Research

Charging for services involves an organizational shift.

John C. Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group and President of its Bogle Financial Markets Research Center, has been warning us for decades about the danger of short-term thinking and greed as motivator in the U.S. financial sector.

Foreclosed homes accounted for 37 percent of the total activity in the Phoenix metro real estate market in July — down from February when foreclosures represented 51 percent of the sales.

Most are aware that the official unemployment rate tells only part of the story. Lee McPheters, in the lead story of the Western Blue Chip Economic Forecast, writes that the U.S.

The Phoenix area was the nation's weakest large labor market in July, according to figures recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many companies have been shifting away from a sole focus on products and have added services in order to drive continued growth and differentiate themselves in an increasingly saturated marketplace. In fact, services account for 80 percent of the U.S.

Roger Myerson, a Nobel Laureate in Economics from the University of Chicago, told an audience of Chinese business executives and government officials recently that their country might do better if it liquidated some of its American investments.

A recent internet poll posted on the Money magazine web site asked "When will the U.S. economy improve?" The answer from 80 percent of those responding was that the economy will improve no sooner than next year, or even later.

Although prices in metro Phoenix dropped 33 percent in May compared to May 2008, the rate of decline once again slowed, adding another month to an improving trend in the market, according to the ASU-Repeat Sales Index (ASU-RSI).

For decades, insurance companies have been pricing policies based on the belief that adverse selection comes into play among their customers.