The State of the Union allows the President to look back at recent accomplishments while outlining an agenda for the new year. For business leaders, understanding the President’s priorities helps them plan the direction of their companies and what investments to make. Many in the business community will be paying close attention to tonight’s State of the…
Sean Hackbarth
Featured Blog, Sean Hackbarth
Shutdown Strains Businesses Across the Country
The partial government shutdown has passed the one-month mark. While leaders in Washington struggle to reopen the government, workers and businesses bear the brunt. The shutdown reminds us that the federal government is an important institution for America’s free enterprise system. “The simple reality is individuals and businesses depend in many ways on the federal…
Featured Blog, Sean Hackbarth
Why We Should Lift the Steel and Aluminum Tariffs on Canada and Mexico
After more than a year of negotiations, negotiators reached a deal in October on a new trade agreement covering North America – the United State-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). As they pursued that deal, administration officials repeatedly suggested that U.S. tariffs were imposed on imports of steel and aluminum from Canada and Mexico as a negotiating tactic. The administration…
Featured Blog, Sean Hackbarth
‘We Are Caught in the Middle:’ Tariffs Hit Illinois Farmers and Manufacturers Hard
‘We Are Caught in the Middle:’ Tariffs Hit Illinois Farmers and Manufacturers Hard Sean Hackbarth Soybeans are loaded into a truck during harvest in Princeton, IL. Farmers are always looking to the sky hoping for cooperation from Mother Nature. For Illinois farmers this year, the weather has been good enough that they’ve had a different…
Featured Blog, Sean Hackbarth
Workers, Farmers, Families, and Business are All Losers in a Trade War
It’s finally here: Retaliation Week, when other countries impose tariffs on about $75 billion worth of U.S. goods in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum and certain Chinese imports. Canada – the United States’ top trading partner – on July 1, was the latest country to slap retaliatory tariffs on our exports, putting…
Featured Blog, Sean Hackbarth
Tax Reform Boosts Middle Market Business Confidence to an All-Time High
It’s a bird, it’s a plane… No, it’s the ever-escalating RSM US Middle Market Business Index (MMBI), which reached a new all-time high in the first quarter of 2018. Measuring companies with revenues between $10 million and $1 billion annually, the MMBI rose 4.5 points to 136.7. Anything over 100 means the middle market is…