Research

The Economic Minute is a new feature of Knowledge@W. P. Carey. These brief recaps by W. P. Carey economists, first presented at Economic Club of Phoenix luncheons, are designed to bring you up to date on current conditions nationally and in the West.

We shouldn't expect the stimulus plan presented by Congress to the President to bring an early end to dismal data reports on the health of the economy. Conditions will continue to worsen for at least the next two quarters.

The American gaming industry enjoyed an unprecedented run of luck during the late 1990s and the first half of this decade.

Real estate expert and finance Professor Karl Guntermann has been predicting for a long time that the decline in Phoenix area home prices would probably bottom out by the end of 2008.

When executed correctly, strategic sourcing — a multi-faceted approach to purchasing contingent on types of goods and services — yields many benefits for both buying companies and their suppliers.

As power costs increase and consumers and government put more pressure on business to reduce environmental harm, sustainability is becoming important to all kinds of companies.

Privacy once meant drawing the drapes. Now that we depend on technology to do the world's business, privacy means securing data, protecting personal information and keeping hackers at bay.

Analysts are sifting through the latest economic data for their states, but there is little good news to be found. According to December figures on unemployment recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment is up over last month in each of the 50 states.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the Obama administration's plan to rescue financial markets yesterday. The plan was long on promise and short on details, however, which sent markets spinning.

When it comes to examples of crises in business, we have "an embarrassment of riches," according to the author of "Crisis Communication: Practical PR Strategies for Management and Company Survival." The debacle of Enron's collapse and the Tylenol package-tampering scare are examples of crises tha