On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released their latest data on estimated retail and food services sales for June. Estimated numbers are based on early reports from a small sampling of companies selected from the larger Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS) sample. You can view the Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services, June...

The Census Bureau’s Small Business Pulse Survey reveals some interesting first-hand insights on how the pandemic is impacting businesses. The weekly survey was originally created in April to examine the ways in which COVID-19’s was affecting small businesses. Participating businesses are contacted by email only and must be non-farm,...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released their May employment data on Friday, June 5, and there were some pleasant surprises. After March and April’s freefall, employers added a record 2.5 million jobs in May. The unemployment rate fell from 14.7 percent in April to 13.3 percent in May — though that is still a record high level.

On May 29, the U.S. Census Bureau released their advance Economic Indicators Report for April’s imports and exports, and not surprisingly, the numbers were gloomy. Both imports and exports were down double-digits, and overall, the international trade deficit rose to $69.7 billion, which was an increase of $4.7 billion from the March...

I recently attended a Capstone Marketing webinar entitled, “Marketing Your Accounting Firm in Uncertain Times.” The presenter — Capstone’s founder, Jean Caragher — noted that there are lessons to be learned from the past when it comes to marketing during economic downturns. Accounting firms that continued to market themselves during the...

I recently shared the ways in which declining tax revenue is taking a toll on state and local coffers, resulting in numerous job and budget cuts. Sales, gas, hotel, and other taxes and tolls have all decreased dramatically during the COVID-19-related shutdowns across the country.

On Tuesday morning, new data was released by the Census Bureau on housing starts in the U.S. And the picture is rather bleak. April privately-owned housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 891,000, which is a 30.2 percent drop from March of this year. It is also 29.7 percent below the April 2019 rate.

Earlier this week, I shared with you the detrimental financial impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the healthcare sector. It is somewhat counterintuitive that hospitals that are overflowing with coronavirus patients would be losing money. As I explained, however, many healthcare organizations have had to sacrifice more lucrative...

The bank's vaults are open for any and everyone. Money is there for the taking; all you have to do is ask!!!

Sounds a bit on the crazy side that banks will loan money to anybody, doesn't it? But how could the educated economist or banker, for that matter, say anything different when many banks are reporting double-digit loan growth in...