Stuart Varney is “wildly optimistic” about where the country is going.

Economist and anchor of Fox Business Network’s “Varney Company,” Varney talked about where the country is now, and how it got there, during a Thursday event in Tyler.

He was the featured speaker of The University of Texas at Tyler Hibbs Institute 2014 Economic Forecast Summit, attended by 442 people at the Green Acres Baptist Church CrossWalk Conference Center.

Varney said the country is where it is now — with its economy, culture, politics and government — because of the panic of 2008.

On Sept. 18, 2008, an old-fashioned panic started on Wall Street, creating a financial system log jam, he said. By Oct. 13, 2008, the “panic was over, but that was the start of every part of our living today,” he said.

Partly due to the panic, President Barack Obama was elected and policy changes, such as $842 billion in stimulus funding and Obamacare were created, the country lost 8 million jobs, economic growth essentially stopped, debt went through the roof and housing prices collapsed, he said.

“We all felt the panic and we all reacted to it,” Varney said.

He said it changed the country’s financial culture profoundly, causing people to hate the rich and detest banks and Wall Street.

Since then, at 2 percent, the U.S. has experienced the smallest growth for a recovery and is still seeing underemployment — a large chunk of people want to work but don’t, he said.

“Right now we’re kind of experiencing a new normal,” he said. “This new normal is not real good. However, I’m not down on America. … You can’t put America down for very long.”

He said the country wants to be vigorous, dynamic and grow again — and it will.

“I’m wildly optimistic about where we are going,” Varney said.

He believes the Republicans will take the U.S. Senate during the upcoming elections and make a real policy change. He also believes the country will see 4 percent growth in the next two years, which will mean less debt, more jobs and more prosperity.

Varney also talked about where he feels the country is going as far as its demographics and population shift.

He said fertility rates have fallen drastically and about 45 developed countries are losing populations.

“As populations are falling, they’re aging,” he said.

He said there is a population decline on a mass scale on every developed society on the planet. All societies are aging because everyone is living longer. Since 1990, life expectancy in America has gone up three years, costing the government more in Social Security and Medicare. As more people are retiring and living on pensions and benefits, fewer people are working and having children, which is a huge problem, he said.

“How on earth do you think we can go on like this with Social Security and Medicare without reform,” he asked. “You simply can’t.”

Varney said by 2020, 55 out of every 100 adults in Italy will be 65 or older, while 29 out of every 100 people in America will be retirement age.

“This is a vigorous dynamic, get-up-and-go society. … That is America,” he said. “You can’t say America is old and aging and going the way of Europe.”

But he said America is looking more like Europe every day, referring to using tax money to buy votes — giving free food, welfare and health care.

“It’s the easy way out. … Giving redistribution does not create prosperity and growth. … If we begin to learn the lessons of the past, I think we will change.”

Varney studied at the London School of Economics and has lived in the United States for 40 years. His coverage and analysis of the stock market crash of 1987 earned him a Peabody Award for excellence in journalism. He is credited with changing the way financial and economic news is reported worldwide. Varney Company is one of Fox Business Network’s top-rated shows, and Varney appears regularly with Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly. 

The Thursday night event was the fourth annual Economic Forecast Summit hosted by the UT Tyler College of Business and Technology and the Hibbs Institute for Business and Economic Research. It was the first year the event was held at night instead of as a luncheon.

James Lumpkin, dean of UT Tyler’s College of Business Technology, recognized Billy Hibbs and his family.

“Thank you so much for what you do …,” he said.

Lumpkin also recognized the sponsors of the event.