via openforum.com
Many small business owners are still waiting to see what effect the Sequester will have on entrepreneurs. It’s possible that the $85 billion dollars in federal budget cuts could disproportionally harm small businesses.
Showing posts with label Economics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economics. Show all posts
Monday, March 11, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Economic Uncertainty Continues to Hinder Small Business
via inc.com
A couple of months ago when you were coping with the looming fiscal cliff, you probably at least thought you would have some clarity when it was over. Whatever the outcome, small business owners would know the direction the country was heading and plan accordingly. However, with the fiscal cliff behind you, and March starting tomorrow, you're probably feeling an even greater wave of uncertainty. Almost a tidal wave.
Economic conditions in Europe are unsettling, with Italy's recent struggles and the downgrade of British debt. Meanwhile, constant talk of the sequester and spending cuts here in the U.S. only add to that edge.
No wonder the SurePayroll survey shows that small business owners continue to employ fewer people and growth has slowed.
Monday, February 18, 2013
The Solution To California's Problems Is Beneath Its Feet - But Rich Environmentalists Are Having None Of It
SHALE exploitation in North Dakota has lifted incomes and brought unemployment down to 3.2% of the workforce, the lowest level in the country.
Californians are rarely found looking longingly towards the Midwest. But the revelation that their state, with unemployment at 9.8% and America’s highest poverty rate, may be sitting on the largest deposit of shale oil in the continental United States has led some to wonder if their salvation lies 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) beneath them.
California has been an oil state since 1865. Thanks largely to reserves that can still be tapped by conventional means, it remains the third-largest producer in the country. Output has lately been declining by 2-3% a year, according to the state’s Energy Commission. But in 2011 the federal Energy Information Administration declared that the Monterey shale formation, which spans 1,750 square miles (450,000 hectares) in southern and central California, held 15.42 billion barrels of recoverable oil, 64% of the total estimated to be in the 48 contiguous states.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
What Will Happen If We Don't Raise Debt Ceiling
The United States has already hit its debt ceiling--the legal limit of the amount of money it is allowed to borrow, as established by Congress.
Right now, the U.S. Treasury is resorting to "extraordinary measures" to keep paying the country's bills.
Sometime between February 15th and March 1st, the Bipartisan Policy Center projects, the Treasury's ability to use these "extraordinary measures" will end.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Millionaire Tax Now Likely, But President Obama Wants More
via forbes.com
In the fiscal cliff horse trading, President Obama wants a tax increase on anyone earning over $250,000. (However, here’s the latest update to this story: In Tax Hike Haggle, Obama at $400K, Boehner at $1M: Now What?) House Speaker Boehner and the Republicans? No tax increase, thank you. But now the Speaker has signaled that tax hikes on those earning over $1 million would be OK. See Fiscal Cliff Talks: GOP Poses Millionaire Tax-Rate Increase.
It’s compromise time as the fiscal cliff moved ever closer. And Mr. Boehner doubtless thinks the spending cuts he wants in return–and the need for some kind of deal–make it worthwhile. See Boehner Agrees To A Millionaire Tax–And Moves Closer To A Fiscal Cliff Deal. After all, the Bush Era cuts are expiring and there’s no patch in sight.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Technology startups are gaining momentum despite the current economic turmoil worldwide
via techi.com
The only silver lining in a bleak global economic outlook today has been the technology industry. Within it, the many triumphs – such as Apple, Workday and Amazon – have been peppered with sporadic financial letdowns. Whispers of a second ‘dot com bubble’ – referring back to the sharp decline in the performance of technology companies in the late 90s, following a number of consistently lucrative quarters – have been rampant due to many entrepreneurial ventures that simply fizzled out. Whatever the case maybe, the picture is indicative of a larger, more alarming scenario; the failure of conventional business models, establishment, and governments.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Here's The Problem With Our Economy
Several factors have come together to produce a frustratingly weak economy that has persisted in the U.S. for more than a decade:
"Globalization" has opened up a vast pool of billions of workers who work for much less than Americans. This, in turn, has resulted in companies shifting formerly middle-wage-paying jobs overseas.
Technology has continued to increase productivity, allowing companies to do more with fewer employees.
Average hourly earnings have been flat for ~50 years (after adjusting for inflation), as companies steer their wealth primarily to senior management and owners at the expense of average employees.
Tax policies have increasingly favored investors and high wage earners over middle-class and upper-middle-class wage-earners.
An obsession with "shareholder value" at the expense of other stakeholders (namely, customers and employees) has led companies to cut employee costs to the bone.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Paul Ryanomics
via forbes.com
Mitt Romney’s recent announcement of Paul Ryan as his running mate makes this election even more about government spending, programs and taxes. Ryan is the primary author of the Republican-led House’s 2013 budget proposal. Consider these five proposals to evaluate Romney’s wisdom in selecting him.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Paul Ryan's Bravest Moment
A lot of politicians talk a good game about principles and guts, but very few take risks that really jeopardize their careers.
But Paul Ryan has guts. In October 2008, while the economy was cratering, Paul Ryan stood on the floor of the House of Representatives and encouraged his colleagues to do something incredibly unpopular: Pass TARP, the bailout scheme that helped save the economy.
He was one of only 20 Republicans to vote yea on the measure, which barely passed after failing the first time around.
Here's his impassioned speech.
Monday, July 23, 2012
US Poverty On Track To Reach Highest Level Since The 1960s
The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net.
Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the November elections.
