Last year was not an especially good one for the private equity (PE) space. As Bloomberg News reported Monday (Feb. 23), PE firms returned fewer profits to their investors for the fourth consecutive year, with the industry sitting on $3.8 trillion in unsold assets, and struggling to...
Uncertainty is no longer a background condition for middle-market firms. It is now a measurable cost center. That was the central theme of “How Business Uncertainty Is Forcing a New CFO Playbook,” the latest installment of PYMNTS Intelligence’s The 2026 Certainty Project. Drawing on nine...
The Supreme Court could rule on President Donald Trump’s tariffs any day now. However, the outcome of that case might make little difference to the struggling furniture industry, CNBC reported Thursday (Feb. 19). Furniture importers are dealing with steep tariffs on their products, with duties specific...
Every financial crisis has a villain that nobody saw coming. In 2008, it was mortgage-backed securities. In March 2020, it was prime money market funds, which saw investors pull billions in days as panic spread through the system. Now, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank...
Consumers enjoyed a break from price increases during the holiday shopping season. But now, companies have begun raising prices once more, and at higher levels than usual, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Monday (Feb. 16). As the report points out, many companies typically increase...
The latest inflation data released Friday (Feb 13) point to a continued easing of price pressures, particularly in categories that define household necessity rather than discretionary spending, offering consumers incremental but tangible relief. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.4% year over year in January,...
The consumer in the United States is no longer one market. It’s two. And corporate earnings calls are increasingly where the split shows up first. On one side are premium brands and travel players reporting that affluent customers are still spending freely. “The strength in...
Foreign exporters paid a growing share of the cost of new tariffs in 2025, though U.S. importers continued to pay for most of that cost, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Thursday (Feb. 12). The share paid by foreign exporters was 6% from January...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ January employment report, released Wednesday (Feb. 11), delivered the kind of headline that suggests calm. Payrolls rose by 130,000 and the unemployment rate held at 4.3%. On its face, that’s a labor market that’s still adding jobs, but no longer...