Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyAnother Bold Initiative? There is a pattern to President Trump's approach to foreign policy that is certainly unique, although not as much as one would assume if one looks at history. He has shunned traditional diplomacy and has opted for the personal with his efforts to deal with implacable enemies such as North...

The Credit Managers' Index (CMI) for July showcases an overall drop in both the service and manufacturing sectors, setting the CMI back to a point that has not been this low since January of this year.While the current economic environment has boasted a speedy quarterly growth of 4.1%, an unemployment rate between 3.8% and 4%, and an expansion of e...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyInteresting Comment from Ford and GM Both companies reported that higher steel and aluminum prices stripped about $300 million off their quarterly results in Q2. They blamed it on higher tariffs. That's a big part of it, but a strong demand environment could also be just as much at work to push prices higher. One...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyImpressive but Not Quite as Much as Expected The Q2 GDP numbers are in. And they are impressive at 4.1%. This is not as robust as some had expected and even predicted, however. Some were certain that growth rates would be as high as 5%—many had set their sights on 4.5%. In truth, anything over a 4% rise would mea...

The ACH Network continues to grow following another solid performance in the second quarter of 2018. ACH debit and credit transactions increased by 6.2% compared to the second quarter of 2017, according to NACHA—The Electronic Payments Association. That is equivalent to 5.7 billion more transactions. "The ACH Network provides substantial value to e...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. Economy GDP Revisions Lowered as Newest Data Disappoints The next GDP report doesn't come out until July 27 and already there has been some second guessing. A few weeks ago, there was some consensus around the notion that growth would be at least as high as 4.5% and perhaps 5.5%. This was slated to be the most robust qu...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyDeficit Leader The U.S. has the dubious distinction of being the world's leading contributor to deficits. This is the result of the policies that have been pursued for years by the U.S. and its inability to come to grips with its own deficit and debt. At times, there has been incessant talk about trying to get th...

Suppliers for Tesla Inc. are scratching their heads after the electric car company sent an unusual memo to some of its suppliers last week asking for a partial cash refund to boost profitability. According to Bloomberg, less than 10 suppliers received the memo, which Morningstar Analyst David Whiston described as "troubling" in an interview with th...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomySevere Housing Crisis There are many things that affect the housing sector—all those headwinds that analysts talk so much about. One area that didn't used to be so influential is a shortage of homes to buy at any price. This shortage has become acute in many popular cities and is expected to last for quite a whil...

Think twice before you open that unrecognizable email because it may cost you. Earlier this month, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) updated its data on business email compromise (BEC) scams, which have increased steadily around the globe in less than two years.In a public service announcement on July 12, the FBI stated the scams are "...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyIndustrial Policy for the U.S.? Many nations in the world have been major advocates of what has been termed industrial policy, but the U.S. has long resisted that idea. There are many ways this kind of policy has been set, but the motivation is usually similar. The government is tempted to favor certain business ...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyClaims for Unemployment Fall to Five-Decade Low In yet another sign of a really robust labor market, the rate of new claims for unemployment have hit a fifty-year low. There are many permutations involved with tracking unemployment—for an economy to be truly benefiting from the increasingly low rate of joblessnes...

Local authorities in the United Kingdom, known as councils, are facing backlash from construction associations after freedom of information (FOI) requests revealed about 90% of councils were not enforcing construction firms to pay supply chains within 30 days as required by legislation.Under "Miscellaneous Provisions" in Chapter Nine of the Public ...

Santander Bank announced July 18 it will begin using nCino technology to speed up business lending operations. This new integration will be available to customers as the year progresses, adding more features gradually; using nCino is estimated to cut loan-decision time by 40%.The operating system nCino uses clouds to create omnichannel access for S...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyChanging Political Labels The old descriptions of both the Democrats and Republicans hardly hold true these days, and the transition has been underway for a long time. There have been many instances of social shifts along the way, but the more surprising may be the shifts that have taken place as far as business ...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyIndustrial Production Rises This is one of those measures that can be misinterpreted from time to time. It combines three sectors that are very different in terms of what they respond to, although they also have quite a bit in common. Industrial production includes manufacturing, utilities and mining. The latter ...

Short Items of Interest—U.S. EconomyLow Jobless RateThe jobless rate is still very low—full employment low—but it has risen slightly and for all the right reasons. The best way to illustrate this is to look at both the U-3 and U-6 designations from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The U-6 numbers include those who have been characterized as "di...

Canadian suppliers worried about retaliatory tariffs from the U.S. can breathe a sigh of relief, at least those working in the automotive industry. Tariffs on U.S. steel imports have raised costs across the sector; however, according to Reuters, Canadian government customs provisions are in place that could "reduce or refund import duties" to compa...

The price of U.S. imports saw the largest drop in two years as of June—but this drop is not likely to last after tariffs on foreign goods are imposed.Import prices jumped by 0.9% in May, while June saw a sharp decrease of 0.4%, a dip that comes close only to the drop in February 2016, according to the Labor Department. Imported food saw a significa...

Economic progress is dwindling in the eyes of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) economists who reported a nearly 10% gain in 2018 construction material prices in June over last year. ABC noted a 9.6% increase in prices compared to 2017, with a 9.8% gain in nonresidential construction, during its analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics d...