industrial sectors, announced today that, on a preliminary basis, the company's annual revenues for its fiscal year ended March 31 are currently expected to be between $71 million and $73 million and earnings per share are expected to be between 1 cent and 3 cents per fully diluted share.
The results fall short of expectations by stock analysts, who had projected revenues of $81 million and earnings of 9 cents per share.
Orion's preliminary results for its fiscal 2009 are unaudited and remain subject to finalization, revision and adjustment, including any revisions and adjustments that may result from the fiscal year end financial statement closing and audit processes.
"As we commented earlier this year, the global recession has presented significant headwinds in the form of declining customer capital expenditure budgets, lengthening customer sales cycles, accelerated plant closures and job losses of key contacts at our existing customers. These challenges delayed several significant national account opportunities and had meaningful impact on our fourth quarter results," said Neal Verfuerth, chief executive officer of Orion Energy Systems. "We strongly believe that these opportunities are still alive, as indicated by several purchase orders we have already received from these delayed opportunities since the quarter ended. We remain hopeful that this trend continues and that we capture these revenues in fiscal 2010."

As expected, West Bend Mutual Insurance Company today announced the promotion of Kevin Steiner to president and chief executive officer, succeeding Tony Warren, who retired as CEO April 1.
Steiner joined West Bend in 1994 as group underwriting manager and was later named corporate sales manager. In 1996, he was promoted to assistant vice president of sales, and in 2002 to senior vice president of Marketing. He was named executive vice president and chief operating officer in 2007.
Before joining West Bend, Steiner spent 10 years with Citizens Insurance Company in Michigan. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and received his master's degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
The board of directors of West Bend Mutual elected Warren as the new chairman of the board. Warren, succeeds John Dedrick, who retired in March.

West Allis-based Merge Healthcare Inc., a medical imaging solutions provider, today announced it has expanded its distribution agreement with Eklin Medical Systems for sales to the veterinary market.
Merge and Eklin have been working together since 2002, when Merge's eFilm Workstation was customized for the intricacies of imaging animals of all sizes and the veterinary market in general. eFilm Workstation, the world's most widely downloaded diagnostic imaging software, recently surpassed its 3,300th installation in the veterinary market.
Approximately 90 percent of U.S. veterinary universities and the majority of large zoos use eFilm, making it one of the most widely used research and teaching tools for veterinary imaging.
"The veterinary care market has shown a robust adoption of digital imaging technology, yet many smaller practices need economical solutions in order to go digital," said Gary Cantu, founder and chief executive officer of Eklin. "eFilm Workstation has been a critical element of our success in bringing an economical solution to this growing market. It is far more advanced than any other product we have seen in this market."
"This latest milestone is one of the many we have proudly reached with eFilm," said Justin Dearborn, Merge Healthcare CEO, "and we're looking forward to continuing this progress. The conversion to digital is only starting internationally, and eFilm is known worldwide in radiology. Our expanded agreement with Eklin will provide both companies continued leadership in veterinary imaging."

The Wagner Companies announced the appointment of Richard Kettler as president, chief operating officer of their Butler-based manufacturing and distribution operations. Previous president, Robert A. Wagner, will continue his affiliation with the company in the role of chairman and chief executive officer.
Kettler joined The Wagner Companies in 2000 as operations manager. Since his arrival, he has also held the roles of chief operations officer and executive vice president. Prior to his association with Wagner, Kettler held executive and management positions with Handy & Harman, NL Industries and Texas Instruments.
The Wagner Companies has been in the metal business since 1850 as a manufacturer of handrail fittings and metal products for architectural and industrial applications.
The Wagner Companies includes R & B Wagner Inc. and The J. G. Braun Company.

If the Milwaukee Brewers win the World Series in 2009, Appliance World will provide customer rebates of 100 percent of the prices paid for any appliances purchased between April 17 and April 20.
"The Crew are going all the way," said Ed Aumann, owner of Appliance World. "We want to build on the momentum generated last season. We have complete faith in our home team, and in times like these, a little help toward those inevitable major purchases gives the fans a little extra incentive to root for our guys."
Appliance World has locations in Greenfield, Brookfield and Germantown.

Veteran Wisconsin banker Richard Hensley has been named chief executive officer of Waukesha-based InvestorsBank. Hensley served previously as Wisconsin president of Citizens Bank. Timothy Schadeberg, who was named president of the bank in May of 2008, will continue in that role. Read more exclusive financial services industry news in this week's BizTimes Money bulletin.

Gardner Denver Inc. announced Monday that it will close its Thomas Products manufacturing division in Sheboygan, where the company employs 366 people, and move the operation to Monroe, La. "This is a huge win for Monroe and our entire state," said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at a press conference. "Gardner Denver's expansion shows that Monroe and all of Louisiana can compete with any other state in the country." As part of its relocation package, the State of Louisiana will reimburse Gardner Denver for most of its moving costs and provide annual payroll and sales tax rebates, along with employee recruitment and training assistance. The city will also help in the construction of a new 124,000-square-foot manufacturing facility near the company's existing Monroe, La. plant. "In the long term, we believe this consolidation positions us with the best business solution and is in the best interests of Gardner Denver and its shareholders," said Barry Pennypacker, president and chief executive officer of Gardner Denver. Pennypacker added that a number of factors influenced the decision, but the main focus was to "drive cost and inefficiencies out of the operations." Thomas employees in Sheboygan agreed to wage and benefit concessions in recent months that they said would save the company $3 million over the next year. But in the end it wasn't enough to keep the company in Sheboygan. "I think we gave as much as we could," said Diana Schmidt, president of the IBEW Local 1060. Read more in BizTimes Milwaukee's daily roundup of headlines from newspapers across the state at www.biztimes.com/#news.