pul.se results for topic:"small business"

New articles | Biznik

Sammie Hayes — 2010-09-10 05:44:09 GMT

What if what you "know" about running your business is the very thing that gets in the way of sustaining your business?

Business Opportunities Weblog

Rich Whittle — 2010-09-10 15:08:16 GMT

According to a story at Inc.com, Google is attempting to help small businesses convert shoppers browsing online into in-store buyers with its “Local Shopping” feature. The feature lets shoppers search for goods online then see who locally has the product in stock. Google started with big retailers such as Sears and Best Buy in March, but [...]

Business Insider

Courtney Comstock — 2010-09-10 14:57:27 GMT

Remember how Yale's endowment fund had an embarassingly awful 2008? So bad they had to freeze students and resort to cheap, student made advertising?

Granted, other endowment funds did eqaully badly that year, but David Swenson, the endowment fund's Chief Investment Officer (and second on our list of worst endowment officers), got paid $5.3 million for that, in the academic year of 2008 - '09.

Other top officers earned a ton, too.

From Yale Daily News:

Swensen’s salary and benefits totaled $5.3 million last year, almost a quarter more than the $4.3 million he earned in the 2007-’08 academic year. His deputy, Dean Takahashi, took home $3.5 million, a 35 percent raise from the year before.

$5.3 million for horrible returns is embarassing because this is how it's excused by Yale's administrators:

On Wall Street or even at other universities, they say, the several million Swensen makes yearly would be a pittance for an investor as renowned as he is. Endowment managers at Harvard have earned as much as $35 million recently, dwarfing Swensen’s and Takahashi’s pay.

Sorry, guys, you're totally wrong. Hedge fund managers make money depending on the returns they bring in. Swenson's -28% returns at a hedge fund = you're not getting paid much that year. At a Wall Street firm, it probably means you're fired. Or close to it.

And by the way, Harvard's endowment chief just posted pretty great returns for 2009, 11%. Should be fun to see what Swenson has to follow that one. Yale's fund should report their 2009 returns soon.

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Business Insider

Joe Weisenthal — 2010-09-10 14:58:00 GMT

Click here for updates.

11:09: Question about November election. "If it's just a referendum on whether we've made the progress we need to, then the answer is 'we're not they're yet'"

11:09: Q&A time.

11:07: Officially announces Austan Goolsbee as top economic advisor, replacing Christina Romer.

11:06: Obama applauds OH Sen. Voinovich for breaking with GOP on small business bill.

He sounds upset.

11:05: Tearing into GOP for blocking small business bill.

11:03: Still in the preamble "Millions of Americans still looking for work."

Talking up past announcement "plan to build railways, roadways, and runways."

11:02: And he's starting off IMMEDIATELY with a slam on the GOP, blaming them for the current crisis.

"We believe in cutting taxes for middle class families and small business owners."

11:02: And here's The President...

11:01: Still no President...

10:59: Waiting....

We'll be covering Barack Obama's news conference on the economy live.

The market is currently up about 0.5%. We'll see if he says anything market- moving.

He's scheduled to begin at 11:00 AM ET.

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Business Insider

Gregory White — 2010-09-10 15:03:52 GMT

Larry Zimpleman, Principal Financial Croup Chairman and CEO spoke to CNBC this morning about the impending retirement boom of baby boomers. His firm has $285 billion in assets under management.

What's interesting about this interview is that it identifies what is going to be a long-term trend for retirees: the need for growth even after retirement. There is, according to Zimpleman, going to be a renewed emphasis on equities for individuals who are already retired, rather than just holding fixed-income to maintain financial stability.

0:45 People now understand that retirement is there own responsibility, and that they can't rely on their employer or the government.
2:00 Life cycle funds are in high demand, and they target retirement date. There are also others which target risk.
3:30 People are realizing that they need to keep investing in equities after 65 as they will be retired for 30 years and be in need of that growth.
4:30 People get that well diversified is what is needed for retirement.
5:00 Dodged question about how to get the 8% expected for retirement funds, but suggested emerging markets investments to solve that problem.

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Fast Company

Jenara Nerenberg — 2010-09-10 12:50:41 GMT

Survey respondents say they want more money spent at home in the face of rising domestic budget deficits. But can international aid still work?

The international aid industry is rife with errors and weaknesses. Social entrepreneurs and developers have long known there were better paths to prosperity than foreign aid, such as local innovation and microfinance.

But hearing that same criticism from the masses is an altogether different issue. The majority of Britons in a new report from the Institute of Development Studies, said too much money is being taken away from them for tax purposes and spent on foreign aid. But what else does the latest public opinion survey reveal about morality and spending priorities in the UK? And will it result in policy changes or raise questions about suitable alternatives to foreign aid?

"The surveys to date haven’t asked questions about what the public think about alternatives to aid, and our analysis hasn’t gone so far as to explore the issue of public opinion on aid impacting policy," Johanna Lindstrom, Research Officer at the Institute of Development Studies and one of the report’s authors, tells Fast Company. "Having said that, international aid is of course a complex and varied issue--much aid does, for example, encourage innovation, training, research etc at a local level. So it’s worth considering that 'local innovation' might be a possible outcome, rather than an alternative to aid."

For Britons, helping the poor is seen as a moral imperative, yet due to the UK's increasing budget deficit, a majority of Britons want that help to be directed domestically, to assist local communities with aid. More generally, the report identifies that as the UK budget deficit increases, support for international aid decreases.

