What is the Best Way to Handle Defects Under the Plated Area? Glenn Traylor Everyone who uses lumber in trusses understands that defects in lumber can impact truss performance in different ways. Some defects are not important but others will affect truss performance and can even cause truss failure. [For all photos, See PDF or View in Full Issue.] In the first photo,... Read More March 2024 Issue #16296 Page 35
A Mixed Start to 2024 Lesko Financial Services Team Beginnings always feed the temptation to look ahead and make predictions, and recent economic news, podcasts, and websites have featured their fill. 2024 went out on a fairly positive note and it was tempting to try to extend that optimism beyond the first few weeks of January. But despite... Read More February 2024 Issue #16295 Page 64
Surprising Resilience Tempered By Lingering Pressures in Quarter 4 Lesko Financial Services Team As the Fourth Quarter got underway, there were strong signs that the U.S. economy remains resilient, despite stock market volatility and consumers beginning to express some wobbles in confidence. But the crisis in the Middle East, political divisiveness in the U.S., and chaotic developments... Read More November 2023 Issue #15292 Page 78
Design Connections: Make Competition About More Than Price Geordie Secord A near certainty in the component business is that your customers will, to some extent at least, shop your price against your competition. Depending on the relationship history you have with your client, you may have the opportunity to match a lower price, but your competition will still be used... Read More October 2023 Issue #15291 Page 98
Economic Resilience Despite Lingering Recession Fears Lesko Financial Services Team The U.S. economy started the second half of 2023 with a sense of resilience and more optimism than last year at this time. Inflation has been trending downward since its peak in June of 2022; the Federal Reserve hit the ‘pause’ button on interest rate hikes; the job market has been... Read More August 2023 Issue #15289 Page 72
Positive Trends Provide Hope for a Late Year Recovery Lesko Financial Services Team At the start of a new quarter, the economy is continuing its bumpy ride toward recovery while still showing mixed signals. Forecasts going forward are for slower growth throughout the next two quarters before picking up steam in the latter part of this year and going into the next. There are... Read More May 2023 Issue #15286 Page 86
First Quarter Brings Hints of Later-Year Move Toward Recovery Lesko Financial Services Team The start of a new quarter and a new year bring with them a cautious glimmer of optimism that the economy is finally poised to begin a slow turn-around toward a gradual recovery. To be sure, many challenges remain for households that have been weathering inflation for more than 18 months. But... Read More February 2023 Issue #15283 Page 90
Fourth Quarter Arrives with More Questions and Challenges Ahead Lesko Financial Services Team The markets and the economy still face a number of challenges from lingering inflation, ongoing Fed rate hikes, and geopolitical instability. This is playing out within a context of a stock market that has declined—recent gains the exception—even if it has already priced-in a lot of... Read More November 2022 Issue #14280 Page 94
How Are Dealers Feeling Today? Positively Nervous Craig Webb Collect dozens of anecdotes from travels, panels, emails, and social media interactions, as I have recently, and three trends emerge to summarize the state of construction supply today: Dealers say demand remains strong, with only marginal easing of supply chain pressures. In contrast,... Read More August 2022 Issue #14277 Page 76
Third Quarter Challenges Slow Growth Forecasts for Rest of 2022 Lesko Financial Services Team The U.S. economy starts the third quarter with some strong challenges that rattled the ongoing recovery in Quarter 2 and are likely to filter through to the next few months. Among them are lingering inflation, the prospect of several additional aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes, and... Read More August 2022 Issue #14277 Page 91