Steve Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine and former presidential candidate, recently discussed the present state of the national economy and forecasted its future at a Sacramento business conference.

Forbes was the featured speaker at “Business 2001: Perspectives on Business,” presented by the Sacramento Metro Chamber on March 20 at the Sacramento Convention Center.

“The future is absolutely fantastic for our economy and the global economy,” Forbes said.

There are pessimists who predict that the economy will undergo a period of extended stagnation a la Japan, Forbes said. “That is nonsense,” he said.

The decline in high-tech industry that has occurred in the past several months is similar to the many young industries at the turn of last century, Forbes explained. He also said that, although many tech companies will cease to exist, the industry itself will continue to progress.

“We can overcome these meritable shakeouts if we pursue the right policy,” Forbes said.

He said that much of the economic slowdown is the result of poor policy by the Federal Reserve, specifically its desire to curb inflation with high interest rates.

“The Federal Reserve got upset that the American economy was booming,” Forbes said.

Forbes also opined on tax cuts proposed by President George W. Bush, saying they are not enough.

“Today the federal government is taking a higher percentage of your income than at any time since the second World War,” Forbes said.

In real terms, Bush?s tax cuts, which would save tax-payers an estimated $1.6 trillion over 10 years, is small when compared with tax cuts offered by President Ronald Reagan, Forbes said. He added that it should be larger, and its benefits should be received faster.

The other guest at the conference was wearing a hat resembling a watermelon and a colorful suit. Wally Amos, founder of Famous Amos cookies, discussed the keys to his success.

“I have never asked the opinion of anyone,” Amos said.

Entrepreneurs should have faith in their product and find a way to sell it, Amos said.

“If I believe in it, then I will find a way to sell it,” Amos said.

He said that self-confidence was a key to his success.”It?s about how you see yourself, not how others see you,” Amos said.

Amos said that he combined his two best talents, chocolate chip cookies and product promotion, to make Famous Amos cookies a success. “The secret is, there is no secret,” he said about the Famous Amos cookie recipe.

The conference also featured a trade show with over 100 businesses exhibited, including ZUniversity , the company that powers zhornets.com, the Sacramento State Alumni web site.

The alumni Web site is useful to everyone, said Lady Reiss, manager of University Relations at ZUniversity.

“If you are a student at Sac State, you are just as prone to get use out of the site as an alumni,” she said.

The alumni Web site contains local university news, nationwide newswire story and has free web space available to everyone.

Users do not need to know HTML programming to create their own site at zhornets.com, Reiss said. She encourages local Sac State programs to use web space for their home pages.

The conference also featured speakers Daniel Burrus, president and CEO of Burrus Research Associates; Sergio Zyman, former chief marketing officer of the Coca-Cola company and Candice Carpenter, founder and co-chairman of ivillage.com.

The event was sponsored by AT&T, The Sacramento Business Journal, Newstalk 1530 KFBK, KCRA Channel 3, Morrison and Foerster, River City Bank and United Parcels Service.