“Today’s smoking bans may cramp some consumers’ style, but they’ve also launched a world of new business innovations. Now joining the ranks of ashvertising, social e-cigarettes and digitally enhanced packaging is CigaRv, a “Mobile Man Cave” on wheels that brings … read more >

From the article by Joel Kotkin “Heavy Metal Is Back: The Best Cities For Industrial Manufacturing,” in New Geography: “For a generation American manufacturing has been widely seen as a “declining sport.” Yet its demise has been largely overplayed. Despite … read more >

One interesting factoid from today’s CPI report: The item in Table A with the largest monthly decrease from October to November was the 4.4% decrease for piped natural gas (that compares to a 2.9% monthly drop in gasoline prices), and … read more >

“Despite all the negative news, there are signs the U.S. economy is doing better than at any point since 2007, with moderate growth of about 2 percent, savings and consumer sentiment up, and unemployment still high but stagnant. Still, insofar … read more >