February 24, 2020
State Chamber Update
"The value of U.S. oil exports has increased just under 20,000% over the last 15 years, by far the fastest-growing major U.S. export or import in that time period." 

I read that late last week in a Forbes piece and was completely surprised. The story points to two major events that spurred this growth - hydraulic fracturing and the relaxation of federal oil export policies during the Obama Administration. 

The chart ( see it here ) lists other products and their performance over the past 20 years. The list has many predictable products and some, like oil, surprises. The key takeaway is this - technological improvements always happen and government policies matter. A change in federal oil export policy helped usher in this growth. Here in Delaware we need to be looking at policies that limit our growth. Some regulations or policies could be decades old, and truly made lots of sense when originally established. But through a 2020 lens, we could modernize, unleash growth, and still honor the intent behind the policy. This is important for businesses already here and for those companies who may be looking at us, especially in comparison to our neighboring states.  
Tuesday kicks off the week with housing and consumer data. The Case-Schiller Index reports home buying activity for December, as does data from the Federal Housing Finance Administration. We also get an early look at consumer confidence numbers for February. On Wednesday, we'll see more housing data as national new home sales figures for January is released. Thursday brings us order information for durable goods in January, and we wrap up the week on Friday with consumer spending, core inflation and personal income numbers for January.  
Michael J. Quaranta
President
Delaware State Chamber of Commerce
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