In the past 40 decades, regular working Americans have barely seen their salaries grow, while around them, the cost of housing and basic needs have skyrocketed, as has pay for business executives. What’s behind this decline? Economists and political scientists often point to the decline of labor unions in those same years as a major contributing factor to the current environment of soaring business profits and meager worker salaries.
Category: News and Views
The White House Allegedly Has A Marijuana Smear Squad. Cannabis Experts Say Bring It On. | Forbes
The Trump administration has supposedly assembled a team of federal agency leaders for the purpose of promoting negative views on U.S. cannabis legalization. Cannabis industry members and advocates say the effort would be deeply misguided, and ultimately too late.
On Wednesday, BuzzFeed News reported that the White House has “secretly amassed” a committee of federal agencies meant to “combat public support for marijuana and cast state legalization measures in a negative light” while also “attempting to portray the drug as a national threat,” based on interviews and documents acquired by BuzzFeed.
30 Years Ago, Women Entrepreneurs Couldn’t Do This One Simple Thing | Small Business Trends
The other day, I read an article that blew me away. Writing in Forbes, entrepreneur Deborah Sweeney reminds us that until 1988, women entrepreneurs could not get business loans without a male relative as a cosigner. It didn’t matter if the male relative was even involved in the business, or if he was under 18; he was essential to experienced businesswomen getting the loans they needed to grow their companies.
“As a 43-year-old female CEO, it is difficult for me to get over that in my lifetime women business owners had to rely on men to obtain a business loan,” Sweeney writes.
Astell & Kern A&futura SE100 Hands-On Impressions | Digital Trends
Astell & Kern is one of those pesky audio companies that just won’t stop innovating, like that annoying classmate who was always pushing the grade curve and reminding the teacher of that missing pop quiz. This utterly meticulous engineering is what has kept the niche brand in business so long, and it’s also what leads to impressive evolutions like the company’s new A&futura SE100 portable player ($1,700).
What could happen next after Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort convictions | Business Insider
Last week featured some of the biggest drama of President Donald Trump’s tenure so far.
In courtrooms separated by about 200 miles, Trump’s former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts of federal felonies, two of which were campaign-finance violations that he said Trump “directed” him to make, while the president’s ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted on eight felony counts while the jury was hung on another 10 counts he faced.
So what’s next?
Who is Your Customer? | Peter Mehit
We all need more customers. Growing top line revenue is survival. Without setting the table, you have no chance to make a profit, or even just stay in the game. With so much hype around the internet and social media, more established forms of marketing are being discounted. Yet the elevation of social media, which is a tactic, as an end all, be all strategy to reach your customer, does a disservice to those who must plot the direction of their company’s marketing efforts.
No where is this more apparent than in small business where owners and managers are bombarded by sales pitches for different types of tactics. Some owners will be swayed by a good pitch and buy the tactic. Others will not feel comfortable and will not do anything. If neither of these persons has identified their customer, neither choice is helpful to their business.
Uber ‘to focus on bikes over cars’ | BBC News
Uber says it plans to focus more on its electric scooter and bike business, and less on cars, despite the fact it could hurt profits.
Boss Dara Khosrowshahi said that individual modes of transport were better suited to inner city travel.
He also forecast users would make more frequent shorter journeys in future.
“During rush hour, it is very inefficient for a one-tonne hulk of metal to take one person 10 blocks,” he told the Financial Times.
Monsanto faces a surge in lawsuits following cancer ruling | BBC News
American agro-chemicals company Monsanto is facing a surge in lawsuits that may cost its new owners, Bayer, billions in damages.
Monsanto manufactures glyphosate-based weedkillers which some believe are carcinogenic.
Last month it lost a $289m (£225m) court case that alleged its products Roundup and RangerPro had led to a Californian man’s terminal cancer.
Bayer said the number of outstanding cases had risen from 5,200 to 8,000.
Make Money Without Losing Family Time | Lucy Reed
Being a single parent is difficult on numerous levels. Between taking kids to activities such as sports practices and after-school programs, there is little time left in the day for enjoying their company. Single parenting often is financially stressful as well. Everything falls on your shoulder when you are a single parent. This can be scary or empowering.
For those looking to fill in the income gap on their monthly budget, the increased number of freelancing opportunities may be the perfect way to make some extra income without missing out on family time. At home gig range from doing remote skilled work to selling items online. Most of these jobs require little more than a computer, knowledge about a specific field and the confidence to take a stab at the work.
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Facebook bans first app since Cambridge Analytica, myPersonality, and suspends hundreds more | TechCrunch
Facebook announced today that it had banned the app myPersonality for improper data controls and suspended hundreds more. So far this is only the second app to be banned as a result of the company’s large-scale audit begun in March; but as myPersonality hasn’t been active since 2012, and was to all appearances a legitimate academic operation, it’s a bit of a mystery why they bothered.
The total number of app suspensions has reached 400, twice the number we last heard Facebook announce publicly. Suspensions aren’t listed publicly, however, and apps may be suspended and reinstated without any user notification. The only other app to be banned via this process is Cambridge Analytica.
