ORLANDO, Fla. – Callahan & Associates and WesCorp kicked off their first ever Financial Strategies Conference last week with some sobering economic news. Goldman Sachs economist Andrew Tilton spoke to the 61 credit union attendees, made up mostly of CEOs and CFOs. Tilton said the economic recovery is progressing, but very slowly. He predicted that the economy will grow 3 to 4% in the second half of 2004. He noted that with unemployment at 5.6%, wages will be stagnant, keeping consumer spending and inflation low. He also noted the end of the benefits of the major tax cut. "After the refund season, we're still going to have lower taxes but incrementally we're not going to get additional stimulus out of that. The growth effect of taxes is about to come to an end," he said. According to WesCorp, attendees came from 20 states from a variety of asset sizes, including 16 that had assets of $1 billion or more.. Callahan's and WesCorp partner in other areas, including Webcasts and the Callahan Credit Union Financial Services Limited Partnership.