The U.S. economy will struggle to shrug off a cooled housing market and a burgeoning fiscal deficit in the first half of 2007, but will regain some momentum in the second half of the year. That’s the prognosis of Michael Knetter, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business.

Led by the suddenly high-flying Midwest Air Group Inc., half of the top-performing stocks of southeastern Wisconsin’s publicly traded companies in 2006 were corporations in the midst of significant change. The best-performing stock in the BizTimes Stock Index in 2006 was that of Midwest Air Group Inc., the parent company of Oak Creek-based Midwest Airlines. Buoyed by December speculation that the company could be acquired by AirTran Holdings Inc., Midwest Air Group’s stock shot up 103.9 percent to close the year out at $11.50 per share.

Members of the Council of Small Business Executives (COSBE) board of directors are optimistic about the year ahead for their own companies, but they are much more divided about the direction of the regional economy in 2007, according to a new survey by Small Business Times.

SBT received survey responses from 21 board members of COSBE, which is an affiliate organization of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce (MMAC).

Businesses in the metro Milwaukee area see continuing gains in key growth indicators for 2007, according to the new first-quarter Business Outlook Survey conducted by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC). The metro area finished 2006 with a solid job trend. The local area has posted seven consecutive months of year-over-year job gains and is likely to post overall annual employment gains for the third consecutive year.

Suppliers to the Big Three U.S. automakers, including Milwaukee-based Strattec Security Corp., have had to get leaner and leaner in recent years. Two of the Big Three, Ford and General Motors, have been hemorrhaging money and losing market share to foreign competitors for years. Through the third quarter of 2006, Ford had net losses of about $7 billion, and GM had net losses of about $3 billion.

Over the past 13 years, Berbee Information Networks Corp. has evolved into a $390 million information technology provider that thrives by delivering cutting-edge solutions for its customer. Last September 2006, the Madison-based company was acquired by CDW Corp., a technology products and services provider based in Vernon Hills, Ill., for $175 million.

John Koss Sr., a trumpet player in a big band and an entrepreneur who went on to invent the first stereo headphone, launched Koss Corp. in 1953 as a television rental service catering to Milwaukee-area hospitals. By 1973, the company had grown to provide headphone jacks in all portable electronics and to create the industry standard high-fidelity headphone.

Most of Milwaukee’s merger and acquisitions and investment banking firms had record years in 2006, and they anticipate similar levels of activity for 2007. Relatively low interest rates, the willingness of banks and other lending institutions to fund acquisitions and the appetites of both strategic and private equity buyers have fueled the robust market, industry insiders say.

Brady Corp. acquires Italian manufacturer Milwaukee-based Brady Corp. announced it has acquired wire-identification manufacturer Modernotecnica SpA of Milan, Italy....

The declining value of the U.S. dollar is providing a needed boost to many Wisconsin manufacturers. Manufacturers that sell to Europe, China, India and other emerging markets are benefiting from the weak dollar because it makes the U.S.-made products less expensive for foreign buyers. However, for Wisconsin manufacturers that rely on foreign markets for outsourced production and machinery, a weak dollar has the opposite effect – it raises their costs.

Employers will soon face dramatic changes in how they hire and manage their workforce in China. After 11 years, the Chinese government and people felt that the People’s Republic of China’s current labor contract law did not provide the necessary protections and stability for its employees and employers, especially under China’s reformed economic system.

For the Milwaukee-area commercial real estate industry, 2007 could be the year of the hotel. There are at least 11 hotel developments that are being planned in or near downtown Milwaukee. In the suburbs, at least 11 hotel projects are in various stages of development. Plus, several existing hotels in southeastern Wisconsin have already completed, or are planning, renovations to keep up with the new competition.