Edward J. Strafaci ~ Academic Blog

U.S. Growth Settles in at Low Gear in Third Quarter Consumer spending growth offsets business investment decline in 1.9% GDP increase GDP, annualized quarterly changeSource: Commerce Department %3Q (1st reading): 1.9%Estimate: 1.6%2011’12’13’14’15’16’17’18’19-2-101234562Q 2015x3% By   Harriet Torry Updated Oct. 30, 2019 11:30 am ET WASHINGTON—U.S. economic growth settled in at a lower gear in the third quarter, with consumer spending and housing investment increases offsetting a business investment drop. Gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S.— rose at an annual rate of 1.9%  from July through September—adjusted for inflation and seasonality, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, compared with 2.0% in the second quarter. “I think it’s consistent with an economy that’s just moving back towards trend,” Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said of the growth reading. The stronger-than-expected g...

‘Feel the Force’: Gut Instinct, Not Data, Is the Thing As computer-generated models flood the C-Suite, it’s important to remember that they shouldn’t displace intuition Softbank founder Masayoshi Son’s approach to business has been described as more Yoda and less Warren Buffett.   PHOTO:  SHO TAMURA/AFLO/ZUMA PRESS By   John D. Stoll Oct. 18, 2019 12:45 pm ET Three years ago, accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP asked senior executives to peer into their crystal balls and predict how reliant they would be on computer-generated analytics in 2020. The answer: much more. Duh. Data has flooded the C-Suite. Managers of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, for instance, have 14 different data dashboards at their fingertips to help speed and streamline decision making. Many executives say it’s time for statistics to replace guesswork.  Starbucks Corp. CEO Kevin Johnson  said data-driven decision making is the secret blend he h...

How Steam and Chips Remade the World Cheap energy powered an economic revolution in the 18th century, and cheap information in the 20th. By   John Steele Gordon Oct. 18, 2019 6:03 pm ET Not all inventions are equal. While the wheeled suitcase was a great idea, it didn’t change the world. But invent a technology that causes the price of a fundamental economic input to collapse, and civilization changes fundamentally and quickly. Someone born 250 years ago arrived in a world that, technologically, hadn’t changed much in centuries. But if he had lived a long life, he would have seen a new world. For millennia there had been only four sources of energy, all expensive and limited: human muscle, animal muscle, moving water and air. Thomas Newcomen invented the steam engine in 1712, but its prodigious fuel consumption severely limited its utility. Then in 1769 James Watt greatly improved it, making the engine four times as fuel-efficient. In 1781 he patented ...