This week in 1977, Fleetwood Mac scored their only career #1 hit in the US with "Dreams." The song, written on a piano in ten minutes by Stevie Nicks in an empty studio that belonged to Sly and the Family Stone, is basically Nicks' break-up song with then bandmate Lindsey Buckingham. Buckingham, interestingly enough, wrote his own song about their breakup, another Fleetwood Mac hit, "Go Your Own Way." I guess pain makes for great art sometimes.

"Dreams" is known for its killer lines—"thunder only happens when it rains," and "players only love you when they're playing." Notice both lines are ten syllables and written in falling meter. Oh—you never noticed? That's because Stevie Nicks is underappreciated and one of the greatest songwriters of all time.

This month's economic indicators are a bit like that—underappreciated, but awesome. First, notice wages are up almost 6% from last year. That's an increase greater than Billings, Sioux Falls, Fargo, and Bismarck. Second, unemployment is down to 3.1%. Can it go any lower? Probably, but at this point, everyone that's looking for a job has one (and if you don't, just go look at Elevate's new job board and we'll hook you up). Third, hotel occupancy and airport boarding are off the charts and almost seem like typos. Hats off to Julie Jensen and the crew at Visit Rapid City along with Patrick Dame and the airport board. Finally, gross sales, building permits, and commercial vacancy rates are going in the right direction. In fact, we are on pace to hit $500 million in new building permits—absolutely destroying previous records.

The challenges, and we all know it, are housing, workforce, and inflation. In short, prices are high as well, workers are hard to find, and stuff is costing too much. Often I get asked on the street what Elevate is doing about all of it. I wish there was a silver bullet to both problems, but unfortunately, there isn't. It's a national problem, but I can tell you this—Elevate is putting about $200,000 a year into workforce grants in the form of retraining, apprenticeships, and relocating workers. We're also lobbying heavily at the state for low-interest funds and flexible loans for housing developments and infrastructure programs to help bring down the costs of homes for the entire workforce.

What about Inflation? It's an issue that has more to do with federal monetary policy than anything else. We're tracking it in real-time, but let's hope, like a Stevie Nick's inspired song, it gets resolved quickly.

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