I’ll get back to the Summit in a moment, but to try to keep some semblance of order, topically at least, I’ll jump ahead to the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition, held about a week after our own event, in Orlando, Fla. For this item, I’ll lean heavily on Lou Smyrlis’ coverage. He sat in on the popular All Eyes on the Economy session, while I attended press conferences (See the Equipment section for details on those).

It didn’t take long for the term The Great Recession to take hold, and now, the current period has been dubbed The Great Okay. That’s a rather brilliant characterization, when you think about it, because basically everyone I’ve talked to in the industry describes conditions as just that – okay. ACT Research president Kenneth Vieth gets credit for the new term, having declared: “We came through the Great Recession and we are now in the Great Okay.”

Stuart Varney of Fox News had this to say about the current economic environment: “I have to say the new normal is not that attractive.” But co-panelist Mark Vitner, managing director and senior economist at Wells Fargo, forecast GDP growth of 2.4% in 2014 and 2.7% for 2015, and indicated the economy is “moving in the right direction.” For a full report from Lou, go here.