The Grocer Gap: Racial Disparity in the Food Distribution Industry
It is no secret that Black Americans are underrepresented as business owners. They make up about 12.4% of the US population, but Black business owners are only 2.4% of all employer-owned firms. And while Census data shows that the number of Black-owned businesses in...
Labor-starved North Dakota is a microcosm of the U.S.’s complicated relationship with immigration
Embed from Getty Images Kwan Yong Lee moved to North Dakota in 2013, after graduating with an economics PhD from Purdue University, to work at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. He’s gotten pretty used to the cold, and likes that Grand Forks is safe, and...
Global coffee, cacao prices reach historic highs due to climate change
Kinani Ahmed, owner of Sextant Coffee Roasters in San Francisco, opened his roastery in 2014 with a goal of sharing the finest coffees of Ethiopia with others. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, that goal has become more and more expensive. The civil war in Ethiopia,...
In April, jobs numbers cooled after months of surprising growth
The US economy added fewer jobs than expected in April, signaling that months of surprising growth may finally be slowing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employers added 175,000 new jobs in April, well below economists’ expectations of around 240,000...
Five Things to look for in the trade report
The upcoming trade report will reveal the health of the trade balance in March. It will also tell if exports and imports continue to increase which will point toward the strength of the consumer economy. Rising imports Imports have seen a steady...
Case-Shiller: 5 Things To Watch For
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller report, which measures home prices nationally, is set to be released on Tuesday. After a record-breaking year in 2023 - home prices rose 5.5% to close out last year - economists are confident Tuesday’s report will continue to show...
Five Things to Watch Out for in the March PCE Report
Economists aren’t the only ones anticipating tomorrow’s Personal Income Expenditure Report. The hopes of investors and everyday people are hinging on a continued slow and steady progression of income across America. Disposable personal income increased .2% last month...
Five things to watch for in tomorrow’s durable goods report
Embed from Getty Images The US Census Bureau will release the March durable goods report on Wednesday morning. Economists expect orders for long-lasting manufactured goods to increase by 2.5 percent, or approximately $6.9 billion, over the previous month. So far this...
Resilient Consumers Are Still Selective with their Spending
This past month, American consumers increased their spending at the fastest rate since January 2023.Consumer spending rose 0.8% in February, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Friday. Personal incomes rose at a monthly rate of .3%, which may have given consumers the...