250 Years of Adding
For 250 years America grew by adding. The 2026 playbook is to grow profits by subtracting, cutting labor now to harvest margin later, and the market may be paying for a one-time cut as if it compounds.
More issues
Strong Enough to Cut
Low unemployment is doing two jobs at once: keeping the Fed hawkish, and giving companies cover to cut white-collar workers for margin. Both lean on the one number that breaks last.
The Thaw Shows Up in Temp First
Everyone's blaming AI for the freeze. The data says it's cyclical, and the earliest cyclical tell just flipped.
Payrolls Beat Expectations by More Than 2×. The Leading Indicator Didn't.
May payrolls doubled the forecast — but temp help, the labor market's leading indicator, kept shrinking. The two signals point opposite ways.
How do I set clear expectations without sounding like I'm micromanaging?
Micromanaging isn't about how much you specify — it's being prescriptive on the method and vague on the outcome. The fix is to flip it.
Nominal Pay: +3.4%. Real Pay: −0.8%.
Nominal wages look healthy. Real purchasing power just turned negative for the second month in a row though.
The Peer Effect
Why the people around your team members are shaping their output as much as the people themselves — and most managers have never once managed it.
How do I manage someone who's been doing the job for years and stopped growing?
They stopped growing because you stopped requiring it.
U.S. Hiring Intentions Rose 7 Points as the Rest of the World Retreated
Employer confidence strengthened to a cycle high in the U.S. even as hiring outlooks weakened in 33 of 42 countries. The divergence matters more than the headline number.
How do I talk to someone about their attitude?
You can't talk to someone about their attitude. Attitude isn't a thing you can address, because it isn't a thing.
Two Sectors Generated 73% of May's Job Gains
Leisure, hospitality, and local government added 125,000 of May's 172,000 jobs. The sectors most managers compete in added almost nothing.
The Wrong Room Problem
Why your best people keep failing after promotion, and what it's actually costing you.