by Christina Lee on June 16th, 2009
A note to hope to budding entrepreneurs – a study released last week found that more than half of Fortune 500 companies had been founded in a recession or bear market.
The Kauffman Foundation cross-examined data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Fortune 500, and Inc. magazine to figure out how recessions affected new firm formations.
The study found that in general, bad economic times for the nation may not always impact entrepreneurship in the same way. After all, an individual may feel more apt to start a business once laid off, while entrepreneurs could target the newly unemployed as potential... Read more »
by Christina Lee on April 9th, 2009
The latest wholesale trade report surprised experts, as it indicated that wholesalers are more in sync now with the rest of the economy.
Wholesalers had cut inventories by 1.5 percent from the previous month’s levels in February, more than double of what Wall Street experts predicted. Since lower holiday sales led to more leftover goods than expected, cutting such excess inventory over the past few months became a necessary step toward economic recovery.
“It’s easy to see this reduction as an assurance that the contraction is continuing,” said Frank Ahrens, Washington Post analyst, in his column. “However, the sooner wholesalers... Read more »
by Christina Lee on March 11th, 2009
Steps taken by retailers to keep inventories lean are showing a bit of progress to accommodate to declining demand, as recent reports of early 2009 wholesale trade reveal.
As retail stores start sourcing their spring and summer merchandise, the National Retail Federation still expects a 5.3 percent rise in March retail container traffic from last month, a total of 1.07 million 20-foot-equivalent units (TEU).
At the same time however, such levels still fall below that of March 2008 by 7.4 percent – a trend that the trade group predicts to observe throughout the first half of 2009.
“This year’s numbers are... Read more »
by Christina Lee on December 12th, 2008
A collective analysis of studies released this week paint a revealing, evocative portrait of the nation’s economic environment. As prices drop, spending drops even further, as an opaque cloud of consumer pessimism remains hovering over the nation. But below, amongst all of the downward activity, researchers are searching for that cloud’s silver lining.
On the Ground Below
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Retail Federation, and Census Bureau released reports indicating that wholesalers and retailers are still adjusting to the economic climate, as price indexes continued to fall:
Retail container traffic fell in November for the 16th month in a... Read more »