Tag Archives: consumer

More companies in a party mood this year

Hiring remains sluggish, but at least most companies are in a party mood.

More than 83 percent of companies are planning a holiday party this year, according to a recent survey of human resource executives. That’s up from 68 percent in 2011, but still lower than the 90 percent who partied in pre-recession 2007.

The survey by consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that 10.3 percent of the companies surveyed are having a holiday party after one or more years of not partying. Seventeen percent of the companies said they will spend more on this year’s holiday party than they did in 2011.

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Dear Governor, make Amazon pay sales taxes

An open letter to the governor:

Dear Gov. Haslam, As a consumer I appreciate not paying sales taxes on purchases made through Amazon.com. But as a Tennessee resident, I don’t appreciate it one bit.

Tennessee depends on sales tax revenue for schools, roads, law enforcement and all the other vital public services that state government provides.

Amazon shoppers, including myself, should pay their fair share. No more, no less.

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Recovery continues: Consumer spending, corporate profits up

Word from the Commerce Department today is that the economy didn’t grow quite as fast in the first quarter as originally estimated. But that’s no reason to panic. The key word here is “grow.” The economy continues to recover, albeit slowly.

Several bits of good news can be found in the news release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

— Automobile manufacturing and computer sales both were up from the fourth quarter.

— Consumer spending rose 3.5 percent, slightly less than originally estimated, but up from 1.6 percent in the 4Q and the strongest showing in three years.

— Corporate America is still making money. Corporate profits increased $81.4 billion, compared to a 4Q increase of $108.7 billion. Still a tidy increase, any way you cut it.

Read the full BEA press release here.