Economic Indicators


Why Things Aren't As Bad As They Seem

Sep 1, 1981

Researcher David Birch says the United States is better at providing services than making products. That adds up to a rosy future.  Read story

What Would Be A Real Return On Investment?

By Bernard M. Kiely |  Oct 1, 1981

Robert A. Mamis maintains that an investor loses if his investments yield less than the rate of inflation plus the going rate of interest. Theoretically, ...  Read story

Beware Of Deflation

By Martha Liefer |  Nov 1, 1981

Prices could be headed downward. That's bad news for businessmen who aren't prepared.  Read story

Tax Incentives Help Create Jobs

By John Bishop |  Jan 1, 1982

Tax credits for hiring the unemployed would work if employers could only understand the rules.  Read story

Public Enemy Number One

By Milton D. Stewart |  Apr 1, 1982

With all the talk about deficits, we've lost sight of the fact that jobs are the key to a healthy economy.  Read story

All Hat, No Cattle

By Rhonda Abrams |  Mar 1, 2004

When it comes to pronouncements about small business, President George W. Bush stands tall, "Entrepreneurs create between 60 and 80% of the new jobs natio...  Read story

Where the Jobs Are

By Angus Loten |  Apr 19, 2006

Small employers are creating jobs at a breakneck pace. Here are the industries they're influencing, and the opportunities that lie within them.  Read story

Retailers Brace for Cyber Monday Surge

By Angus Loten |  Nov 19, 2007

More than 60 percent of shoppers say they expect to buy more holiday gifts online this year.  Read story

How We Pick the Best Cities

By Michael Shires |  Jul 10, 2008

This year's rankings continue the methodology used last year, which emphasizes the robustness of a region's growth and allows the rankings to include all ...  Read story

Assets

Related Terms: Liabilities Assets are anything of valu...  Read story

What America Needs Is A Few Good Failures

By Tom Richman |  Sep 1, 1983

Four years ago, David Birch showed that small companies create most of the country's jobs. Now he has found that failure is just as important as success in k...  Read story

Does Technology Really Create Jobs?

By Tom Richman |  Aug 1, 1984

David Birch, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher who first measured the role of small companies in creating jobs, recently turned his com...  Read story

Fortune Telling

By John Rutledge |  Jan 1, 1985

Keep your eye on the trends, not the details -- and on inflation above all.  Read story

Hot Spots;

By J.H. |  Apr 1, 1985

What are the fastest-growing retail markets around? New York? Houston? Phoenix? Surprise -- none of them even makes the top 10. The hottest retail mar...  Read story

Correction

Jun 1, 1985

A chart that listed growth in retail sales in our April issue (News & Trends, page 18) had an incorrect heading for 1983 dollar volume. It should hav...  Read story

Wake Up!

By Judith A. Hayner |  Oct 1, 1985

Come on, fellows: It's 1985 and women are everywhere, involved in everything, and visible no matter where you look -- with the possible exception of your ...  Read story

Measuring Innovation

Jun 1, 1987

To assess innovation statistically company by company across the entire economy, we have used the Growth Index -- a tool created at Cognetics Inc. to meas...  Read story

Yankee Doodle Dandy

By DAVID L. BIRCH |  Jul 1, 1987

Entrepreneurship and innovation make our business culture worth celebrating. But they pose challenges, too  Read story

The Rise And Fall Of Everybody

By DAVID L. BIRCH |  Sep 1, 1987

Turbulence is the new fact of business life, and we'd better understand what it means  Read story

The Booming Hidden Market

By DAVID L. BIRCH |  Oct 1, 1987

There are companies out there that'll need what you're selling. You just haven't heard of them yet  Read story

Who Survives?

By M.E.M. |  Jul 1, 1988

The common wisdom has long held that four out of five new businesses fail within five years. Once again, the common wisdom is wrong, at least according t...  Read story

The Disciples of David Birch

By John Case |  Jan 1, 1989

A new generation of researchers discover the effect of small business on the economy.  Read story

What Ever Happened To The Lean, Mean Job Machine?

By George Gendron |  Nov 1, 1992

Discouraging signs that start-ups are no longer creating jobs at the rate they once did.  Read story

How to Survive the End of Inflation

By Eric Kriss |  Jan 1, 1993

Recognizing a deflationary or no-growth economy and planning your way through it.  Read story

With Friends Like This, Who Needs Enemies?

By George Gendron |  Jun 1, 1993

A series of quotes about the position of small business in the economy.  Read story

It's Job Generation, Stupid

By Bo Burlingham |  Aug 1, 1993

What Bill Clinton had better learn about how jobs, wealth, and individual prosperity are created in America.  Read story

'Isn't Anybody Back There Listening?'

By George Gendron |  Oct 1, 1993

Sen. Robert Bennet (R-Utah) chastises his colleagues for the damage they have done to small business in U.S.  Read story

Looking for Jobs in All the Wrong Places

By John Case |  Mar 1, 1994

Government should foster innovation and entrepreneurship instead of focusing on companies' sizes.  Read story

A Bad Investment

By Timothy Bates |  Jan 1, 1995

A professor of labor and urban studies explains why empowerment zones are doomed, and offers a better plan.  Read story

The Wonderland Economy

By John Case |  May 15, 1995

A close-up look at the vital role small business plays in America's economy that debunks many myths about this sector.  Read story

On-Line Debate: Small Is Beautiful! Big Is Best!

By George Gendron |  May 15, 1995

Inc's editor-in-chief moderates a round-table debate among four economists over job creation.  Read story

Dissing the Economy

By George Gendron |  Jan 1, 1996

Some thoughts about the term "disinflation" and suggestions concerning further reading on the topic.  Read story

The Age of the Gazelle

By John Case |  May 15, 1996

A look at some data that shows most of today's new jobs come from a relative handful of fast-growing companies.  Read story

Is America Really Different?

By John Case |  May 15, 1996

Data showing the roles small businesses play in European economies compared with the role they play in the U.S economy.  Read story

Letters

By Various Inc Staff |  Oct 1, 1996

Readers respond to topics and articles from past issues of Inc. magazine.  Read story

The New-Economy Almanac

By Elyse M. Friedman |  May 15, 1997

A statistical and informational snapshot of today's businesses and how they are operating in the new economy.  Read story

Bankruptcies Plague Small Businesses

By Jessalyn Swindoll |  Jun 8, 2006

March 2004 --While job growth at big companies tends to make more headlines, job creation in the United States also comes from small busin...  Read story

Economy Showing Gains in Key Areas

By Allen Roberts

More good news for the economy: America's productivity is up and jobs are being added to the economy, according to the first-quarter numbers released late...  Read story

Time May Be Ripe to Move Online

By Matt Quinn

May 26, 2004 --For small businesses that have been debating whether to move online, recent sales numbers are making a strong case for maki...  Read story

Growth in Consumer Prices Looks Certain to Spur Rate Hike

By Matt Quinn

June 15, 2004 -- U.S. consumer prices surged 0.6 percent in May, largely due to soaring energy costs. The report by the Labor Department ...  Read story