by Pierre G. Villere The Federal Reserve Bank may very well have a more direct influence on our business lives than any other federal agency, and it is does so quietly in the background while wielding an enormous economic stick. It has a number of tools and mechanisms at its disposal to manage inflation and promote employment, the most well-known…
Read MoreCategory: The Strategist
The Economic Fun Is Here – Will Delta Derail It?
Various reports from our industry press mark a jump in ready mixed concrete production in April, which is just a thumbnail indicator of the health of the overall economy. Production was estimated at 35.6 million cubic yards, an astonishing 20 percent higher than in April 2020. Moreover, the estimated production nationally through April is 114.3 million cubic yards, approximately 6.8…
Read MoreAn Overview Of The Labor Shortage
by Pierre G. Villere As we were going to press this month, all eyes in the human resources world were on the continuing labor shortages; a news story that went viral reported that a Burger King restaurant in Latrobe, Pa. had hung out a banner offering a $1,500 signing bonus, which was later clarified when management explained it was for…
Read MoreNo Worries – Interest Rates Won’t Rise Anytime Soon
There has been some recent panic in the financial and mortgage markets over the concern that interest rates seem to be headed up. This has happened suddenly and stands in contrast to what I have been saying from the beginning of the pandemic: interest rates will stay low for a very long time. So what changed? It began when a…
Read MoreA New Gas Tax?
by Pierre G. Villere We all know there have repeated efforts for decades now to increase the federal gas tax, which has stood at 18.4 cents since 1993, almost 30 years without an increase.
Read MoreA Swinging Pendulum: The Tax Reform Initiative That Lies Ahead
by Pierre G. Villere Those of us who are older and have had multi-decade careers have seen this play out before in Washington, D.C.: The opposing party wins the White House, and a majority in both houses of Congress. While the 50-50 split in the Senate is not technically a majority, the vice president holds the power to break a…
Read MoreThe Disruption of Innovation
by Pierre G. Villere As we all know, terms like “disruptive technologies” and “disruptive innovation” have moved into the mainstream business lexicon, and mark the distinction between the way it has always been done, and the opportunity for change as a result of new technologies or processes.
Read MoreExpect the economy to reach pre-pandemic levels this year
by Pierre G. Villere A couple of months ago, I wrote about my most recent crystal ball prognostications, and expected the decade of the 2020s to resemble the 1920s, a period of unprecedented growth and prosperity coming out of World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19. I dubbed this economic expectation for the 2020s the “Roaring Twenties…
Read MoreDoes the suburban shift mean the end of urban life? Not so fast
by Pierre G. Villere In one of the scenes in the iconic motion picture Casablanca, Captain Renault attempts to arrest the protagonist, Victor Lazlo, and in one the most famous lines in movie history, Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick Blaine pulls a gun on Renault and utters the famous words “Not so fast, Louie”… .
Read MoreRoaring Twenties Redux?
by Pierre G. Villere Last month, I wrote about the lasting effects of Covid-19 long after a vaccine and herd immunity allow us to climb out of our world of lockdowns, quarantines, masking, and social distancing. I keep hearing about the “new normal,” and thought it would be interesting to review how the world emerged from the last great pandemic,…
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