Jonathan Sweet

I've had some fun this month watching and reading the reaction to a column I wrote last month after the Iowa caucuses. In it I wrote that maybe Ted Cruz's victory showed that ethanol wasn't going to be the deciding factor it had been in the past for the nation's first caucuses. It was one of literally dozens of articles ...

Every industry is different. Every business is different. Every company's Facebook followers are different. But with those caveats out of the way, you can learn a heck of a lot from looking at 1 billion Facebook posts from more than 30 million brand pages. That's what Buzzsumo did in January to find out what types of posts are most effective. You ...

So as the dust clears from the 2016 Miami show, the industry should be pretty happy with the way things turned out. Lots of positives about this year's show: The weather was good, more than 100,000 people turned out and the location was great. Frankly, the fact that the show happened has to go in that category. I remember talking ...

I'll admit it. I'm a political junkie. I was tracking the results of the Iowa caucuses all night Monday. I'm sure I'll be checking my phone constantly Tuesday night while I'm down at the Miami show to see the New Hampshire results. But even if you're not that interested in the race, one of the results out of Iowa should ...

There's plenty of coverage out there about the upcoming 2016 presidential and Congressional elections, but how do the candidates' stands affect the marine industry? BoatPAC, the marine industry's political action committee, will be offering advice throughout the year through its new 2016 Election Center. Later this month, the PAC will be previewing the center through a webinar to help industry ...

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You can be sure we'll remind you again next year (and again and again and ...), but the 2016 Top 100 application is now available. Applications aren't due until June 27, but as those of you have applied (or started to apply) in the past know, it's going to take some time to put together your best application. We've made ...

After my post last week on "The real unemployment rate" a reader posted a comment asking how this compares to past years. It's a good question, so here you go. While the report I cited didn't look at that, the government's numbers can be helpful here. One of the problems with the unemployment rate that is usually widely cited is ...

We've been writing in various articles over the last year about the declining unemployment rate, which has dropped to 5 percent. That's a very good thing, of course, but it also doesn't present the full picture, as anyone who is paying attention knows. A new report tries to get closer to the real situation. One important note: The report comes ...

The Renewable Fuel Standard remains a hot topic in the marine industry. Even with the news last week that the EPA had finally set the fuel standards for 2014, 2015 and 2016 (no that's not a typo), there is still plenty of concern about how the presence of 15 percent ethanol (E15) in the nation's fuel supply can affect boaters. ...