Both consumer and wholesale prices eased in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Consumer Price Index slowed to 7.7% year over year, down from 8.2% last month, resulting in Wall Street's largest boost since 2020, per CNN Business. And prices at the wholesale level rose 8% year over year, down from 8.4% in September—the fourth s...

 🎤 This week's episode of the Extra Credit podcast takes a look at how credit professionals notice their customers conserving cash toward the end of each year.

The U.S. economy grew significantly in the second half of this year, as Thursday's GDP report showed an increased annualized rate of 2.6% over the last quarter. But economic statistics still point to the possibility of recession due to a slowdown in consumer spending, according to CNN Business.Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said the talk o...

Despite talks of a potential recession and inflation's tight hold on the U.S. economy, the services sector remains resilient. Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL Financial, said business activity is at its highest since December 2021, which is an "important breakpoint, as the consumer showed stable demand for services after the headwinds of war,...

As the holiday season approaches, gift spending is expected to drop $30 billion—with a 58% consumer cut back, according to Forbes. This is largely due to the fact that inflation is taking a large bite out of consumer wallets—steering spending away from non-essential holiday purchases toward household goods."40% of holiday shoppers say that inflatio...

​Railroads are back to the bargaining table after the U.S.'s third-largest railroad rejected the Biden administration's tentative railway labor agreement Monday. More than 11,000 members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the Teamsters (BMWED) voted with 56% against the tentative agreement, per NBC News."Railroaders are ...

NACM's recent eNews poll on Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) shows 45% of credit departments have seen an at least 5% increase within the past year. 20% say DSO has decreased and 35% report that DSO levels remained the same.Nathan Hutton, CICP, global credit manager at Donaldson Company, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN) has seen a fairly stable DSO over the past...

The British pound dipped to a record low against the U.S. dollar on Monday, as uncertainty surrounding the U.K. economy grows. The pound dropped to roughly $1.03 Monday and recovered slightly on Tuesday, rising back to $1.07, according to CNN Business.The pound is faced with the highest level of inflation among G7 nations (Canada, France, Germany, ...

​A potential U.S. rail strike was averted last week when labor unions and railroads reached a tentative agreement, facilitated by President Joe Biden's administration. But the situation underscored the fragility of the economy and supply chains.The announcement made by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh states if unions accept the deal, workers will get m...

U.S. inflation rates slowed for a second consecutive month in August—the result of a significant drop in gas prices. Still, the costs of other goods remain stubbornly high. The Consumer Price Index rose 8.3% last month year over year, down from an 8.5% jump in July and a four-decade high of 9.2% in June.Strip away volatile food and energy prices, a...

China's exports to the U.S. fell in August for the first time since May 2020, while shipments to Russia surged, "adding to evidence that slowing economies and the war in Ukraine are shifting global trade flows along geopolitical fault lines," according to Bloomberg."China's slowdown is rippling across the world, with the weak import figures spellin...

Inflation hit a new record of 9.1% this month in European countries that use the euro currency. Economists say this is caused by a sharp rise in energy prices due to the Russia-Ukraine war. Annual inflation in the eurozone's 19 countries rose from 8.9% to 9.1% in just one month from July to August, according to the European Union statistics agency ...

All eyes are on the Federal Reserve as it fights the worst inflation in four decades with aggressive interest rate hikes. Most economists (73%) expect the Fed to be unsuccessful in taming inflation in the next two years without triggering a recession, according to the National Association for Business Economics (NABE). 72% predict a recession by th...