Tax season may have you questioning if the Federal tax burden increasing or decreasing. The chart shows aggregate U.S. Federal tax receipts as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Apart from the large increase during World War II, otherwise there is no real trend. The US uses a progressive income tax rate: As a…
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Management styles can either be defensive or explanatory of their position(s) or action(s). A defensive management style is authoritative, where management has no desire or time to listen to other people’s input on ideas related to a topic or strategic direction. Often defensive management styles are the result of leadership having no real idea…
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At the onset of the pandemic, many consumers cancelled personal and business travel plans. Teleconferencing replaced business travel and social gatherings. Between February and May 2020, train and airplane travel declined 96 percent and 91 percent, respectively, while travel by car declined 27 percent. The increase in traveling by car since April 2020 reflects the…
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“Willful Blindness” in a business is the conscious act of avoiding the truth, which gives credence to the knowledge of an issue in question, but never resolving the issue. Willful blindness can be at any level of management or on any type of business issue that needs to be addressed and resolved. A business’s willful…
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What is the path forward into 2021? A strategic plan will make the journey into 2021 easier.
“Business Drift” is a perpetual problem with any business, big or small, in any industry. In the food and distillery industry it is called “Flavor Drift”. In business, “Drift” is the act of slowly drifting away from the core business. This can either be intentional or unintentional. Businesses that avoid “Drift” are emphatic about…
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Monetary policy affects interest rates, which affect mortgages, which affect decisions in the housing market. The red line in the graph is the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (right axis) from July 1974 to July 2020. The blue line in the graph is the ratio of housing starts built by contractors over housing starts built by…
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There are numerous businesses starting to reopen and recover from the past months of slow or no business. Sales are starting to rise as customers are starting a buy again, both of which are great signs for a business recovery and business growth. Now let us talk about the difference between a business’s recovery and…
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The chart shows producer price index (PPI) data that measure price changes. Percent changes in prices from a year ago are shown for both stand-alone hotels (the gold bar) and hotels attached to casinos (the red bar). Prices began dropping for hotels in February 2020 and the price reductions continue to persist, but hotels attached…
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We have all attended a meeting, whether it be an Executive Staff meeting or an important business meeting, where you have sat in the chair for hours and leave the meeting feeling like it was a colossal waste of your time. What makes you leave those types of meetings feeling as if you would…
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