Economics

America’s economy is not skating on thin ice, but it does feel a bit like the ice could be more solid. It’s frozen enough to etch its direction of travel across the surface, but there are hints of fragility beneath which should not be ignored, especially if one is inclined to do a quad axel.

Tariffs are difficult for those paying them.

For many food is an art; for others, it’s an economic indicator.  When times are good, Americans spend on eating out instead of preparing less costly equivalents at home.  As the tide changes, diets tend to change.  Instead of frequenting venues with menus, consumers opt for more affordable, shelf-stable items like rice, pasta, beans, lentils, and oats, along with canned go

The hurricane center is sunny and calm, but the wall around it blows fiercely with its opposing sides tearing in opposite directions.

People like concrete explanations for phenomena.  For instance, virtually daily financial headlines are filled with reasons various markets behaved the way they did that day, up or down.  These explanations are more compelling to readers than something along the lines of  “buyers were more urgent than sellers today, so markets increased after the opposite was true yesterday

Tariffs are essentially taxes imposed by a country on goods imported from abroad.  They serve multiple purposes: generating revenue for the government, protecting domestic industries from foreign competition, and sometimes as a tool in trade negotiations.  When a tariff is applied, it increases the cost of imported goods, making them less competitive against domestic products.

In recent years, America has experienced higher inflation than we've seen in a long time.

Growing positivity seems like a good idea most of the time for most people.  While the definition of what is and isn’t positive remains subjective, most would likely agree that there ought to be more of it.  According to this survey from Gallup, there was an uptick of positivity for the first

Economies are large (especially the largest in the world) which makes them difficult to measure.  Any measurements which are conducted are also subject to revisions.  These revisions bring in more complete data, helping to improve the accuracy of the measurement.