The report also reveals that older Britons are more likely to support reducing funding for international aid, when compared to a younger demographic. The authors thus make the case that development communicators should focus on the older demographic.

Small Business Conversations by Network Solutions

Steve Fisher — 2010-09-10 15:00:26 GMT

Over the last few months I have been setting up and tuning the e-commerce store for the film project, Browncoats: Redemption that just premiered last week. Network Solutions has been a great sponsor and donated an nsCommerce package for us to run the online store. As we got ready for launch we dealt with the standard [...]

GMSV

Levi Sumagaysay — 2010-09-10 14:42:22 GMT

Craigslist has had a tough week. Over the weekend, it shut down the “adult services” portion of its website in the U.S., giving in to what some, such as the Mercury News’ Chris O’Brien, are calling an opportunistic and hypocritical campaign by state attorneys general and...

Resources | BNET

Rick Broida — 2010-09-10 14:59:09 GMT

In your face, Sprint and Verizon! Virgin's mobile-broadband deal is not only 20 bucks cheaper per month, it's also free of those pesky contracts. Sign me up.

Starting Your Own Business with Successful Entrepreneur Erica Douglass

Erica Douglass — 2010-09-10 13:58:22 GMT

Set up a referral program for your business and turn it into a “referral machine”. As small business owners, referrals from existing happy customers are one of our easiest (and best) ways to gain new happy customers. So why do we often make it harder than it should be for our customers to refer new [...]

Business Insider

Joe Weisenthal — 2010-09-10 14:30:08 GMT

The September Effect lives! It's just that it's not stocks getting crushed.

Seriously, check out the carnage in the 30-year bond futures since the beginning of the month.

What's amazing, too, is how nicely this selloff has coincided with the chatter surrounding bonds being in a bubble. That's rare.

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Fast Company

Jenara Nerenberg — 2010-09-10 12:47:11 GMT

Many small businesses say they don't have time to report crime.

Credit card fraud, phishing, and online scams are plaguing Singapore, according to new reports from Symantec, but only half of victims seek help, a fact that leaves internet users feeling helpless and frustrated. According to Symantec, 30% of small and medium-sized businesses in Singapore have seen an increase in cybercrimes recently, a finding that is surprising, given that just this week Singapore was rated as the third most competitive economy in the world, which presumably means a safe online working environment.

Symantec, an online security company, may be biased, but their findings nevertheless raise worthy questions. Why don't internet users report cybercrimes? The primary reasons are time and cost, according to Symantec. With an average cost of over $1,000 and over 20 days to reach full resolution, it's no wonder so few victims report and resolve cybercrimes.

Consider also that Singapore is locked in a tough competition with Hong Kong to be the leading economic hub in Asia. According to Symantec, spam levels in Hong Kong are at an astronomical 92%, and virus levels are at 1 in 505.5.

In Singapore, IT departments spend two thirds of their time blocking criminal attempts and $51,000 annually on information protection. "This is double the time and 27.5% more money than they spend on other computing tasks," Symantec says.

And in terms of disaster recovery? "Sixty percent have either a plan that is not well-documented or needs work. 16% have no plan at all."

Globally, 65% of respondents from 14 countries say they have been victims of cybercrimes, including hacking, phishing, and credit card fraud. China has the highest percentages of cybercrime occurrence, as 83% of respondents reported being victims, followed by India and Brazil (76%), and the U.S. (73%).

Resources | BNET

Joanne Cleaver — 2010-09-10 13:00:47 GMT

Too good to be true: the story ricocheting around the web that young women have whipped the wage gap. Here's the truth, from the source that others didn't bother to interview.

OPEN Forum Activity

2010-09-10 13:26:28 GMT

From Richard Branson:

My mother used to urge me to put on clean socks and underwear every day, reminding me, "You never know if you're going to get hit by a bus."

Smallbiztechnology.com

2010-09-10 15:00:00 GMT

Selling online is what was "hot" before social media came along. Remember when we used to rant and rave about shopping carts, browsers into buyers and all those good things?

Well selling is still important, very important.

Of course instead of just using an email newsletter, blog or web site, we now also use social media to find more about customers and sell to them in new ways.

Regardless of the platform, a good web host and well designed web site is still important. Of course Facebook e-commerce applications are on the rise, mobile sales are increasing and local selling sites like Bizzy, GroupOn and more are popping up.

Brian Horakh, CEO of web host Zoovy gives his insight about selling online, ecommerce.

What are some top tips to selling better online?

Selling online is best used with the following philosophy: identify, execute, deliver and obtain feedback. A common mistake that many merchants make is to go into the execute mode too quickly without identifying opportunities. Below are a few Best Practices and tips for success:

CRM - create a complete view of your customer. Collecting information on all customer interactions across all channels is a must. Segmentation, repeat business behavior and loyalty are the foundations of your customer base.
Comparison Shopping - titles are important. Category names do not perform well as brand names.
Optimize your e-mail campaigns - every e-mail campaign should be tied to strong analytics. Tracking a variety of metrics, such as the number of e-mails delivered, bounced-back, opened, placed orders and any coupons associated with an offer is a powerful tool for segmentation.
Duplicate Content - same product content on multiple categories actually can hurt your search engine rankings. Using a “do not follow” in the link will help.
Search Engine Marketing - Google gives you 35 characters per line; make them count. If your ecommerce platform has A/B testing capabilities, experiment and expect a significant lift in conversions.

