Story Archives of 'Economy'

Have you ever gone to a shoe store and couldn’t find a single pair of shoes you liked? Either the color was wrong, or the design just wasn’t your style?

As we consumers get more finicky, companies are trying to give us exactly what we want - letting us call the shots. In the "pimp my ride" era, you can now pimp your sneakers too, as well as all kinds of mass-produced products.

One person who’s watching this ongoing trend is Kim Hastreiter, editor of the New York-based fashion magazine Paper. She joined Word of Mouth host Virginia Prescott from her office in New York to talk about our new ability to customize just about anything from handbags to hamburgers, cars to furniture.

The design issue of Paper is on newsstands now. Click here for a peek inside.

Housing prices continue to drop, home sales have plummeted over 40%, houses stay on the market longer than they have in a decade and foreclosures have doubled once again. But there are small bright spots - lower home prices mean more options for first time homebuyers, plus low interest rates could help those trying to refinance. We’ll explore the state of real estate in New Hampshire.

Guests

• Russ Thibeault, president of Applied Economic Research in Laconia
• Shawne Wickham, Senior Reporter for the New Hampshire Sunday News

Lawmakers continue to push through a massive bill to reform the public pension system that provides retirement benefits to police, firefighters, teachers, state and municipal workers.

Today a senate committee finished its work on the bill and is sending it to the Senate floor.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein has more.

For years the US dollar was considered the world’s safest currency to use and trade. But now the dollar has dropped to a point where some won’t even exchange US currency anymore. A weak dollar is never good news for the economy but there are still some silver linings to a drop in the value of our currency. We’ll examine the reasons behind the falling dollar and how it may help and hurt our economy.

Guests

• Tom Sedoric, Managing Director for Investments for Wachovia Securities, LLC in Portsmouth
• Ross Gittell, James R. Carter Professor and Professor of Management at the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore School of Business and Economics and Senior Fellow at the Carsey Institute

At one time you could get a gallon of diesel for almost half the price of regular gas. Now diesel prices can be a dollar more per gallon. Truckers and farmers have been hardest hit; many truck fleets have been grounded or scaled back, while increased costs to run farm equipment have affected grocery prices. We’ll look at what’s behind the rising costs of diesel, how it’s affecting Granite Staters and what’s being done about it.

Guests

• Massood Samii, Chairman of the International Business Department and Director of Institute for International Business, at Southern New Hampshire University. He also served at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna Austria as a senior economist and the head of the finance section
• Jim Collura, Vice President, Public Policy and Communications at the New England Fuel Institute

We'll also hear from

• Doug Currier, owner of Currier Trucking Corp. in Gorham
• Robbie Munce, owner of Muncie Superior, Inc., the parent company of Gorham Oil Inc.
• Phil Ferdinando, who runs J & F Farms, Inc. in Derry