Supply Chain Management ‘Critical to Success’ Going Forward, Says Conference Board of Canada’s Chief Economist

(Canadian Transportation and Logistics)

Glen Hodgson, senior vice-president, and chief economist at The Conference Board of Canada, was the keynote speaker at the Conference Board’s Supply Chain Management Forum, held March 2 in Toronto.

Hodgson spoke about the state of the US and Canadian economies going forward into 2010 and beyond.

Technically, he said, while economic growth has returned in the US, reaching 5.7 % in the last quarter, Hodgson said there has yet been no strong recovery in private investment and consumer consumption.

The US will pay a high price for the heavy government investment that has taken place to boost the economy, he said.

“At the peak of the housing bust in the US, one third of mortgages were subprime, ‘NINJA’ mortgages, i.e. no-income, no-job mortgages. The one piece of the US financial workout that’s not yet been settled is the housing market. There’s no true stability,” said Hodgson. Read more here.