The Associated Press surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent. Several predicted a more modest gain, but even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest since 1965.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
The Facebook app economy [infographic]
Facebook applications have spawned an entirely new industry. Most people think of Facebook as a place to reconnect with old friends, keep up on social events, or share the latest internet meme, but the reality is that it’s contributed more than 15 billion dollars in wages and benefits to the US economy alone. And the number of people that use Facebook keeps growing and growing: for every person that was using Facebook 5 years ago, there are 44 new people today. That’s staggering growth! If it were a country, it would be the third most populous, right behind China and India.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Dear America: You Should Be Mad As Hell About This...
In November, Americans will have a chance to speak their minds.
And there's one thing everyone should agree on:
America just isn't working right now.
It's not just Americans who aren't working. It's America itself, a country whose economy once worked for almost everyone, not just the rich.
In the old America, if you worked hard, you had a good chance of moving up.
In the old America, the fruits of people's labors accrued to the whole country, not just the top.
In the old America, there was a strong middle class, and their immense collective purchasing power drove the economy for decades.
No longer.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Unemployment Is Up. Why Is It So Hard to Find the Right Hires?
via inc.com
When describing the skills shortages plaguing their companies, CEOs sound like the Ancient Mariner: Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink! Even with the unemployment rate at 8.2%, business leaders complain there aren't enough people qualified to fill "today's jobs," shorthand for positionsthat require expertise in specific technologies or pretty much anything in health care. Usually, America's schools are the fall guys. Primary education, we are told, does a lousy job imparting the fundamentals of math and science. Colleges graduate too many liberal arts majors, when they graduate people at all.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Game Over for GameStop and Video Game Retailers?
via readwriteweb.com
Before it even launched, Diablo III had sold 2 million copies, making it the biggest game release of the year by far. The same week, though, video game retailer GameStop announced a worse-than-expected quarter of falling revenues led by plummeting in-store sales. Together, those two facts signal a massive re-alignment of how games are sold.
It turns out that a huge proportion of those 2 million Diablo III presales were direct-to-consumer downloads that bypassed retailers. As digital downloads take over the game market, where does that leave storefront game retailers like GameStop?
Thursday, May 24, 2012
HP slashes 27,000 jobs as PC market stagnates
Plagued by cost-conscious corporate buyers and smartphone-loving consumers, the personal-computer market has become a dangerous place to do business.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ-N21.08-0.70-3.21%), the world’s largest PC manufacturer, announced Wednesday it will lay off 27,000 employees, or 8 per cent of its work force. The layoffs, which are the largest in HP’s history, come as the computer-maker tries to find a way to get profits growing again at a time when global sales of information technology (IT) are stagnating and only a handful of PC companies are seeing their fortunes improve.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Penny to Paper: How Much Does It Cost to Make U.S. Currency?
via creditsesame.com
Each year the Federal Reserve Board provides a projection, acquired from the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, for the need of new U.S. paper currency. As you will see, it takes money to make money. In fact, it takes a lot of money to make money.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
All the World's Gold [INFOGRAPHIC]
The word gold can make any person’s eyes light up. Well, they will really light up when you hear that there’s more than 165,000 metric tons of it! In 2011, this was the best estimate of the world’s total gold in weight. More than half of humanity’s gold has been mined from the earth in the past 50 years!
To break this down, almost four olympic sized pools could hold all the gold that has ever been mined. Also, if everyone on earth were to get their fair share in the world’s gold total, each person would receive five gold rings!
One major question is, how is this mined gold used? Just around 52 percent goes to the jewelry trade. Then, 18 percent makes up the total holdings of the world’s central banks. The rest fall to investments and industrial use. Gold is a powerful thing, and India leads the way at about 745 metric tons of consumption!
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Apple And Samsung Captured 99% Of Phone Industry's Profits
The iPhone may account for less than 10% of the total cell phone market, but even with that small market share, Apple is dominating the industry's profits and revenue.
Apple's share of the phone industry's revenues climbed to more than 40% in the first quarter of this year, a record high for the company, according to data from Horace Dediu at Asymco.
Even more impressive, Apple now accounts for nearly three quarters (73%) of the phone industry's total profits. Samsung captured 26% of the industry's profits and HTC took the remaining 1%, says Dediu.
Bottom line: If your name isn't Apple or Samsung, you're getting clobbered in the smartphone market.
Below you can see Apple's share of the market's revenues and profits.
Monday, April 30, 2012
$1.5 Trillion In Mobile Revenues In 2012, U.S. Accounting For 40% Of All Smartphone Sales
via techcrunch.com
The mobile industry will reel in more than $1.5 trillion in revenues in 2012, with 28 percent of that, $400 billion, attributable to mobile data, according to new research out from analyst Chetan Sharma.
He notes that within the revenues expected for mobile data, non-messaging revenues led by apps, mobile web browsing and streaming media have finally overtaken those of traditional messaging like SMS as smartphone usage continues to grow. Non-messaging, he says, will account for 53 percent of the total: in other words, some $212 billion will come from apps, music and video streaming, games and mobile web browsing.
Monday, April 23, 2012
New Asteroid Mining Company May Solve World's Economic Problems
via gizmodo.com
This Tuesday, a group of billionaires and former NASA scientists will announce Planetary Resources Inc., the first asteroid mining company in history. They claim they will "add trillions of dollars to the global GDP" and "help ensure humanity's prosperity."
The group of investors and scientists on board this enterprise is impressive...
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