Economy

President Obama recently hosted the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C. He welcomed over 40 African heads of state and their outsized entourages to what was a festive affair. Indeed, even the Ebola virus in West Africa failed to dampen spirits in the nation’s capital. Perhaps it was the billions of dollars in African investment...

Monthly U.S. headlines trumpeting the death of inflation hide a painful truth for American families: rapidly rising food prices. News reports rarely mention this pain because the economists’ preferred inflation metric, so-called “core CPI,” omits both food and energy due to concerns about their volatility.

Experts estimate the Chinese have developed more than 1,700 projects in Africa between 2000 and 2011.(1) And National Public Radio recently aired a report detailing China’s growing ambition there, indicating that the continent is not only a place with abundant natural resources, but now a potential giant market for Chinese consumer goods. American businesses should […]

<p>These days, America competing with China is like an American runner competing against a Chinese runner, except that the American runner has to carry an anvil. It may be against the rules, but there&#8217;s little anyone can do about it. The Chinese have the advantage. But let’s not delude ourselves about China&#8217;s aims.</p>

Change in the manufacturing industry is required for growth and profit. Without a crystal ball, not all changes can be guaranteed, but certain changes appear to be gaining in strength. From an increase in green manufacturing to automated factories and reshoring, the manufacturing industry is evolving and several trends in this evolution are expected to [&hellip;]

The U.S. has experienced 11 recessions since the end of WWII and the most recent one has been the most severe. The Great Recession started in December 2007 and ended in June 2009 as determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research, an independent group of economists that has officially defined business cycles since the [&hellip;]

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently announced that it would start reporting a new data series as part of the U.S. national income accounts. In addition to gross domestic product (GDP), the BEA will start reporting gross output (GO). This announcement went virtually unnoticed and unreported — an unfortunate but not uncommon oversight on...

<p>With all the barriers stacked up against American entrepreneurs, a bright spot has been access to working capital through the Export-Import Bank, which is essential if American exporters are to compete in the global marketplace. Ex-Im provides working capital guarantees, insurance and direct loans to American manufacturers, helping to open new foreign markets that allow [&hellip;]</p>

In 2013, U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), at $16.8 trillion, was nearly twice China’s $9 trillion, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But when adjusting for Purchasing Power Parity, which is estimated to reflect the “real cost of living” across countries, China’s economy is projected to surpass the United States’ later this year, says...

Selling more to China has been one of the hottest topics since the beginning of the Obama Presidency. Though exports to China have trebled since an agreement to support U.S. manufacturers was reached in 2005, the trade deficit continues to grow. A renewed push from within China is providing hope for accelerating U.S. export growth.

In May, the number of Americans working nearly climbed back to its high of 146 million in 2007, just before the Great Recession hit, the U.S. Department of Labor reports. This “good news” is tempered by the fact that since 2007, another 15.8 million people entered the civilian non-institutional population.

A career in sales can be one of the most financially, professionally and emotionally rewarding experience, and it often provides the opportunity to control one’s destiny. Selling offers the freedom to make ones own schedule, working whenever you choose. And if you’re a self-starter, you can accomplish anything if you set your mind to it. [&hellip;]

If what is meant by manufacturing “revival” is a sector that once again supports nearly 20 million jobs, as it did at its peak in 1979, or accounts for 28 percent of the U.S. economy, as it did at its peak in 1953, the answer is, thankfully, an emphatic “no.” If “revival,” however, is defined...

“Revival” is probably not the right word for a sector that has been trending upward with respect to every relevant performance metric since the nadir of the recession. The most recently published U.S. government data reveal all-time highs for manufacturing sector output, value-added, revenues, exports, profits, and foreign direct investment. Business is good for manufacturers...

A new power boom from a seemingly unlikely source is taking hold across the globe. As greater oil and natural gas production output capture headlines, global hydroelectric power generation is expanding at an historic rate. Spurring this growth is the World Bank which has committed funds to dozens of global hydro projects in Africa, South...

Even as the world becomes a “global village,” small to medium-sized companies continue to miss export opportunities. Most business owners believe exporting is either too expensive or inappropriate for them. But with a clear strategy and an understanding of how to seek out marketing opportunities, it is more than possible to become a successful exporter. [&hellip;]

We&#8217;re all familiar with the book, The Grapes of Wrath, the depression tale of millions of desperate families during the 1930s that headed to California for promised jobs. I&#8217;m not suggesting we&#8217;re at this stage yet, but for millions of unemployed Americans, they are finding that the local job market has dried up and they [&hellip;]</p>

A metaphor for President Obama&#8217;s recent trip to Asia was the widely aired game of soccer he had with a Japanese robot. In essence, Japan made Obama kick the impending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — which unites 12 economies around the Pacific Rim — down the road as trade talks stalled. How important is TPP to [&hellip;]

Any successful business must have a strategic plan that is fluid and workable. And not surprisingly, all too often the plan is complex, unrealistic and difficult to grasp. Over the last 30 years, I have come to realize that there is a very simple and straightforward strategy that drives the success of many great companies [&hellip;]

The summer driving season is still weeks away, but rising U.S. gas prices are already back in the news. Recently, the average price for regular gasoline at U.S. gas stations hit $3.6918 a gallon — the highest since March 22, 2013 and up 43 cents this year. Much of this price depends on global supply [&hellip;]