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Check in often to our blog where we may just surprise you with quick random thoughts about Excel, business, and the economy.

Berkshire Hathaway is raising prices, and their costs are increasing. Inflation is on the rise. These Excel charts illustrate the the problem.

Warren Buffett, Inflation, and Excel

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On May 3, 2021, CNBC quoted Warren Buffett saying, “We are seeing very substantial inflation. We are raising prices. People are raising prices to...
As inflation rises, so do mortgage interest rates—causing house prices to fall. Here's how Excel's PV function can help you estimate what you new house price will be.

Here’s How Inflation Could Affect the Value of Your Home

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November 5, 2021 Inflation is rising in the U.S. And that made me wonder how a higher rate of inflation could affect the price of...
The two Excel dashboard-like charts with May data show that consumer confidence has dropped like a rock since March. But Asia's data isn't available yet.

Dashboard-Like Excel Charts of International Consumer Confidence

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The following Excel figure displays its charts in a dashboard-like format. At least, it's in a format that dashboards should use! When you use simple...
The Weekly Economic Index (WEI) combines ten weekly measures to estimate the growth in the United States' GDP each week. It's the only measure of its kind.

Chart of the New Economic Index that Tracks GDP Weekly

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In April 2020, the Federal Reserve Economic Database (FRED) added a measure that will be followed closely during the Covid-19 economic devastation and recovery....
Each fat line in this chart indicates when a recession has occured for the specified country. You can use the same method to show other Boolean conditions.

Chart Recessions and Other Boolean Conditions in Excel

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I doubt you’ve seen an Excel chart like this before. It shows multiple Boolean conditions that might affect the trend in the annual Rate...
A shortage of truckers is one cause of the supply chain crisis in the US. This Excel chart suggests that the problem won't end soon.

An Excel Chart of a Major U.S. Supply Chain Problem

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October 23, 2021 A shortage of truckers now appears to be the greatest problem with the United States' supply chain. In fact, President Biden said in...
Here's how you can split delimited text into an array with a short Excel formula, and then wrap the formula with the INDEX function to return any value from the array.

How to Split and Index Delimited Text with Excel Formulas

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For the longest time I've wished that Microsoft would add a SPLIT function to Excel. The function would have a syntax like this... =SPLIT(text, delimiter,...
Growing too fast can be dangerous to your company's health. Use the Sustainable Growth Rate ratio to track your company's financial ability to grow.

How Fast Is Too Fast?

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(Originally published in Inc Magazine.) What typically tops the list of worries of the chief executive officers of fast growing companies? Financing that growth, according...
When you include several charts in one report, your managers must THINK about each chart to decide if it shows good news or bad. Here's a fix for that.

How to Remove a Speed Bump From Your Excel Charts

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Because managers need QUICK insight, we should remove as many speed bumps as possible from our reports and analyses. The following figure with two Excel...
This figure uses the Chicago Fed's National Financial Conditions Index to illustrate how to create an Excel panel chart.

US National Financial Conditions Using Excel Panel Charts

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I’ll explain the meaning of this chart figure shortly. But first, let’s look at it from an Excel perspective. (Note: I’ve begun to use economic...

Latest Articles

Excel Flowbook Revolution

Getting Radical with Excel

It's time to think about Excel in a radical new way—when we use it to work with business or economic data. It's time, in fact,...
Growing too fast can be dangerous to your company's health. Use the Sustainable Growth Rate ratio to track your company's financial ability to grow.

How Fast Is Too Fast?

0
(Originally published in Inc Magazine.) What typically tops the list of worries of the chief executive officers of fast growing companies? Financing that growth, according...

How to Smooth Data by Using the TREND Function

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Years ago, I read that Prof. William S. Cleveland had suggested that data could be smoothed by calculating a centered trendline through adjacent data—a...
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