Carolina León and her husband are frequent flyers and are always planning trips to different locations from their home in New York City. For their next adventure, the Leons were considering visiting Puerto Rico, but the high costs on airfares changed their plans. “It’s out of our budget,” said León, […]
The delay of hurricane relief funds for Puerto Rico pulled down the island’s economy for the fourth month in a row, returning the U.S. territory to the declining trend of the fiscal crisis. The island’s Economic Activity Index (EAI) declined 0.7% in December, although it increased 16.1% over the year-ago […]
When President Trump visited Florida last month, he highlighted one achievement in particular: the economic progress made by Hispanics, a group that has strongly opposed Trump because of his immigration policies. The unemployment rate for Hispanics had hit 4.8 percent in October, a record low, and has remained at about […]
Republican changes to the Affordable Care Act have driven up insurance prices for individuals. Now some states are acting on their own to halt a third year of sharp premium rises. The state healthcare exchanges – which serve people who don’t get insurance through an employer or a government program […]
Since he opened his flower business 18 years ago, Ashok “AK” Komar has watched storefront after storefront empty from this block of Manhattan. Pointing through the tall tropical plants for sale to businesses up and down the street, Komar, 41, lists out each flower wholesaler gone dormant. It’s easy to […]
As a film reviewer at the Tampa Bay Times for 25 years, Steve Persall had a front-row seat to the winding melodrama of layoffs, buyouts and closures in the American newspaper industry. He’d kept his job through the Great Recession, the shift from print to online and consolidation after the […]
This morning the Commerce Department will publish its count of all the retail products and services sold in March. Here are five things to look for when the numbers are released at 8:30 EDT. 1. Auto sales will accelerate… but not too fast Motor vehicle sales are 20 percent of […]
Jonell Marty, a fifth-grade teacher in the Minneapolis suburb of Apple Valley, received $60 more in her paycheck on February 5, her first to incorporate the Trump tax cuts. Marty, who has taught for more than three decades, makes $86,000 a year. She is putting the extra $1,440 per year […]
Soft auto sales dragged down overall retail sales in February and consumers did not spend enough to pick up the slack. Retail sales decreased by one-tenth of a percent from January, according to Commerce Department figures released Wednesday, to a seasonally adjusted $447.31 billion. January retail sales were also one-tenth […]
Retail sales shrunk in January, ending several months of consumer spending growth fueled by drawing down savings and going into debt. The Commerce department reported Wednesday that overall retail sales declined 0.3 percent. Fewer people bought cars and car parts. The increase in gasoline prices, up 3 percent, sapped consumer […]