Business Trends

by Raymond J. Keating- Being an economist means being a storyteller. Okay, stop rolling your eyes. I know it’s not exactly natural for economists to be thought of as storytellers. But if you think about, economists tell the story – though words, data, models, graphs and more – of what’s going on in the economy. […]

by Raymond J. Keating- According to the FOMC statement released on December 11, the federal funds rate was left unchanged at a targeted range of 1‑1/2 to 1-3/4 percent. The Fed described the labor market as “strong” and economic growth as “moderate.” Breaking growth down a bit further, the Fed summed up: “Although household spending […]

by Raymond J. Keating- The political Left in the United States has been pushing for socialized medicine since the 1930s. And unfortunately, they have made progress over these past 80-plus years, with government’s role in health care vastly expanded. And the push continues, with the latest effort being dressed up with the name “Medicare for […]

by Raymond J. Keating- The more you tax something, the less of it you get. This is Economic Policy 101 stuff, but nonetheless, it’s regularly ignored by politicians. The latest example is trade. If you impose and threaten to impose higher taxes on international trade – that is, higher tariffs – then trade will stagnate […]

by Raymond J. Keating- States that impose weighty tax burdens tend to inflict heavy regulatory burdens as well. This is evident in the data in SBE Council’s “Small Business Policy Index 2019: Ranking the States on Policy Measures and Costs Impacting Entrepreneurship and Small Business Growth,” which ranks the 50 states according to 62 different policy […]

by Raymond J. Keating- As SBE Council has noted before, elected officials in the state of Washington tend to be a conflicted bunch. On some issues, they have been very sound – such as the lack of any kind of income taxes. In other areas, the policies are just horrible – like consumption-based taxes and […]

by Raymond J. Keating- The latest housing report from the U.S. Census Bureau pointed to a bounce back in housing starts for October, and a positive stretch in both housing starts and permits since earlier this year. On housing starts (seasonally adjust annual rate), it was noted: “Privately‐owned housing starts in October were at a […]

by Raymond J. Keating- The four largest states by population – California, Texas, Florida and New York – split into two very different groups when it comes to their public policy climates for small business, entrepreneurship and investment. On SBE Council’s “Small Business Policy Index 2019: Ranking the States on Policy Measures and Costs Impacting […]

by Raymond J. Keating- The holiday shopping season is a critical time for the health of so many businesses – big and small. There’s reason for some holiday cheer based on a couple of early takes on the 2019 Christmas shopping season. First, on November 1, Gallup reported: “Gallup’s initial read on Americans’ 2019 holiday […]

by Raymond J. Keating There was nothing positive in the Federal Reserve’s latest report on industrial production, as the recent skid in industrial production, including manufacturing output, got worse. Industrial production (i.e., the real output of the manufacturing, mining, and electric and gas utilities) in October declined by a whopping 0.8 percent, and that came […]