Do you shop differently now than you did a few years ago? If so, you’re not alone, says Maryland Smith’s Jie Zhang.

With the return to in-office work comes the return to in-person meetings, and a reminder of how tedious many of those can be.

On-site spectators will be missing Friday as athletes parade in Beijing for the XXIV Olympic Winter Games opening ceremonies. There will be pandemic-inspired protocols in place, extending through the competitions – similar to the ones adopted at the most recent Summer Games in Tokyo. And there's a diplomatic boycott in place as well, with the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia opting not to send government officials to the Games, in a show of protest against human rights violations in China. (Athletes from those countries will still compete.)

Traditional data sources couldn’t capture the whole economic picture during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading some to look to less-analyzed data sources – OpenTable reservations, TSA screenings, weekly credit-card transactions. Maryland Smith’s Michael Faulkender, speaking recently to the Economist, discussed those new data sources and their new prevalence.

From the earliest weeks of the pandemic, Maryland Smith’s Nicole Coomber was noticing a worrying trend. Upwardly mobile professionals across her social media networks were opting to step back from their careers, overwhelmed by the new demands of their work lives and home lives.

A combination of factors including the current corporate tax rate makes pharmaceutical production in the United States more attractive now than investing in either China or India. And adopting advanced technologies such as Continuous Manufacturing (CM) further positions the United States to recapture a prominent position in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Not to stress you out, but if you haven’t started your holiday shopping yet, you’re way behind. Thanks to manufacturing holdups, shipping delays and labor shortages throughout the supply chain, it’s going to take longer – and cost more – for retailers and consumers to get the items they want this year. The best way to tackle this year’s Christmas list is to shop as early as possible, and with an open mind and an open wallet, say Maryland Smith experts.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the global air industry to virtual standstill in March 2020, delivering a $370-billion “staggering financial loss to the industry,” according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Seating capacity dropped – by half. The total of passengers taking flights fell even further, to 1.8 billion in 2020, from 4.5 billion in 2019.

Labor Day weekend shoppers might have a little extra money to spend, but they will have to work harder to find discounts this year. Supply chain disruptions caused by the continuing pandemic and a series of severe weather events have had retailers struggling to maintain inventories and subsequently less-incentivized to discount items in stock – even for the usual Labor Day sales bonanzas on appliances, mattresses and autos, said Maryland Smith marketing experts Amna Kirmani and Jie Zhang.