Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyKashkari Adds Voice to the Cautious CampIt's not that the other 11 regional Fed presidents are not men and women who bear the mantle of interesting in their own right, but the Minneapolis Fed head has a more varied background than most. Neel Kashkari was the "uber bureaucrat" charged with making the Troubled Asse...

Keeping up with today's technological advancements isn't an easy feat, especially in the workplace where new tech requires a new routine. As small businesses learn to adapt, a new study found that outside pressure to become technologically savvy may do more harm than good. In a collaborative global study, growth partnership company Frost & Sull...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyInflation DifferenceIt seems that the death of the Philips Curve may have been announced prematurely. This was one of those economic laws that actually worked most of the time. Simply stated, it held that when the unemployment rate fell, there would be wage inflation. It seemed to make intuitive sense that when t...

Amid the ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations, Mexican corporates are finding ways to adapt to the current economic climate. So far, credit impacts are minimal but could take a negative turn if NAFTA talks end with its discontinuation. According to a Fitch Ratings report on May 16, corporates have spent the past decade d...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyJob MobilityIt has long been the case that workers in the U.S. have been willing to move to where the employment opportunities are. This was how many recessions have been dealt with in the past. Opportunities sprang up somewhere and people relocated. Today, that pattern is rare. There are many reasons people can'...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyManaging Trade DeficitsTo begin with, there is a deep misunderstanding as to what creates deficits and surplus on the global market. The Trump belief is that this is all about plots to negatively impact the U.S. economy with unfair trade practices, but the reality is that trade has far more to do with which count...

Oil prices reached a three-and-a-half-year high on May 17, fueling concerns of a narrowing supply that followed U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement last week. In comparing the latest CNBC report with a Reuters report in March, oil prices rose about $10 a barrel in less than two months to $80, with anot...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyIndustrial Production Levels Rise AgainThe 0.7% rise in industrial output marks the third month in a row for gains. This indicates a broadly healthy industrial market. The industries that are included in this measure range from mining to manufacturing, as well as the utilities. Over the course of the last years, ...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. Economy Broad Gains in Retail The expectation was that retail numbers would be up by 0.3% and, for once, the prognostication was correct. The gains varied from one sector to another—the biggest gains were at gas stations with a 0.8% hike. That is due to the rapid increase of gas pricing, as the hike is expected to conti...

Profit growth among U.S. small businesses struck a 45-year high in April, as the latest National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) Economic Trends Survey showed a drop in poor sales and bump in its Small Business Optimism Index. The index increased only slightly by 0.1 points over March to a score of 104.8. From a credit perspective, the ...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. Economy Gas Prices Headed Up It was only a few months ago oil analysts were confidently asserting the price of gas would not hit $3 anytime soon. It just didn't seem that any of the root factors would be much of an issue. The overall supply of oil in the world was more than sufficient for the expected level of demand. T...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. Economy Race Is On for Crude Supply Leave it to geopolitics to upset the run of low oil pricing and start people thinking seriously about the old threats of inflation. The U.S. has not yet worked out the details as far as renewed sanctions on Iranian oil—this may not be decided until November of this year. It looks like...

The ripple effect of the U.S. administration's trade tariffs has struck the country's small manufacturers, Reuters reports, as they scale back hiring and investments due to rising import costs. Following President Donald Trump's implementation of steel and aluminum import taxes in March, Reuters began interviews with several small- to mid-sized man...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. Economy Is Secular Stagnation Dead? The notion behind the concept of secular stagnation is that the U.S. economy and that of the European states and others will be prone to periods of very slow growth unless there are extraordinary steps taken to stimulate the economy beyond what it seems to be capable of. The last few ...

Trustworthy relationships between companies and customers have boosted the global average Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) to a 10-year high, which credit insurer Euler Hermes recorded at 66 days in 2017. According to its May 5 report, Euler Hermes predicts the global average to reach 67 days by the end of this year. The annual review and forecast was ...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. Economy NAFTA Plans The latest proposal from the Trump team as regards NAFTA is pulling together some interesting bedfellows. The objection that some have had regarding Mexico's role in U.S. manufacturing is that pay scales are far too low for U.S. manufacturers to compete. This is obviously part of what attracted many ...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. Economy Long Fight Ahead All of the commentary that is coming from both the Chinese and American trade negotiators is suggesting that this will be a long and arduous process. This is both good and bad news for those that do business with China or count on Chinese products. The good news is that it now seems that threats...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. Economy Wage Hikes Finally Showing Up It has taken an inordinately long time, but there is evidence at last that wages are going up at a pace commensurate with the growth of the overall economy—this could be worrisome. For the last few years, the pace of wage growth has been weak—no more than around 2.3% on an annual ba...

With rising inflation underway, investors are anticipating yet another interest rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve in June—the second of as many as four increases that are predicted in 2018. The Fed's first lending rate increase came in March when it grew by a quarter percentage point from 1.5% to 1.75%, Reuters reported. Borrowing costs began...

The ability to keep up with the times may literally break the bank if financial institutions choose not to embrace the technological advancements in the sector, particularly as it relates to payments and lending. According to Moody's Investors Service, banks that are willing to tap into this digital innovation will establish and potentially maintai...