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-- CoBank's merger with U.S. AgBank on January 1, 2012, helped increase average loan volume as well as net interest income, net income and certain other key measures of financial performance, according to CoBank's first quarter financial results. The positive impact from the merger more than offset a year-over-year decline in agribusiness lending, caused by lower average prices for grains and other commodities and reduced inventory financing requirements at agricultural cooperatives.

-- By most key measures, the U.S. economy is still struggling. But physicist-turned-technology consultant Mark Mills argues there is a coming tech boom that could change everything. In the April issue of Outlook, Mills says the tech revolution will drive profound cultural change and economic growth in ways and amounts we can only begin to understand today.

-- Access to quality health care is vital to the prosperity of rural communications. CoBank, through its innovative Agricultural and Rural Communities (ARC) bond program and Growing Rural America Initiative, recently helped finance a new hospital clinic in Limon, a town of about 1,800 people on Colorado's eastern plains. 

-- Many experts are concerned over sovereign debt issues across the globe but noted finance expert Alex Pollock says in the March issue of Outlook that history is littered with soveriegn debt defaults by developed nations and that history offers us some lessons for today.
 
-- The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments on the legal challenge to the federal health care law. In last month's Outlook, economist Robert Graboyes contended the law will do nothing to quell rising health care costs and will discourage job growth. For a balance of perspectives, we interviewed Henry J. Aaron, a supporter of the law commonly known as Obamacare, for the March issue.

-- Few issues in recent years have been as heavily debated or as highly contentious as health care reform. And for good reason. The issue affects every American, and its impact on the economy is huge. Economist Robert Graboyes, senior fellow for health and economics at the NFIB Research Foundation, argues in the February issue of Outlook that Americans are only beginning to understand the profound impacts it will have on business and the health care delivery system in this country.

-- Full-year earnings for 2011 and net interest income reached record highs for CoBank, and loan quality improved throughout the year. The bank’s overall levels of capital and liquidity remained strong, as well.

-- CoBank announced that it's giving $2.5 million to help establish a world-class commodities center at the University of Colorado Denver.

-- Policymakers in the U.S., Europe and other developed regions are struggling to control their borders and slow illegal immigration. Developing countries, meanwhile, worry about their most educated, skilled and ambitious citizens leaving to seek a better life elsewhere. But Robert Guest, business editor of The Economist, argues in the January issue of Outlook that the free flow of people and ideas is, on balance, highly beneficial. Migration and more open borders, he says, fuel the exchange of ideas and make nations smarter, more innovative and competitive.

-- CoBank's Knowledge Exchange Division has released its first "Quarterly U.S. Rural Economic Review" which will focus on major industry trends in rural America.

--  CoBank has announced that it has successfully completed its merger with Wichita-based U.S. AgBank. The merger, which formally closed on January 1, 2012, creates an $85 billion financial services institution that serves as a leading source of credit to the U.S. rural economy. The combined bank’s customer base includes agricultural cooperatives and rural power, water and communications service providers in all 50 states.

-- After more than 60 years of unprecedented postwar peace and prosperity, Europe finds itself on the edge of an economic cliff. Can the continent’s common currency, the euro, and its common sense of financial destiny and purpose, survive? There are lots of opinions on the future of the Eurozone. See what respect economist Judy Shelton had to say in the December issue of Outlook.

-- Have you heard about the Shale Revolution? Not only is it changing the country's overall energy portfolio, but it could unleash an industrial renaissance in the United States, energy analyst Robert Bryce contends. Check out the November issue of Outlook for more.

-- Third quarter financial reports are out and CoBank, a leading cooperative bank serving agribusinesses and rural infrastructure providers throughout the United States, announced that quarterly net income rose 29 percent to $169.9 million, compared with $132.0 million in the third quarter of 2010. Net interest income for the quarter was $252.0 million, compared with $226.3 million a year ago.

-- How safe is our food supply? Considering that Americans have more than a billion "eating events" each day, there are surprisingly few problems, economic and agricultural historian Peter A. Coclanis argues in the October issue of Outlook.