Business Opportunities Weblog

Rich Whittle — 2010-09-10 14:07:43 GMT

You’re out of work. The job listings are thin. You have no money to start your own business. Maybe you don’t even have a computer to assist in conducting a proper job search. PC World scoured the earth for solid business ideas–endeavors that you can mostly start up with little more than a smartphone and a [...]

Tim Berry's Blog - Planning Startups Stories

Tim Berry — 2010-09-10 14:20:00 GMT

It occurs to me that I’ve had many good experiences, with hires and colleagues and business contacts, with people who had MBA degrees and years of experience. And I’ve had generally bad experiences with young MBAs fresh out of business school. You could guess the reasons. Arrogance and entitlement come to mind. Maybe it’s a matter [...]

Fast Company

Kit Eaton — 2010-09-10 15:11:38 GMT

Embittered Nokia has just ousted well-known figure Olli Pekka-Kallasvuo and replaced him with Stephen Elop. It's a business decision, but who these guys are matters: Will the new CEO's character bring Nokia back to life in its industry? Below, a look at the vital bio points for OPK, Elop, and go-to golden CEO Steve Jobs, just for kicks.

The Old Nokia CEO: Olli Pekka-Kallasvuo

Age: 57.Nationality: Finnish. Lavia, 1953.Former positions: President, CEO Nokia. CFO Nokia, 1992 onwards. A "variety" of roles at Union Bank of Finland prior to Nokia.Education: Masters Degree in Law, and Honorary Doctor of Law from the University of Helsinki.Character: His Nokia biography lists him as enjoying "playing golf, tennis and reading political history." Some say he has a thick skin, and he's noted he wants to press on with what he knows is right, no matter the criticism. He interviews with a politician's slickness--or so it seems. Friendly, but competitive, he's noted he's "not really comfortable talking" about himself.What he brought: Nokia to its knees. Well, not really, but it's easy to blame OPK's bull-headed decisions to press on, despite criticism, for the slow innovation pace inside Nokia, with the company swiftly losing the lead in the smartphone world.

The New Nokia CEO: Stephen Elop

Age: 46Nationality: Canadian, 1963Former positions: President, Microsoft Business Division. COO Juniper Networks. President Worldwide Field Operations, Adobe. President and CEO, Macromedia (also, COO, EVP of Worldwide Field Ops and General Manager of eBusiness Division.)Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and Management, McMaster University Ontario.Character: Reading transcripts of MS presentations, Elop seems ready to crack gentle jokes. Unlike many folks at his level, he also seems comfortable talking about the competition, including naming them. Having five kids has taught him "patience is a virtue" according to Kara Swisher, who also noted he was comfortable making cheeky, seemingly reality-defying statements about Microsoft's plans to be "interoperable."What he brings: Extensive experience as a manager, from a diverse number of positions inside a group of high-ranking tech firms.

The Competition: Steve Jobs

Age: 55Nationality: American. San Francisco, 1955.Current position: CEO Apple. Board member, Walt Disney Company.Former positions: CEO, Pixar Animation Studio. Founder CEO, NeXT. Co-founder, CEO Apple Computer.Character: Accomplished public speaker, technology evangelist. Stubborn, and quoted in Fortune as "one of Silicon Valley's leading egomaniacs." Larger-than-life persona, responsible for the so-called "reality distortion field." At Pixar, he seemed "mature, mellow" and didn't meddle with the artist's work--seeming to know when to keep his expertise quiet. He's also determined, and would seem to have a quiet but powerful temper--given his handling of the Gizmodo iPhone 4 affair.What he brings: Visionary genius, demonstrated with a huge number of patents and successful products under his belt. Considers himself a team player, citing the Beatles: "Four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts." Charismatic, to the point some observers are concerned about Apple's future under a different leader when he departs.

Apple, and of course the rapidly rising Android phone army, driven by Google, is responsible for some of the industry changes that turned into woes for OPK, and which are serious challenges for Elop. The stand-out facts from these biographies is that both OPK and Elop are much more experienced in terms of managing businesses and business process-derived thinking than they are at actual technological advances. This is compared to Jobs, and of course the tech gurus behind Google--Sergey Brin and Larry Page. This may place Nokia's big competitors in the smartphone game at a significant advantage: Their heads can understand both the technology and its implications for users, and may be able to spot innovations arising inside the company's R&D at an early stage--picking out those that can turn into world-beating final products.

Maybe Nokia didn't read our guide to reinventing itself, after all.

To keep up with this news, follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.

Business Insider

Joe Weisenthal — 2010-09-10 13:53:49 GMT

Your Tweet of the day:

And here's the picture where he can't see Russia

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Business Insider

Gregory White — 2010-09-10 13:55:00 GMT

The CEO of Europe's largest airline Ryanair has called global warming "bullshit" and "horseshit" in an interview with the Irish Independent.

Michael O'Leary's scathing assault on the scientific theory targeted not just the idea of global warming itself, but those who perpetuate it.

From the Irish Independent:

Do I believe there is global warming? No, I believe it's all a load of bullshit. But it's amazing the way the whole fucking eco-warriors and the media have changed. It used to be global warming, but now, when global temperatures haven't risen in the past 12 years, they say 'climate change'.

O'Leary didn't hold back, targeting the entire scientific community for being wrong throughout history, and the weather on a regular basis.

