Punxsutawney Phil and the U.S. Consumer ?
The U.S. consumer’s and Punxsutawney Phil are a lot alike these days, only the consumer hasn’t seen a shadow in a much longer time, which means our winter will continue to be longer than Phil’s. The latest consumer spending figures are in and the Thanksgiving holiday spending was off by 8% compared to 2008. The [...]
The Great Recession
I have focused on the economy a lot lately because of how bad the recession is/was and how many people continue to be affected by it. Reading the statistics and listening to the “experts” interpret them can become very time consuming and be a bit like watching a ping pong game. You can either look [...]
Government Spending and the National Debt
Please keep your hands and feet close to your body at all times and hang on to your wallet, this is going to be a rough ride. If you are not taller than this line ________ or you are wearing a pacemaker you may not want to read further. I listened to an economic/market report [...]
The Economic Recovery and Unemployment
As we are reading statistics about the economic recovery, increasing GDP (3.5% last quarter), increasing personal consumption (3.4% last quarter), increasing durable goods production (22.3%) and increasing exports (14.7%) plus a rising stock market we begin to feel better and that brings additional hope. However, if we look at the unemployment figures that were published [...]
The Economy, the Dollar and 2010
In just a few weeks it will be that time of year when we begin a period of celebration and reflection. Where we’ve been, where we thought we’d be and where we’d like to go tend to lead us into every New Year. I think we are finishing a year that most people will not [...]
Social Media and FEAR
As one of the employees at my firm who is responsible for my firm’s adoption of Web 2.0 technologies I have learned a lot in the last 10 months. The statistics about how fast this market is growing and the power it is having in helping to shape a brand and or develop avenues for [...]
Venture Capital in the 3rd Quarter 2009
If you are an entrepreneur who has been trying to raise money you will know better than most that the shelves at the VC store are almost empty. This once robust market place is now extremely quiet. Per the San Francisco Chronicle, in the past 90-days only four new funds raised new money and 13 [...]
The U.S. Typhoon
As I watched the news last week and saw the devastation created by the typhoons, tsunamis and earth quakes in the Pacific I was reminded of the power of Mother Nature and the similarities to the U.S. monetary and fiscal policies of the past (and perhaps current), as well as our own household monetary and [...]
U.S. Housing Market–Ouch!
I recently went through ACL replacement surgery and while that brings to mind many things regarding U.S. healthcare, I wanted to talk about the housing market. What do the U.S. Housing market and my knee surgery have in common? The damage was long in the making, they were/are both painful, and recovery will take time [...]
Social Media for the Professional
In 2009 I blogged, tweeted, linkedin and facebooked for the first time. I did this because I wanted to see what it was all about before I started speaking with my firm about doing the same. After hearing Tom Hoood of the MACPA speak on this topic it was obvious to me that my firm [...]