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How many of us still remember John Maynard Keynes? Keynes, also called "1st Baron Keynes," was a British Economist who lived from 1883 to 1946. He has had a profound influence upon macroeconomics, including the economic policies of various governments. Keynes believed in applying monetary and fiscal...

When AOL made a $1 billion deal to sell patents to Microsoft last April, its stock jumped up about 43 percent on the news. After all, AOL could use a $1 billion shot in the arm. Who couldn't? But what is behind this string of sales of patents? Why are patents so important to large tech firms like Mi...

When Twitter eventually goes through an IPO, its investment bankers will be faced with the challenge of establishing a price per share for the company's stock. To the uninitiated, this might seem like a simple task. The fact is there are several valuation scenarios that can be used to price a stock...

After the recent Super Bowl game, Twitter reported that during the final three minutes of the game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, an average of 10,000 tweets were sent every second. This sheer volume of tweets is almost unimaginable. My first thought was that all of these...

The word "terminal," before the computer revolution, had several meanings, one of which described it as either end of a carrier line containing facilities for freight and passengers. Nowadays, in the computer age, it can mean the end point of a carrier line containing data "floating" in a cloud and ...

This is a followup to an article that I wrote for the E-Commerce Times entitled "Why Publishers Are Afraid of Amazon." In that article, I mention that Amazon is now facilitating those authors who choose to self-publish. I also mention that The New York Times recently quoted Russell Grandine...

My previous experience with book publishers was over 10 years ago when I wrote a book about buying a business. It wasn't a great experience because first I had to find an agent -- not an easy task. The agent then had to go through the long and arduous task of finding a publisher. The process took a ...

One would think that after all of the publicity in recent years about insider trading and its illegality, that such a phenomenon would be a thing of the past. Not so. On Oct. 13, 2011, the hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, received the longest prison sentence to date for insider trading. A judg...

In October of 2010, I wrote an article for the E-Commerce Times entitled "Can the USPS Be Saved?" The point of my article was that the U.S. Postal Service needs a new business model that addresses the present-day realities of e-mail and e-commerce. Despite my intent to focus on the need for a new bu...

At this point, most of us are quite aware of the problems that Rupert Murdoch is having in Great Britain. There has been a seismic shift in the power that Murdoch has over politics and law enforcement in England. Up until a few short months ago, most people in power there were afraid to openly criti...

Some people are considering now buying a home because they realize that residential prices are quite low. They reason that if they don't get into the market now, they might miss the window of opportunity to purchase a home at a deep discount from previous prices. Others are looking to get into the m...

Most businesses with which I am familiar, especially those of small to medium-size, are so caught up in day-to-day challenges that the only time they take a good look at the health of their business and the timeliness of the filing and payment of certain taxes and levies is when they review their an...

In a recent article for the E-Commerce Times titled "Is the World Headed Toward a Single Global Currency?" I asked Morrison Bonpasse, the president of the Single Global Currency Association, about his thoughts on currency consolidation. Since then, I've given some thought to how the world's multi-cu...

If your company has decided that the time is right for an initial public offering, it should consider the options available to it. There are ways by which a company can become publicly traded without the lengthy and costly process that usually accompanies an IPO. A common alternative to an IPO is a ...

Many economists, including Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini, have argued that the European Monetary Union is in trouble because of the fiscal difficulties of a few of its member countries. Some have predicted that the euro will fail. Because the prospects for a future single global currency depend ...

A recent study that I just read shows that the startup success rate over a period of 10 years is about 30 percent. This obviously means that about 70 percent of startups are out of business after a 10-year period! There is no doubt that the failure rate of startups is stunning and, in my opinion, wi...

I recently spoke with the CEO of an emerging technology company, Santeon, because I was curious about companies that are pushing the envelope with technological innovation. I found a company that is creating technology, software processes, rapid implementation and value-adding software architecture ...

Though there are many benefits to bringing your company public, there are also disadvantages to be considered. Therefore, the process of deciding whether to launch an initial public offering should be a deliberate, well-thought-out process made by a team of professionals, including management, your ...

Having an actively engaged, independent board is a must for the long-term viability of any corporation. Unfortunately, there are still many management teams that feel that their prospects for long-term employment, as well as generous salaries and perks, are dependent upon a "friendly" board of direc...

According to the Small Business Administration, fewer than 30 percent of startups are still in business after 10 years. This is a pretty startling failure rate -- over 70 percent. Let's take a look at some of the causes of startup failure and what can be done to improve your chances of making your n...