I travel the country in connection with our clients’ business, but also to make presentations to state and national associations within the construction materials industry, including ready mixed concrete, aggregates, and precast groups. Over the course of the last 18 months, in reviewing the financial performance of each of these industries, I have noted that the new home construction industry…
Read More
Fifty billion dollars. That is 50,000 million dollars. I like to use that analogy so that readers can understand the magnitude of a billion dollars, which is 1,000 million dollars. That is the estimate for what the devastation in southern California’s recent fires will ultimately cost private and public property owners.
Read More
Last summer, I wrote about the contraction in office space occupancy as the cultural shift of Work from Home tightens its grip on America’s office space industry, despite efforts by high-profile employers to corral their far-flung workforces and bring them back to the office in hopes of greater collaboration and efficiency. Some like J.P. Morgan Chase and Walmart have basically…
Read More
There is a series of metrics and indicators that point to continuing strength in the economy, with arrows from every imaginable direction pointing upward.
Read More
Some of the brightest minds in the economic research area are on Wall Street, working for either major investment banks or business news services with a global following. As recently as a couple of weeks ago, they were issuing research that warned of a slowdown coming in the economy. One began their note by saying that after having boomed its…
Read More
I live in suburbia. My town just outside of New Orleans looks like every other suburb in America, replete with good schools, a vibrant restaurant scene, and plenty of traffic at rush hour and during school times. My wife and I moved here 32 years ago, escaping the challenges of urban living—crime and potholes—for the comfort and security of life…
Read More
There has been a confluence of events and happenings in the past few weeks that, when taken together, portend a much healthier 2024 than anyone could have imagined as recently as just this past fall. First, news about inflation has surprised everyone, as we witnessed a sharp decline in the rate of inflation in just the last couple of months…
Read More
The Covid-19 pandemic was one of the most disruptive events of the last 100-plus years, on the level of two world wars, although it did not last as long. But like the world wars of the past century, when women were enlisted to work in factories in all manner of jobs previously held by men so the men could go…
Read More
As I travel around the country visiting with clients and making industry presentations, I hear the same from almost every producer about the challenges in their businesses: not enough drivers, fuel costs, materials cost rising faster than they can pass them on as among the most frequent. But there is another shoe about to drop that may impact producers, both…
Read MoreI love to fish. My wife and I are avid saltwater fishermen here in the waters of South Louisiana, and we spend our summers catching all manner of saltwater species, feeding ourselves and our employees, friends, and neighbors with the freshest of just-caught seafood. What has changed dramatically for me over the last 20 years is the way I go…
Read More