I will be a little bit busy today and tomorrow as SCSU and its Center for Economic Education produces the 12th annual Economic Outlook and 44th annual Economic Education Winter Institute. Dan Laufenberg of Ameriprise, Minnesota state economist Tom Stinson and I will be speaking on the national, state and local economies at the Outlook; the program begins at 5pm at the Kelly Inn in St. Cloud (map). Admission to the talk is free.

If you are thinking about sports stadiums or conventions centers, the Winter Institute is the place for you on Wednesday morning, beginning at 8:30am at Ritsche Auditorium on the SCSU campus. Andrew Zimbalist, who I think qualifies as the premier "baseball economist", will talk about sports stadiums. After reading up on Zygi's pitch to Blaine last week, I think some people in the Cities will want to come up to hear whether these things are ever worth it. His talk begins around 9. An hour later Heywood Sanders will talk about convention centers. I remember twenty years or so ago there was a guy who would write the local paper each month saying we didn't need one in St. Cloud and would refer to it simply as "the white elephant". He never used the word 'civic center'. Well, we have one, and from what we hear we need another or at least a bigger one. Or not. Sanders will tell us why or why not that's a good idea.

This message will stay atop the blog for today. I may try to liveblog the Zimbalist talk Weds. for either here or the Sports Economist.