The scientific community has nearly always been wrong in history anyway. In the Middle Ages, they were going to excommunicate Galileo because the entire scientific community said the Earth was flat... I mean, it is absolutely bizarre that the people who can't tell us what the fucking weather is next Tuesday can predict with absolute precision what the fucking global temperatures will be in 100 years' time. It's horseshit.

Check out the full interview from the Irish Independent >

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Business Insider

Gus Lubin — 2010-09-10 13:58:58 GMT

The US Steelworkers Union is calling foul play on China's green tech sector, demanding WTO sanctions against China for subsidizing exports.

Problem is, their position is hopeless.

Firstly, of course China subsidizes the industry. That's how its state-driven economy works for most major industries, and clean tech is a major Chinese initiative.

Secondly, it will be extremely hard to paint low-cost clean tech as the enemy, given a severe under-investment in American infrastructure coupled with U.S. budget constraints.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the amount of capital pouring into Chinese green tech is unstoppable, with or without state support. Caixin describes an outpouring of mysterious funders for a recent wind-tech share offering:

Caixin has learned that some 22 shareholders [of Sinovel], most of whom control between 0.1 and 4 percent of the company, and the smallest of which invested only 150,000 yuan, are poised to profit after jumping in just in the past two years.

Who are these investors? It's hard to say. Phone numbers listed in some company registrations do not exist, and people answering listed mobile phone numbers said they know nothing about the companies. Some office addresses are fakes as well.

"It's quite popular for mysterious, small investors to crowd into a company before it goes public, hoping to earn a fortune," said a private equity investor.

Green tech would be a lightning growth sector in America if we weren't stuck with a built-infrastructure handicap, and arguably a political system stacked against anything green. In China, on the other hand, green tech coincides with the need for new infrastructure and modernity.

Now check out the mind-blowing Chinese transportation boom -->

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Business Insider

Heather Leonard — 2010-09-10 14:01:17 GMT

The Apple Investor is a daily report from SAI. Sign up here to receive it by email.

AAPL Flat As Market Trades Sideways
Stocks are fluctuating in early trading. Shares of AAPL are relatively flat out of the gate. Future catalysts for AAPL include monthly NPD data (Mac / iPod business); iPhone unit updates and AT&T exclusivity expiration; iPad sales updates; new content revenue streams such as video and books; and the refresh of Apple TV. AAPL trades at 15x Enterprise Value / Trailing Twelve Months Free Cash Flow (incl. long-term marketable securities).

Analysts Continue To Flood The Market With Post-Labor Day Research (Various)
And oh how I remember how much I loathed that feeling. Summer's over. Back to the grind. Rats.

Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray believes that Apple may lose as much as 20% of potential iPhone 4 sales (U.S.) because customers are concerned about the antenna design’s effect on signal strength. Munster surveyed 258 mobile-phone users and approximately two-thirds were aware of the antenna design, and 20% of those said it affected the decision to buy the phone. He believes the issue might cost Apple as much as $0.11 per share in the September quarter.

Morgan Stanley equity derivatives strategists Christopher Metli and Sivan Mahadevan are recommending purchase of AAPL January $280 calls while selling the same number of January $320 calls (a call spread which cuts cost basis while capping potential gains). The rationale behind the trade is strong iPad sales growth and demand in China.

UBS analyst Maynard Um raised his Apple earning estimates on strong iPad sales. He estimates Apple will sell 28 million of their iOS tablets in 2011. Accordingly, he upped Apple's price target to $350 and reiterated his Buy rating.

Apple Eats Crow On Third Party Tool Development (The Wall Street Journal)
Apple backtracked from its controversial measure on its anti-Flash campaign: banning apps using third-party development tools. Yesterday, Steve Jobs reversed a five-month-old policy that had sparked an industry-wide debate, a government probe and many words of heated commentary. But what changed the company's mind? Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Forbes believes it was three-fold: feedback, competition and regulation. Nick Saint at Business Insider believes that keeping developers pro-Apple is extremely important. The company needs to retain that.

Amazon Trying To Compete With The iPad (Barron's)
Best Buy announced that it will start selling Amazon’s Kindle starting this fall (missing back-to-school season but in time for the holidays). This is a new strategy on Amazon's part in attempts to increase the e-reader's offline presence in view of the iPad's phenomenal performance. Let's hope the e-reader doesn't get placed buy the Best Buy Apple Shop.

What's After The iPad; A Dividend? (Seeking Alpha)
Kevin Parker at Seeking Alpha believes Apple is a great stock, if you already own it. He thinks it is hard to justify an entry point at these levels. The iPad is a game-changer without a doubt. But what's next? If new blockbuster products are not in the pipeline, with $30 billion in cash perhaps the board will turn to dividends as a way to promote shareholder value. I'm gonna have to say that's a ways off. Especially since the iPad only debuted in April. And we haven't seen what will happen with Apple TV or iAd.

Daily Trader: AAPL Leads Stocks Sold Into Strength Yesterday (The Wall Street Journal)
Apple topped the Selling on Strength list yesterday which tracks stocks that rose in price but had the largest outflow of money. Selling into strength is a proactive trading strategy carried out by selling out of a long or into a short position when the price of the asset being traded is still rising but is expected to reverse in price. This doesn't bode well for today's trading session.

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Business Insider

2010-09-10 14:01:50 GMT

Famous journalism professor attacks TechCrunch's Sarah Lacy, says she's suffering from brain rot.

