Economy, Strategy & Finance Data Reactions

At the outset of 2017, many economists were concerned by the possibility that tighter labor markets would act to slow employment growth. Perhaps labor shortages will trigger the next recession as firms will cut back production in reaction to rising costs. Right now though the LEI is still signaling good economic times ahead. A long period of frustration with talent shortages and rising labor costs would likely be required for labor alone to be the next black swan.

Despite the rise of corporate sustainability, few CEOs discuss these initiatives with shareholders. But that is changing. Companies and shareholders are beginning to use the term Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) to represent the more focused area of the overlap between financials and environmental/social issues, resulting in risk mitigation.

The Conference Board China Center has been tracking US-China trade relations very carefully over the past 18 months, and we recommend that our members review several key pieces that we sent out previously which anticipated the events now transpiring and outlined a range of important planning assumptions for MNCs.

This blog describes some of the trends and recent developments that may impact the prevalence of nontraditional workers in the future. Most trends point to a growing share of nontraditional workers, but some developments are likely to have a negative impact. Even when the direction of the impact is clear, there is a lot of uncertainty about the magnitude of the impact.

Many of the corporate board monitoring costs can be drastically reduced, if not eliminated, by using blockchain to establish trust between directors and shareholders.

Corporate communications teams are being called on to reinforce their company’s reputation in the face of a skeptical public, concludes a report by The Conference Board, Corporate Communications Practices: 2018 Edition. The survey covers more than 100 publicly traded companies.

Market shake-outs – as typical of creative destruction cycles, even those with “Chinese characteristics” – should yield better operating conditions over the longer-term, especially for competitive firms. At this critical juncture, executives need to understand the gamut of potential China exposures facing their companies – both positive and negative – so that they can position their companies to exploit associated opportunities and mitigate risks.

The Conference Board provides a state level view of 2017 consumption patterns, using their nowcasts of nominal PCE growth by state.