Economy

Puerto Rico the New Trendy Place With Low Flight Frequency

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, […]

Hispanic Economic Progress: Surging Faster but Still Behind

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 […]

States Desperate To Bring Healthcare Prices To Heel

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 […]

Flower wholesaler Ashok Komar stands outside his shop

New development chokes historic flower markets

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 […]

Paper Tariffs Threaten Struggling Newspaper Industry

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 […]

Five Things to Watch in March Retail Sales

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 […]

Rearview Mirror

Auto Sales Keep Retail Economy in Reverse

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 […]

Shoppers exit a Whole Foods in midtown New York on Wednesday, February 14.

Higher gas prices, lower auto sales put brakes on consumer spending

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 […]