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Business Insider

2010-09-10 14:04:43 GMT

"Any chance the barrage of iPad ads on last night's Saints-Vikings game was an attempt to butter up NBC for 99 cent rentals?" – AllThingD's Peter Kafka

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Business Insider

Gus Lubin — 2010-09-10 14:06:58 GMT

Reps. Ed Markey and Nancy Pelosi are in Canada this week to visit the Tar Sands and make up their minds about pipeline running from Alberta to Texas.

US industry might want to watch this one closely.

Markey was the most vocal congressman in condemning big oil following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. He was the one who got BP to install the oil cam. At one point he made a big deal about how all oil companies shared the same error-filled disaster handbook. And he said BP should be banned from new offshore permits for 7 years.

American liberals have so far stayed out of the hotly contested tar sands debate.

If Markey and Pelosi come out against the pipeline, then America risks losing access to immense oil reserves, as big as anything west of Saudi Arabia.

Check out 15 frightening facts about the tar sands -->

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main page collection

2010-09-09 23:00:00 GMT

(Sept. 9) -- Meet the Muslim imam who may have managed to convince Christian pastor Terry Jones to cancel his widely condemned plans to burn copies of the Quran in Gainesville, Fla., on Sept. 11.

Resources | BNET

Steve Tobak — 2010-09-10 13:36:56 GMT

Too much power leads to corruption. Too many checks and balances leads to stalemate. These two leadership dysfunctions affect far too many companies. Here's how to eliminate them.

MyVenturePad

Mike Holownych — 2010-09-10 04:24:25 GMT

There is some confusion out there concerning what SEO copywriting means and how to apply it to your website. Simply put, it is the ability to create content that appeals to your audience and search engines. While the techniques are considered relatively new, it has actually been around for some time. It is important to put in the effort to get it right otherwise, it can backfire. Search engine copywriting is a way of rewriting your current content to appeal to the search engines. You accomplish this by working in the keywords you wish to be ranked for.

MyVenturePad

Mike Holownych — 2010-09-10 12:21:55 GMT

It’s a challenge in itself just to drive traffick to your website. Getting visitors to keep returning to your site is even more challenging. There are different strategies that you can use to keep visitors interested in coming back to your site. The more new visitors and repeat visitors you can get to your site will determine the amount of money that your site will generate. Here are a few things that you can add to your site to ensure that your visitors keep coming back.

Lists that Provide “Top Ten”

MyVenturePad

James Maule — 2010-09-10 13:28:38 GMT

Not much is worse than a failed attempt at a resolving a problem being offered as a solution to the very problem it failed to resolve. True, one ought not give up after one unsuccessfully try, but is there not some limit to the pursuit of futility? Professional baseball tends not to give up on a prospect who goes zero for four in his first minor league game, but how likely is a franchise to keep in its system a player who is zero for eighty?

MyVenturePad

Dan McCarthy — 2010-09-10 13:33:01 GMT

I’ve heard some employees call frequent, questionable reorganizations “shaking up the bird cage”.

Copyblogger

Roberta Rosenberg — 2010-09-10 13:49:59 GMT

This is another addition to our ongoing series of tutorials and case studies on landing pages that work. Baolin Liu wants to help fellow office workers stay strong and fit, both in and out of the office. He’s developed an exercise program designed to assist even the most sedentary office worker … or micropreneur who [...]

Business Insider

Joe Weisenthal — 2010-09-10 13:21:34 GMT

This is probably one of the most important questions for the economy going forward: How much deleveraging is there left? Basically everyone thinks the cycle isn't nearly over.

Yesterday we published some research from Deutsche Bank estimating that the process would continue through at least 2011.

Comstock Funds has also published a new note on the subject. Here's the nut:

To be conservative, let's assume that the household debt/GDP ratio falls back only to the 65% level of 1998 rather than to the lower level between 1965 and 1985 or to the long-term mean. Under that assumption household debt would have to be pared back by about $ 4 trillion (from the present total of $13.5 trillion), an amount that constitutes about 40% of current consumer expenditures. While this could be accomplished over a number of years, it can readily be seen that the deleveraging would create a highly significant drag on consumer outlays for an extended period. Since such spending accounts for some 70% of GDP, this creates a serious drag on the overall economy as well.

If this is true, it shows why the stimulus was always doomed to fail. The government can cancel out this trend by leveraging up to offset the shrinking consumer demand. But if it deleverages while the consumer is deleveraging, then GDP just goes back to shrinking. That part isn't that complicated.

Click here to see Deutsche Bank's full report on the lengthy deleveraging process >

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Business Insider

2010-09-10 13:22:06 GMT

German banker says Jews and Muslims are ruining the country -- and becomes wildly popular bestselling author. But forced to quit Bundesbank.

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Business Insider

Gregory White — 2010-09-10 13:24:00 GMT

German Central Banker Thilo Sarrazin is now quitting his position at the Bundesbank over comments he made in his new book Germany Abolishes Itself, according to the AP.

Sarrazin claimed in an interview that, "All Jews share a certain gene. Basques (Spanish separatists) have particular genes, that distinguishes them from others."

Sarrazin also suggested that Germany was getting "dumber" as a result of immigration.

On Muslims, Sarrazin said:

Muslims immigrants don’t integrate as well as other immigrant groups across Europe. The reasons for this are apparently not based on their ethnicity, but are rooted in their culture of Islam.

Sarrazin's book has been a best seller, already in its seventh printing, and he has recieved some support from German citizens for speaking his mind.

The comments and book release have, however, resulted in his departure, after European Central Bank President Jean Claude Trichet condemned his comments and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for his departure.

