Supply & Demand

Ford has ordered a month-long production halt at one of its plants in Germany, the latest sign that a global shortage of computer chips is putting carmakers under increasing pressure and threatening their recovery from the pandemic.

Factory making Ford Escape, Lincoln Corsair shuttered by parts shortage, workers to stay home.

Crocs said it expects 2020 sales to grow more than 12% to a record of roughly $1.38 billion, up from a previous range calling for 5% to 7% growth.

The U.S. branded coffee chain segment, which is dominated by Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, saw sales plunge 24% to $36 billion in the past 12 months

Loves Furniture Inc., the upstart furniture retailer that acquired more than two dozen Art Van stores out of bankruptcy only eight months ago, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Detroit late Wednesday.The reorganization comes only weeks after the Warren-based retailer began liquidating 10 stores across…

Oil prices jumped to their highest level in nearly a year on Tuesday.

A historic amount of packages and rising employee Covid-19 rates are causing significant backlogs at US Postal Service processing facilities before Christmas.

Shannon Reaves, the owner of body care maker Bath Savvy, had to make a call in June: Reopen her retail store or cut the lease and move on. The Harper Woods resident chose the latter. She closed her shop in the Rust Belt Market in downtown Ferndale in favor of focusing her efforts online during…

Detroit-based online retailer Ash & Erie has had great success since its start in 2015 and the clothier is determined to not let the pandemic slow its momentum.The company, which specializes in clothes for men 5 feet 8 inches and shorter, primarily has focused on clothes for professionals, but…

Amy Sternberg has been urging customers to be patient, but she's running out.Sternberg is one of many business owners dealing with delivery delays at the U.S. Postal Service during a holiday shipping crush made worse by the pandemic.Sternberg runs Artworks by Amy, curating handmade items for people…

Hello Everyone, I hope that this note finds you all healthy and well. This pandemic and resulting isolation has reminded us of the deep need for human connections, people’s adaptability and...

Apple Inc is moving forward with self-driving car technology and is targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

How oil prices went negative: this explainer shows how a collapse in demand, a Saudi-Russia price war, and oversupply led to futures prices going wonky.

Michigan builders are prioritizing the construction of higher value homes to gain more profit, a market driven in part by the pandemic

U.S. delivery firm FedEx Corp on Thursday said quarterly profit almost doubled after rate hikes and spiking volume helped lower the cost of delivering pandemic-fueled e-commerce purchases to residential addresses.

Michigan public health officials expect to receive 29 percent fewer doses of Pfizer Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine next week, an unexplained drop in supplies on just the second full week of the state's mass inoculation of health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic. Lynn Sutfin, a…

The U.S. Postal Service predicts this week will be the busiest time of the season for mailing, shipping and delivery. It’s also turning out to be a season

Imagine for a moment that your alarm goes off at 6 a.m. and it's time to go to work. But somehow you can't get out of bed. You wait. You pick up your phone and see that the person that was supposed to be your arms and your legs to get you out of bed, cleaned up and dressed and ready to make a…

Doctors and nurses are lauded as front-line heroes in the battle against COVID-19, but direct care workers who help people at home are a less visible and relatively unheralded part of the health care ecosystem. The pandemic magnifies their long-simmering undervaluation.Direct care workers —…

The COVID-19 recession is likely to sideline a minimum wage hike for Michigan workers in 2021, the state announced Friday. The minimum wage was supposed to increase to $9.87 an hour and $3.75 for tipped employees under a 2018 law legislators passed to sidestep a ballot drive that successfully…

Using the minimum wage as a classroom debate topic, students develop competencies in researching current issues, preparing logical arguments, thinking critically about a relevant economic issue, and formulating opinions based on evidence.