Many of you have been asking about how unemployment may affect your production/collection trends throughout 2010. Unemployment rates trend upwards, even after a recession is over.  That’s because employers don’t usually start laying people off until well into a recession.  If their businesses are struggling, they’ll first look at improving their marketing campaigns, sales, etc.  [...]

To understand the health of our economy, it is important to understand Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  GDP measures all goods and services that a country makes within its borders during a year.  It’s an important measuring tool that helps determine the health of a nation’s economy.  It’s also a good measuring stick for our standard [...]

What is a recession? How can looking at past recessions give context today? The National Bureau of Economic Research officially determines the beginning and the end of recessions. In December of 2008, they announced that the current recession officially began in December of 2007. Notice how they weren’t able to identify exactly where the recession [...]