Sarrazin will be leaving his post at the Bundesbank by the end of September.

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Business Insider

Courtney Comstock — 2010-09-10 13:30:00 GMT

Big news for everyone at JPMorgan and disastrous news for Blackberry's maker RIMM - the bank is apparently testing the iPhone to see if it can handle the firm's email system well enough to replace the Blackberry.

From Bloomberg:

JPMorgan may soon let employees use iPhones for corporate e-mail.

JPMorgan is testing for security in batches of a few hundred devices with a decision expected later this year, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

If email is secure, JPMorgan will let employees use the iPhone instead of Blackberries for corporate email, provided they buy the phone themselves.

The bank would allow employees to use the devices to send and receive corporate e-mail if they make the purchase themselves.

The question is why would JPMorgan want to allow its employees to be able to use iPhones instead of Blackberries?

Apparently the reasons are cost savings and employee preference.

If this happens, we can't why imagine anyone on Wall Street would own a Blackberry anymore, besides BBM. Business email use and BBM are basically the only things keeping Blackberries popular.

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Business Insider

Joe Pompeo — 2010-09-10 13:32:00 GMT

Jon Stewart made fun of Fox News and MSNBC last night for their coverage of President Obama heading into the midterm election season.

On Fox: "You had me at: 'He sucks,'" Stewart quipped.

On MSNBC (following a hilarious Arianna Huffington impersonation): "Of course, praise to be expected from the liberal counter weight!"

Watch the full clip below, which starts around 3:00:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Are You Ready for Some Midterms? - MSNBC's Political Narrative

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

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Business Insider

2010-09-10 13:34:29 GMT

Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety is suing a punk band.

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Fast Company

Austin Carr — 2010-09-10 14:13:50 GMT

Spammers and hackers are constantly trying to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers (also known as my parents) online. According to a three-month study by antivirus developer PandaLabs, these cyber-criminals are creating around 57,000 new fake Web sites every week. That's close to 3 million per year. And all of it is being done to exploit major brands.

These counterfeit sites are aimed at tricking users into providing personal information. So their biggest targets are banks and transaction companies such as Visa, Amazon and PayPal. Together, these sites make up about 65% of the fakes. Clearly, hackers are cutting right to the chase: bank accounts and social security numbers.

And of the 375 high-profile brand most often imitated, two companies are mimicked 44% of the time: eBay and Western Union, companies that do a huge bundle of business transactions every day.

"Although search engines are making an effort to mitigate the situation by changing indexing algorithms, they have so far been unable to offset the avalanche of new websites being created by hackers every day," said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs, in an interview with Security Week.

It should come as no surprise with this "avalanche" of fakes then that close to 75% of U.S. Internet users have fallen victim to some kind of cyber attack. We'd better make sure our parents are prepared.

All You Need Is A Good Idea!

Jay Heyman — 2010-09-10 13:17:00 GMT

Smallbiztechnology.com

2010-09-10 14:00:00 GMT

The New York Times writes:

MAKE your password strong, with a unique jumble of letters, numbers and punctuation marks. But memorize it — never write it down. And, oh yes, change it every few months.

These instructions are supposed to protect us. But they don’t.

Some computer security experts are advancing the heretical thought that passwords might not need to be “strong,” or changed constantly. They say onerous requirements for passwords have given us a false sense of protection against potential attacks. In fact, they say, we aren’t paying enough attention to more potent threats.

Here’s one threat to keep you awake at night: Keylogging software, which is deposited on a PC by a virus, records all keystrokes — including the strongest passwords you can concoct — and then sends it surreptitiously to a remote location.

Read the full NY Times article here.

Fast Company

Ariel Schwartz — 2010-09-10 13:44:30 GMT

Dogs are great--until their poop gets all over your new shoes. Even when dog owners responsibly dispose of dog waste, the excrement continues to generate methane, a potent greenhouse gas. That's where the Park Spark project, billed as the first public methane digestor for dogs, comes in.

Unveiled this week in a Cambridge, Massachusetts, dog park, the project consists of a digester that creates burnable methane gas, which in turn powers a lampost on site. All dog owners have to do is deposit their waste (placed in specially-designed biodegradable doggie bags) into a feeding tube, turn a hand crank, and voila: energy is available to juice up the lamp.

Eventually, the Park Spark team hopes to extend the project to power other objects in the community--shadow projection boxes, tea houses, or even popcorn stands (poop corn?). The digester will never generate enough energy to power, say, a whole block of streetlights, but that's not the point. If Park Spark can demonstrate to community members that waste is a precious resource, it will have fulfilled its goal.

[Park Spark]

Ariel Schwartz can be reached on Twitter or by email.

Business Insider

David Lerner — 2010-09-10 13:03:20 GMT

John Kluge, entrepreneur extraordinaire and one of the great benefactors to Columbia University, the University of Virginia, and the Library of Congress has passed away.

Of modest means and son to a family of immigrants from Germany, (where he himself was also born), Kluge was given a chance at a college education by Columbia University in the early 30's—receiving a scholarship that allowed him to attend and receive an Economics degree in 1937.

He was never to forget this opportunity and its significance to his life.

The cumulative donations he has made to Columbia during his lifetime, and now, upon his passing, total in excess of $500 Million. All of this money was donated by him for the express purpose of providing financial aid.

There are many stories today that cover his extraordinary entrepreneurial career in the press. You can find a few of them here, and here.

