Business Trends

by Raymond J. Keating- Three states – Oregon, Hawaii and Connecticut – are scheduled to take some notably negative tax policy steps in 2020. In each case, it’s bad news for entrepreneurs and small businesses. SBE Council’s “Small Business Policy Index 2019: Ranking the States on Policy Measures and Costs Impacting Entrepreneurship and Small Business […]

by Raymond J. Keating- The U.S. Census Bureau report on November residential construction continued to point to solid growth in the housing sector. Housing starts in November 2019 grew by 3.2 percent over October, and were up by 13.6 percent compared to a year earlier. As noted in the following graph, housing starts have shown […]

by Raymond J. Keating- The retails sales numbers for November reported by the U.S. Census Bureau came in softer than expected. Overall retail and food service sales grew by 0.2% in November over October. However, after excluding autos and gas, sales were flat. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED In fact, there were […]

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 […]