Where are the good investment opportunities today? Interest rates are coming down but long term fixed income investments are made less attractive because the expanding money supply is perhaps setting the stage for a return of higher inflation. The stock market's recent volatility has dispensed a large dosage of caution to those interested in...
The dramatic run up of the stock market over the past several years and the ever more dramatic fall on Black Monday several weeks ago has heightened interest in financial news. One of the impacts of Black Monday has been for us to be kept posted on the hourly gyrations of the ubiquitous Dow Jones Average. From the evening news to the morning...
Recession. November 9, 1987. RECESSION. That's right, I said it, the recession is as good as here. We will be hearing a lot about recessions over the next few months so we might as well get comfortable with what it is, why it's happening and what are the best strategies to follow. Government economists define a recession as two consecutive...
It's not just your business. It has been your life for a number of years and it has provided you and your family with a comfortable living. Perhaps it even seems to be part of the family. While the sale of the business offers a special opportunity to establish financial security, the decision to sell is never an easy one. Even after the difficult...
Patents, trademarks, and copyrights are designed to provide protection for inventors, entrepreneurs, and authors. In fact, your work may already be a trademark or have a copyright. However, your patent protection may be providing little protection at all. Trademarks, copyrights and patents are different. Each gives certain rights and protections...
How do you make a contest interesting if you already know the final score before the game begins? Once the results have been quantified, is there any benefit to further inquiry? At this year's national political conventions the real results were determined long before air time. At the recent Democratic convention, one network introduced the use...
Is the store, restaurant or factory that your family operates any less of a family business than a family farm? Is your business sometimes subjected to risks that are beyond your control? During the coming weeks the federal government will make another significant financial commitment to one of our most heavily subsidized private industries,...
Education is big business. Over sixty million Americans are enrolled in some form of schooling. Direct school expenditures will approach 300 billion dollars. "Back to school" fashions, supplies, and transportation will soon have the cash registers ringing Our resurgent economy is much the result of the entrepreneurial spirit and innovative...
Do you remember back not too many years ago when public policy makers began attacking the tax deductibility of the "three martini lunch"? It wasn't the tax deduction for the lunch tab as much the business decisions that were being made after the martinis that concerned me. The current furor over drug testing in the "workplace" brings back similar...
Court sports such as squash, racquetball, and tennis have remained popular as a healthy diversion for businessmen and women. One other "court sport" has also grown increasingly popular during the past decade. However this most rapidly growing court game is guaranteed to be bad for your health, increase your stress levels, deplete your pocket book...