June 9, 2026

This event listing is sponsored by South Dakota State University.

A prominent financial journalist will anchor a conference in Sioux Falls this fall that explores the credit cycle in the context of the 1929 stock market crash.

The 2026 South Dakota Land and Lending Conference, presented by the Ness School of Management and Economics at South Dakota State University, will be Oct. 15 at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.

The date marks the 97th anniversary of the onset of the 1929 crash, the greatest financial collapse in American history. Fittingly, the conference this year will explore the credit cycle — how markets expand, overheat and seize — and what that cycle means for real estate, agricultural land, lending and the rural economy.

The event draws roughly 500 real estate developers, agricultural lenders, bankers, investors, policymakers and students from across South Dakota and the region.

“The 1929 crash extended from Wall Street to Main Street,” said Joe Santos, the Larry and Diane Ness endowed director and professor of economics at the Ness School. “It traveled to the farm economy, collapsing commodity prices, depressing land values and shutting down the credit channel along the way. Ninety-seven years later, the credit cycle persists, and the business and policy challenges it creates are ones our audience faces every day. It is the right moment to examine them.”

Andrew Ross Sorkin to anchor morning fireside

The morning opens with a fireside conversation between Santos and Andrew Ross Sorkin, co-anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” founder of DealBook at The New York Times and author of “1929: The Inside Story of the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History,” named a Best Book of 2025 by TIME, The Economist, Financial Times and Bloomberg. His earlier book, “Too Big to Fail,” reconstructed the 2008 financial crisis with the same narrative depth.

“Andrew is among the most accomplished financial journalists of his generation,” Santos said. “His new book reconstructs 1929 the way “Too Big to Fail” reconstructed 2008: from the inside, with requisite detail and depth. Hosting Andrew on the 97th anniversary of the crash is no accident.”

Sorkin will then join the land panel “Challenges and Opportunities in Real Estate” alongside Eric Lynch, economist at the National Association of Home Builders; Sean Turgeon, partner and state-certified general real estate appraiser at Rogers Appraisal Service Inc.; and David Widmar, co-founder and managing partner of Agricultural Economic Insights. Paul TenHaken, mayor of the city of Sioux Falls, will moderate the panel.

Natasha Sarin on fiscal policy and the credit channel

Over lunch, Natasha Sarin, president and co-founder of the Budget Lab at Yale, professor at Yale Law School and former counselor to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, will join Jake Mortenson, economist at the Joint Committee on Taxation, for a fireside conversation on the federal budget, debt sustainability, fiscal policy and the credit channel. Sarin, who also holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, is a contributing columnist for The New York Times and a frequent guest on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” CNN and MS Now.

“Natasha’s research on tax policy, household finance and macroprudential risk management, combined with her Treasury experience, places her at the center of questions that determine the cost of credit for every borrower in the room,” Santos said. “The federal government’s fiscal position and the trajectory of public debt bear directly on Treasury yields, which benchmark mortgage rates, farm credit rates and commercial real estate financing rates.”

Closing panel explores agricultural credit and the rural economy

The afternoon closes with the land and lending panel “Agricultural Credit and the Rural Economy,” featuring Chuck Conner, former deputy and acting secretary of agriculture at the USDA and former president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives; Rick Dusek, executive vice president at CHS Inc.; Tom Halverson, CEO of CoBank; and Hunter Roberts, South Dakota secretary of agriculture and natural resources. Matthew Diersen, the Griffith Chair in Agricultural Finance at the Ness School, will moderate the panel.

“The closing panel brings the conference home,” Santos said. “Conner shaped the federal policy architecture that governs agricultural credit. Halverson leads CoBank, one of the most significant agricultural lenders in rural America. Dusek runs the operational heart of the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperative. And Hunter Roberts represents the state whose producers, lenders and landowners make up our audience. The Ness School is proud to host them.”

Breakout sessions and reception

Concurrent breakout sessions, sponsored by SDSU Extension, will follow the morning program. A reception will follow the conference close at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets and the full program are available at sdstate.edu/ness-school-management-economics/south-dakota-land-lending-conference-2026.