Research

The numbers are in, and the real estate market finished 2015 on a high point, especially for new home sales. December was the strongest month for new home sales since 2008, with nearly 1,500 newly built homes recorded. That’s up 45 percent from November and 58 percent from December 2014.

With improperly licensed software costing producers some $63 billion a year what can companies do to get paid for their products? W. P. Carey researchers found strong interplay between piracy controls, product extensions and consumer willingness to pay — for software and piracy.

Turnover in key positions is disruptive to the business, costly and consumes time. Sometimes these valued employees want “a piece of the pie,” but some owners are not wiling give up any ownership.

Optimism prevails in the Phoenix real estate market, according to expert Mike Orr, speaking at the Economic Club of Phoenix. Overall supply, which has been low, is now 77 percent of normal and rising fast, he said. But demand is 99 percent normal, which means prices are rising.

Arizona-based LifeLock Inc. provides proactive identity theft protection services for consumers and identity risk and credit worthiness assessment for enterprises. At the Economic Club of Phoenix on Feb.

Retail sales were up two tenths of a percent in January driven by spending on cars, clothing and online merchandise. It’s not a spectacular increase, and that’s probably because consumers aren’t sure low gas prices will endure. Economist Dennis Hoffman comments.

Many leaders will tell you a large part of their job is helping employees overcome resistance to change. We often think of leaders as the instigators of change and employees as the obstacles. Yet few leaders realize how they subtly resist and block needed changes.

Michael Orr, director of the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice, relives the housing crash while watching the Oscar-nominated film “The Big Short” with The Arizona Republic’s Catherine Reagor.

Critical thinking is the ability to use intelligence, knowledge and skills to question and carefully explore situations and arrive at thoughtful conclusions based on evidence and reason.

Harvey Kanter is the CEO of Blue Nile, the largest online retailer of certified diamonds and fine jewelry. He addressed the Economic Club of Phoenix on Jan. 28, 2016.