US Economy

Add comment June 2nd, 2006 Jason Treida - Iasta

Despite the view of many Americans, the US economy grew at the fastest pace in 2 ½ years.

CBS News recently conducted a poll from Americans revealing that even with these strong economic numbers, the US approval rate continues to drop.

US Economy Approval

Now — 32%
9/2005 — 35%
8/2005 — 37%

With 54% of Americans that think the US economy is getting worse and only 10% say that it is getting better, I just find this to be surprising since we are seeing tighter supply in many markets and some commodities with prices increases. In addition to the strong growth numbers, government and business spending continues to increase and the National Unemployment Rate dropped to 4.7% the lowest in 4 ½ years.

I do not have a good answer to suggest why Americans think that the economy is slipping but I assume it has to due with high gas prices and the uneasiness of the war in the Middle East.

So what can companies to do counteract any supplier price increases and possible limited supply of product in certain markets? We have noticed that many companies with advanced sourcing departments are starting or greatly increasing their usage of optimization applications in their sourcing decisions. This allows buyers to make sure they are getting the correct supply of products to the right locations at the absolute total lowest cost. Look for groundbreaking improvements in the area optimization from eSourcing vendors.

Entry Filed under: General, Global Supply Issues/Risk, Optimization