Pub. 3 2023 Issue 1

What is your background in the financial industry?
I work out of the MIBA building in Jefferson City and service several clients including MIBA, utilities, and gaming and other age-controlled industries.

The Missouri General Assembly gaveled into the 2023 legislative session on January 4 amid the usual pomp and circumstance. House and Senate leaders lined out their vision for the session, both the House and Senate leaders calling for a change in the initiative petition process to make it harder for Missouri citizens to amend the constitution or statutory laws.

A new year and new Congress always bring a fresh start and an opportunity to refocus. Republicans plan to take full advantage of our new majority and get to work on advancing our priorities that have taken a backseat over the last few years while we were in the minority.

I’ve always been a glass-half-full guy, and though 2023 is expected to be a challenging economic year, it also will bring opportunity. We simply need to remember what makes us special as community bankers, and with that as our foundation, we can embrace this season of change in four primary ways:

The beginning of a new year feels like a fresh start, a new chapter in our stories. We have a blank page on which we can write our narrative over the course of the year, with new milestones filling the pages ahead. And with 2023, we have no shortage of adventures awaiting us.

As I write this article, it is the beginning of the new year, and I hope it brings us so much more than what 2022 brought us. Specifically, it brings us a more favorable position for our securities portfolios. At one point last year, we saw the 10-year U.S. government treasury have the largest drop since 1788 — that made for yet another historic year for our economy.