According to a recent survey by Discover Financial Services Small Business Watch, 90 percent of people surveyed continue to rate the economy as fair to poor, unchanged from February. But a greater percentage of small business owners see economic conditions for their businesses improving, and fewer people see conditions getting worse. An excerpt from the [...]

A recent post struck a chord with one of my clients, Dr. Bruce Wieland, a former PhD research engineer at Duke, who started his own company a few years ago. I thought everyone might be interested in his perspective, which I post with his permission:

Nationally, foreclosure filings increased 81 percent from 2007 to 2008, according to an article published in the (Durham, NC) Herald-Sun (registration required). Local economists and the likes of Business Week and CNBC have been telling us that Durham is better positioned economically than most areas to survive the recession because our main industries are higher [...]

Now that the inauguration festivities are behind us, President Obama needs to get to work. What should be first on his agenda? According to the Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange & Chatham Counties, first on the agenda should be addressing the free-falling housing industry. At the association’s installation of officers last week at Hope [...]