I will simply leave you with a few simple references to quotes he made in the rare interviews he granted over the years. I need not also elaborate on how important I think it is for Universities to do all they can to encourage and cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit in their student body.

"Work isn't really work for me, I didn't think I've ever really 'worked' in my life, because 'work' to me means that you're really doing something that you don't like. I hate to tell you this, but I've never liked the weekend in my life. I was enthusiastic about Monday morning from the day I left college."

John Kluge (as told to Forbes Magazine in a 1990 interview)

"Young entrepreneurs should spend an awful lot of time thinking about what they want to go into," he added. "The last thing you want to do, unless it's a very unusual situation, is to invest money. You should have a fund of knowledge of something and out of that you make up your mind. Money is not a fund of knowledge."

Source: Bloomberg

"Kluge "wasn't particularly a man who wanted to be rich or enjoy a grand life," Patricia Kluge, one of his ex-wives. "He took a small idea and turned it into something grand."

As told to Washingtonian Magazine by Patricia Kluge, one of his ex-wives, in 1990.

"In 2007, Kluge pledged a $400 million donation to his alma mater, Columbia University in New York City, designated for financial aid to students. The gift was the largest in Columbia's history and, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the largest ever to be earmarked exclusively to help students afford tuition."

Source: Bloomberg

This post originally appeared on David B. Lerner's website and is republished here with permission. Follow Dave on Twitter.

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Business Insider

Courtney Comstock — 2010-09-10 13:03:25 GMT

Plainfield, the once $5 billion AUM rich hedge fund that came this close to blowing up in 2008, is now being investigated by the FBI for fraud thanks to a new provision in the Dodd Frank bill - and an anonymous whistleblower and his or her lawyer, Stuart Meissner.

From Fortune's Katie Benner:

The FBI is probing whether Plainfield committed fraud by overstating the value of some of its investments and charging management fees based on those inflated assets.

In a civil complaint filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission on August 6, Meissner's [anonymous] client charges in his suit that Plainfield overvalued some investments so it could "defraud its own investors by unlawfully charging higher management fees than those which it is in fact entitled to."

Two questions here. Why is this wusstleblower anonymous? And gosh, can't this fund do anything right in the eyes of its employees/investors, who all want to leave?

Plainfield is one of the hedge funds that lost so of money during the crash that it had to gate in its investors to prevent them from pulling their funds out.

By early 2010, only 20% of the fund's assets consisted of money that investors actually wanted Plainfield to manage (and a chunk of that belonged to Plainfield employees).

Their assets are now down to something around $2.6 billion and they sold their old office, "the finest in Greenwich, CT," to move to a cheaper office in Stamford, CT.

Even if Plainfield did commit fraud, at least they had a comment with some balls:

"This story is merely the latest iteration of a strategy of filing a baseless complaint with regulatory authorities against Plainfield, and then using the press to publicize the 'news' that the authorities are investigating the complaint. Our lawyers have advised us not to discuss this further at this time, but we want to be clear that the allegations against Plainfield are entirely without merit. We believe this reporter has shown a consistent bias against Plainfield in her reporting."

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Signal vs. Noise

Jason F. — 2010-09-10 13:06:00 GMT

The Soda Pop Stop. A celebration of a small niche business led by a guy who really loves sugar and carbonation.

GMSV

Levi Sumagaysay — 2010-09-10 12:27:39 GMT

“(Intel has) been talking about low power for years, and we have been looking at them for years. I am sure that given enough time, be it five years or 10 years, they will get the power issue right.” — Pete Hutton, a vice president at ARM, the British company whose low-power chips are in...

Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That!

Andy Sernovitz — 2010-09-10 14:00:45 GMT

A brand is one idea that creates a clear vision of what you do in the customer’s mind. You can’t claim to do everything. We won’t believe you. You can’t be web design and tech and strategy and code and marketing and…? There is no AND in BRAND. You don’t get to be two or [...]

OPEN Forum Activity

2010-09-09 21:21:01 GMT

From Matthew E. May: Thinking up ways to freshen or revitalize your brand is never easy. Sitting around a conference room in an open brainstorming session generally doesn’t produce anything remarkably new or different, mostly because without a specific focus, it’s difficult to break free of the same old patterns of thinking.

FreelanceFolder

Bogdan Pop — 2010-09-10 12:30:58 GMT

Improved productivity is the goal of every freelancer.

Ever since I started my one-man business, I have looked for ways to improve my productivity and get things done faster. There were a couple of methods that seemed to lead to small improvements, but overall none of them proved efficient.

That is, until I discovered agile techniques. In this post, I’ll discuss some of the ways that agile techniques can help improve a freelancer’s productivity. Specifically, I’ll look at agile methods in general and at Scrum methodology.

Agile Techniques are Team-Oriented

A couple of months ago I was researching agile methods to see if they would help improve my productivity. While studying agile development methods such as Extreme Programming, pair programming, and Scrum I was disappointed to learn that these methods were designed for teams and not for freelancers.
I decided to examine the methods further. I asked myself the question: Why are agile techniques team-oriented?

I discovered that agile development methods are team-oriented because a single person inevitably makes mistakes, mistakes that go untracked and unfixed. This means that the end product has poor quality and stands against the very nature of the agile manifesto, which tries to ensure high quality in each iteration of a product’s development.

If a team develops the product, errors made by one member are discovered by others and fixed. Each member has a specific role. Some may even have passive roles, as their only task is to listen, observe or moderate–such as the moderator of a poker play agile technique, or an employee that hasn’t got a scrum role, but attends a Scrum meeting.

