Author: D. Brian Blank, Associate Professor of Finance, Mississippi State University

The U.S. economy heads into 2026 in an unusual place: Inflation is down from its peak in mid-2022, growth has held up better than many expected, and yet American households say that things still feel shaky. Uncertainty is the watchword, especially with a major Supreme Court ruling on tariffs on the horizon. To find out […]

When business researchers analyze data, they often rely on assumptions to help make sense of what they find. But like anyone else, they can run into a whole lot of trouble if those assumptions turn out to be wrong – which may happen more often than they realize. That’s what we found in a recent […]

Strong enforcement of insider trading laws doesn’t just protect investors – it encourages businesses to be more innovative, according to our new peer-reviewed research. In fact, we found that after a company is hit with an insider-trading indictment, it generally produces more patents – which in turn are cited more by other patents – than […]

Brian Blank is a finance scholar and Fed watcher who researches how companies navigate downturns and make financial decisions, as well as how markets process information. Brandy Hadley is a finance professor who leads a student-managed investment fund and studies corporate decision-making and incentives. Together, they’re also the resident economic oracles at The Conversation U.S., […]