Blog - Page 91 of 95 - Conerly Consulting

Most of Bill’s current writings appear on Forbes.com where he is a Senior Contributor.

16 May 2006

Nice Numbers on Inflation & Production

Producer price inflation is surprisingly mild when excluding food and energy. There has been very little "bleed-through" of energy costs into non-energy products. The crucial question is still what will happen to oil prices. Housing …

15 May 2006

China’s Labor Shortage

Economy

"Early this year, at a job fair held in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province in China, more than 50,000 positions designed to encourage farmers to move to urban areas went unfilled." Knowledge at Wharton …

15 May 2006

Outsourced Manufacturing, Insourced Investing

Business Strategy

There’s a neat discussion about the capital inflows into the U.S. and the loss of manufacturing jobs. It’s in Slate, written by Dan Gross. Key point: if Chinese have lower labor costs, and we are …

9 May 2006

Free Lunch

Business Strategy

What is the biggest business challenge you face right now? Don’t limit yourself to economic issues, and please don’t mention any names (as in, "I’m thinking about firing Joe.") Hit the "Comments" link directly below …

8 May 2006

Industry Growth and Investment Returns

Investments

Jeremy Siegel has a good, short article about the connection between industry growth and stock market returns. He found that fast-growing industries do not necessarily have better than average investment returns. Short answer: one pays …

5 May 2006

Employment Soft, Wages Up

Economy

Interesting employment news. The headline is weak job gains. The economy added 138,000 jobs, versus expectations and a recent average of about 200,000 jobs per month. This move was "blippish" rather than indicating a fundamental …

4 May 2006

Productivity On Trend Line

Economy

Productivity (output per hour worked) grew at its long-run average growth rate last quarter. That long-run average is 2.5 percent, so we’re right on track. Also in this report is an estimate of unit labor …

3 May 2006

Business Trends

Business Strategy

What are the most significant trends affecting business today? McKinsey Quarterly has an interesting article summarizing survey results. Key takeaways: Business is changing rapidly, due to product innovation, easier communication, cheap capital Competition is increasing …

3 May 2006

Fed Policy Confusion

Economy

News reports say that the Fed is not getting its message across clearly. Certainly markets are jumping back and forth as their interpretation of the Fed’s message changes. But it’s not that hard. The Fed’s …

2 May 2006

Semiconductors Stable at High Level

Economy

Worldwide semiconductor sales have stabilized in the last few months, at a sales pace near the all-time peak for the industry. This is dollar value; the actual volume and computing power is hugely greater. However, …

1 May 2006

Growth continues at stable pace

Economy

Monthly figures for personal income show stable growth. Looking at recent history, recall that the Microsoft dividend (December 2004) caused income to spike up. The 12-month comparison the following December looked abnormally low. And then …

28 Apr 2006

Employment Cost Increase Low

Economy

The employment cost index grew by about three percent in the first quarter. Surprisingly, benefits costs have decelerated and now are growing at about the same rate as wages: This data series is better than …