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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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A couple of issues ago, I wrote in Concrete Products, sister publication of Cement Products, about how we are willing ourselves into a recession even as the economic indicators point in a different direction. Like so many periods in the past, this is an anxious time in the economy as we try to understand its direction, and despite the positive…
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We all thought putting masks on for a few weeks would be a temporary blip, and that the scourge of Covid-19 would simply go away. Well, as we all know, it cut much deeper into the very fabric of our economy, affecting us in so many ways. First, PPP money and personal stimulus initiatives from the U.S. government fueled inflation…
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Among the most frustrating aspects of life as we went through the pandemic, and which haunts us still today, is the employment picture. There is no minimizing the magnitude of human tragedy, with an official tally of over 5.2 million hospital admissions and a stunning 1.04 million deaths; the sheer human loss is unspeakable. But for the vast majority of…
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It is always interesting to see how quickly our attention and focus can turn from one crisis to the next, with the former being forgotten and seen only in the rearview mirror. Of course, the media gives us no choice, as it is their focus on the story of the moment that gets the ink. With the war in Ukraine…
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