Therefore, agile methodologies were designed and work best with teams that are usually larger than three or four members.

But, adjustments can be made

Despite the fact that it is really hard to successfully apply agile methods to developers working alone, some tweaks can be made to certain methods and therefore use them to improve your own productivity and work flow.

One that can be modified is the Scrum methodology. Scrum is an iterative framework that was designed to serve as a management tool for software development projects, but it is also widely used to manage development teams too.

What Is Scrum Methodology?

Scrum contains a set of practices and three predefined roles. The project manager is usually the Scrum master and maintains the processes. There’s also the product owner, or someone who represents the client and a team of developers.

In summary, the Scrum roles are:

Scrum Master
Product Owner
Development Team

Scrum uses sprint periods of two to four weeks during which a potentially releasable product increment is developed. The features that are implemented during a sprint are chosen from a set of high-level requirements needed to be done. Which of these requirements go into a sprint is decided at the beginning of the phase.

The product owner or the client informs the development team about the items in the requirements list that must be completed first. The team than estimates how many of these items can be completed during the next sprint. An important issue with Scrum is that, during a sprint, requirements of that specific sprint cannot be changed. This ensures that the development team is focused on its tasks and doesn’t get distracted.

A key principle of Scrum is its recognition that during a project, the customers can change their minds about what they want or need. These modifications are introduced to the project development only between sprints.

Scrum requires daily meetings, which may seem Sci-Fi to some. Don’t worry because the modified Scrum version that works for a freelancer is simple and straightforward.

Scrum for Freelancers in Two Easy Steps

Scrum can be adapted for freelancers by implementing the following steps:

Client meeting–one each week
Sprint planning meeting–one each week

The starting point for implementing scrums is to develop a prioritized list of outstanding client requirements or needed features, having for each item in the list a priority, a description, and a developing estimate.

The client requirements and features list are built during the first client meeting. This list can be modified afterwards during each weekly client meeting. During these meetings, list items should also be prioritized as the client wants. Estimates should be computed by the developer alone and communicated to the client.

The next step would be to define a one-week sprint and start developing the items in its list while making sure that distractions aren’t sidetracking the development task. The success of each sprint depends on the ability of the developer to estimate development time required for each task and stay on track. The items that are added to the weekly sprint should be selected according to customer’s priorities.

If the client wishes to change any features of the product during a sprint, you mustn’t waste time discussing this with him. Instead, you should advise your customer to point the modifications during the weekly meeting he has with you. Of course, this can have side effects, but if you explain your development process to your clients during the first meeting with them, they’ll stick to it and love the fact that you have strong management capabilities.

Using this technique, you could have one day a week during which you meet with all your clients that you’re currently involved in a project with, and leave the rest of the days for distraction-free development process.

But, you can further improve the process!

Scrum Methodology and the Pomodoro Technique

You can improve the adapted Scrum methodology with the Pomodoro technique. It is a time management method developed in late 1980s that uses a timer to define work periods of 25 minutes followed by short breaks. Each period is called a pomodoro (Italian for tomato). The technique is based on the concept that frequent breaks can improve mental agility.

Five basic steps are required to implement this technique, in the following order:

Decide on task to be done.
Set the pomodoro timer to 25 minutes.
Work on the task until the timer rings.
Take a short break.
Continue with the third step or the first step if the task is completed.

It is also recommended that a longer break is taken every four pomodoros.

This technique blends the one-man team Scrum as the first step––that of choosing a task––is embedding the sprint list of the Scrum methodology. Moreover, the Pomodoro technique is related to concepts such as time boxing and iterative and incremental development, which are all characteristics of agile development.

Final Thoughts

This technique may seem a bit complex, but it is easy to manage it. You can do it with sticky notes or whiteboards, or by using dedicated apps. And, just in case you don’t have a timer around, you can use Focus Booster App, which was designed to work with the Pomodoro technique.

Your Turn

What methods do you use to improve your productivity? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Image by Stephen Brace

Business Insider

Joe Weisenthal — 2010-09-10 12:30:00 GMT

What's amazing is how many times the sentiment has swung back and forth on the whole Europe vs. USA question, regarding the economy.

For most of 2009 it was all Europe all the time. Then through the first half of 2010, everyone was negative on Europe. Then the US data started coming in weak -- smack dab in the middle of summer -- right around the time Europe seemed to be cleaning up its mess, and the bulls favored Europe again.

And now once again it seems to be swinging the other way.

Europe is back to putting out fires, and, look at that, US data is coming in stronger again.

The euro hasn't made any violent moves lately, but if the US economy keeps "surprising" to the upside, then the dollar will likely rally against the euro. This chart from Morgan Stanley tells the story:

What's funny, too, is that this chart came out just 3 days ago, when Morgan Stanleys said:

While the US has suffered a big negative growth surprise, euro-zone activity has held up fairly well. It is likely that this will weaken at some point, but so far we continue to see a gap between strong manufacturing and softer domestic demand. The most recent data have supported this, with not only German and Belgian business confidence remaining solid, but Italian business confidence also rising this week. Meanwhile, German retail sales have softened, and unemployment fell by less than expected. Our relative growth surprise index reveals the extent to which the euro area has outperformed and is suggestive that the EUR/USD exchange rate could rise further (see Exhibit 2).

Is it already time to change that?

Don't miss: 9 signs that the US double dip is dead >

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