Fact of the Week

by Raymond J. Keating – U.S. manufacturing has experienced some expansion through the first six months of 2026, according to the latest read of the Institute of Supply Management’s manufacturing PMI index. The ISM manufacturing PMI experienced its sixth straight month of expansion in June, registering 53.3, as seen in the following table from the […]

by Raymond J. Keating – America is a nation of entrepreneurs. In particular, one can make the case that America is a nation of solopreneurs. Solopreneurs are one-man or one-woman businesses. The latest Census Bureau data point to there being approximately 36.8 million business firms in the U.S., and 30.4 million of those are nonemployers, […]

by Raymond J. Keating – Retail and food services sales jumped by 0.9 percent to an estimated $763.7 billion in May, according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau. That came after a 0.4 percent increase in April and a 1.7 percent increase on March. Of particular note, nonstore retailers (largely e-commerce) saw […]

by Raymond J. Keating – The latest personal income report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis was not pretty. Personal income, without considering inflation, was flat in April compared to March. And PCE (personal consumption expenditures) inflation ran at a hot 0.4 percent for the month. In inflation-adjusted terms, real personal consumption expenditures inched […]

by Raymond J. Keating – Growth in nonfarm payroll employment among the states was limited to only six states in April 2026 compared to the previous months, according to the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and when compared to April 2025, only one state saw a statistically significant increase in employment. […]

by Raymond J. Keating – Housing has always fascinated me as an economist. It’s actually a consumption product that also serves as the major investment for many American families. And housing construction and investment play a significant role in our economy. In turn, housing construction is overwhelming about small businesses. Based on the latest (2022) […]

by Raymond J. Keating – According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation in April registered 0.6 percent. That compared to 0.9 percent in March. These past two months ranked as the worst inflation performance since June 2022. For the first four months of 2026, inflation has been running at […]

by Raymond J. Keating –  In a sea of uncertainty, I’ll take whatever pieces of positive economic data I can find. Based on the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing purchasing managers index report and its services PMI, the U.S. economy continued to push ahead in April. The manufacturing PMI registered 52.7 percent in April, which […]

by Raymond J. Keating – Since it’s National Small Business Week (May 4-9), it’s a good time to review the data and information about small business ownership by age. Specifically, while some assume that entrepreneurship is a game mainly for the young, the numbers tell a somewhat different story. Let’s consider a few points and […]

by Raymond J. Keating – The are a few notable takeaways from the initial estimate of real economic growth for the first quarter of 2026. Topping the list, however, is that real GDP growth came in at an under-performing 2.0 percent rate (seasonally adjusted and annualized). Next was the fact that business investment led the […]