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In The Headlines U.S. Unemployment – A Good News, Bad News Story As has so often been the case with previous unemployment reports since the start of the Great Recession, the latest data contains both good and bad news. The headline figures from the Bureau of Labor...

In The Headlines Tensions in Ukraine Spell More Fallout for the Russian Economy Signs of Russia’s growing economic distress became clearer, as the Central Bank unexpectedly raised interest rates for the second time since March, while Standard & Poor’s (S&P) lowered the...

In The Headlines Gillette Turns the Razor Blade Model Upside Down Procter & Gamble (P&G), which has not done much in the way of innovation since the Swiffer in 1999, has a new Gillette razor in the works. The Wall Street Journal learned from internal company documents...

In The Headlines Dollar Stores – Feeling the Sting of the Recovery Recently, Family Dollar announced that its profits had declined 35% in the second quarter as comparable store sales fell 3.8%. Its profit of $90.9 million, or $0.80 per share, missed analyst estimates of $0.90. In...

In The Headlines Is Online Grocery Shopping Ready to Go Mainstream? If any industry is ripe for disruption by online shopping, it should be the grocery business. Once a week or more, shoppers must drive to stores, traipse through aisles hunting for what they want, and stand in...

In The Headlines Will the College Gridiron Become a Union Shop? The stunning decision that football players at Northwestern University have the right to form a union has raised a lot of questions about the future of college athletics, but one of the biggest is, What does it mean...

In The Headlines Could the U.S. Be Facing an Extended Labor Shortage? Economists who worry about high unemployment are plentiful these days. It is far less common to find an economist predicting an era of chronic labor shortages, with employers struggling to fill openings. That...

Is this the Beginning of the Big Retail Shrink-down? January is typically the month when retailers announce store closings. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, 44% of annual store closings announced since 2010 have occurred in the first quarter. But this...