NORTH LIBERTY, IOWA (January 8, 2020) — Kevin Depew, deputy chief economist of RSM US LLP, will deliver the keynote address at the Corridor Business Journal’s 2020 Economic Forecast Luncheon.

The event, scheduled for January 22 at the Coralville Marriott, invites a panel of business leaders and keynote to discuss where the economy is heading in the new year.

DES MOINES, IOWA (January 7, 2020) — When the Iowa State Fair wraps up, Fairgoers start patiently waiting. The Blue Ribbon Foundation knows winter can be the hardest part of the wait. Once you flip the calendar, February is 6 months until the best celebration of the summer. That's only 182 days until you get to eat your favorite food-on-a-stick and join in the beloved traditions. Stop counting down the days and join the Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation as we fast-forward to August!

As we enter a new year, the running-battle between the world's governments and the world-changing technology known as "cryptocurrency" continues. As 2019 drew to an end, Swiss president Ueli Maurer asserted that Facebook's digital currency (not a real cryptocurrency), Libra, has failed "because central banks will not accept the basket of currencies underpinning it." Politicians want to regulate — or, if possible, kill — cryptocurrency.

As the calendar prepared to flip from 2019 to 2020, protesters stormed the US embassy in Baghdad. As I write this, the action — a response to US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria which killed at least 25 and wounded more than 50 — hasn't yet become a reprise of the Iran hostage crisis of 40 years ago, but it's eerily reminiscent. Although few Americans seem to notice, Iraq is arguably the second-longest war in US history.