Oil Glut Expected to Last a While
Even if Saudi Arabia wins its struggle with U.S. shale producers over market share, it will face a new billion-barrel adversary. It won’t be regional nemesis Iran, a resurgent Iraq or long-standing competitor Russia. The answer will be more prosaic: Even when overproduction ends, a stockpile surplus of more than 1 billion barrels built up since 2014 will remain, weighing on prices. Inventories will keep accumulating until the end of...
Technology Could Change Trend of Global Trade
Two of the biggest forces influencing global economic activity over the past three decades — globalization and automation — have had polar-opposite effects on workers in emerging markets. The former pushed multinationals to move production to countries with cheaper labor costs than advanced economies, while the latter effectively substitutes capital for labor in the production process. In a note to clients, analysts at the Goldman...
Older Workers Feeling Spooked By Stock Swoon
As the economy struggled to take off in the years after the financial crisis, Americans had at least one shining source of optimism: a booming stock market that not only helped rebuild shattered 401(k) plans but suggested better times to come. But now, with the economy still mired in a sluggish recovery, that silver lining is being threatened. The stock market is lurching downward after a flat 2015 and large banks are casting...
Stocks Finish Worst Year Since Recession
U.S. stock markets had their worst year since 2008. Equities finished the volatile year slightly lower than where they started, reducing expectations for 2016. The Dow Jones industrial average ended the year down 2.2 percent and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 0.7 percent. It marked the first year of losses for the Dow since 2008. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was the only major U.S. index to rise, gaining 5.7 percent. But...
The Business of Agriculture: Farmers Market Phenomenon Is Here to Stay
Over the past decade or so, agricultural leaders in both Vermont and New Hampshire have been effusively lauding the expansion in numbers of farms and the increase in volume of commodities moving into market channels within the states. Major drivers in both statistical areas have been the growth in the number of local farmers markets and of farm enterprises adopting the community supported agriculture, or CSA, model for connecting with...
