To plan for a 2030 depression, he said, a wise businessperson would start a new business, build it up during the coming decade and then “sell it to someone you don’t like in 2029.”

He had serious comments, too, saying that Nebraska could ease its shortage of qualified workers by raising wages, which average $1,006 per week in Douglas County and $861 in Nebraska, below the U.S. average of $1,121.

Although the cost of living in the state may be below average, too, he said, low wages discourage skilled people from coming here in the first place. That’s one reason Nebraska is experiencing population “drift” as the number of people leaving the state sightly outpaces the number coming in.

Nationally, Beaulieu said, the U.S. free enterprise system, stable government and growing economy will continue attracting investors and talented immigrants who add to the nation’s economic strength, regardless of who is president and which party controls Congress.

Beaulieu said that President Donald Trump most likely will oversee some changes in the North American Free Trade Agreement but that those changes won’t disrupt significantly the trading relationships among Canada, Mexico and the United States.