More than 30,000 U.S. businesses filed for bankruptcy protection in the first half of 2009, a 64 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.
 

Best Actor for the Buck
In today’s recessionary Hollywood, studio executives are no longer looking to cast actors who will demand upward of $15 million just to appear in a movie and then a hefty portion of the film’s revenue. Instead, the ideal package is a big concept with low-paid stars.
Transformers is the ultimate example. The [...]

If current plans are implemented as anticipated, the postcrisis world is likely to be one characterized by enhanced multilateralism, greater policy coordination, and a more effectively regulated financial system. In the wake of the April summit of the Group of Twenty (G-20), the IMF is set to play a key role in this new global [...]

No. 1 Harvard University
Want your kid to become one of the richest people in the world? Send them to Harvard.
The Cambridge, Mass., school tops our first-ever billionaire college study with an alumni base that features 54 10-figure titans, more than 5% of the world’s billionaires. Of those 54 plutocrats, 11 received an undergraduate degree, 41 [...]

Traces of cocaine exist in up to 90 percent of banknotes in many large US cities
You probably have cocaine in your wallet, purse, or pocket. Sound unlikely or outrageous? Think again! In what researchers describe as the largest, most comprehensive analysis to date of cocaine contamination in banknotes, scientists are reporting that cocaine is present [...]

John Borthwick – early predictor of the disruptive power of real-time
John Borthwick speaks softly, but he can’t hide his excitement. Co-founder and chief executive of the New York Internet media incubator betaworks, Borthwick is an investor in the microblogging phenomenon Twitter, where people exchange short public messages called tweets. Betaworks is also building or investing [...]

Green tech
What’s the next big thing to drive the Silicon Valley innovation engine? Don’t count on green tech anytime soon, at least according to two prominent investors here during a panel discussion focused on “Silicon Valley in the New Millennium.”
 

Polarization of various forms is upon us:  great wealth and scarcity, fast and slow paced life options, info overload and info indigestion.  Based on currently emerging trends, these forms of polarization of society: weather, behavior, work and play, will create new ideas, opportunities for businesses, choices for people and clues to how society may evolve [...]

It’s every investor’s dream: buy into a theme before any one else has caught on; ride it all the way up until it gets bubbly; sell to the suckers who bought at the top.
 

Ddalgi now works for Edward D Jones.

A five-year-old parrot in South Korea has proved smarter than human investors in a stock investment contest. Ddalgi (Korean for strawberry), from Papua New Guinea, finished third in the six-week contest which ended on Wednesday, said Paxnet, an online stock market information provider. The bird competed with 10 stock [...]

The social elite have a distinctly different view of the world ahead
There’s always been lots of talk in this country about income inequality, but very little about lifestyle disparities, differences which are pulling American elites farther and farther away from mainstream America.

In his keynote address Monday morning at RSPA RetailNOW 2009, futurist Glen Hiemstra provided an in-depth look at the U.S. economy. Specifically, Hiemstra gave attendees a variety of data points which provide indications as to when the economy will recover (“real recovery should occur by the fourth quarter of 2009”) and what factors will play [...]

It’s a common lament in America that we spend too much time working for “the man.” But these days, more and more of us are the man.

For struggling single moms, 3-generation households are better than 2
Living in a three-generation household can significantly enhance the economic well-being of children, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Some ideas build, gain traction and sometimes coincide with a sweeping movements that propel a young business to greater success.
 

“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” — Albert Einstein
I think we can all agree that Albert Einstein was a pretty smart guy and came up with some great ideas and concepts, but his quote above is also great advice to all of us in business. It’s [...]

July’s Startup Junkie Underground saw Jim Mooney, founder and CEO of References-Online, telling the story of his business and the influence his customers have had on its development. According to Mooney, he has been able to turn “one good idea” into a successful business employing over 20 people without ever taking on outside financing. With [...]

With U.S. unemployment at a 20-year high, some Americans are working for free while looking for a job, but experts are split over whether it is a sign of dedication or desperation.
 

Being smart doesn’t make you any more likely to be rich
If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Although money and mental muscles may seem a natural match, brains, alas, may be more hindrance than help when it comes to getting rich, concludes a new study in the journal Intelligence.”It is still not well understood [...]

Even as regulators crack down on abusive mortgage and credit card practices, another type of lending threatens to mire consumers in a credit trap.It’s called “courtesy overdraft” and has long been used by banks to automatically pay transactions that account holders don’t have the money to cover — and then charge them a steep fee. [...]

Businesses will be launched by former auto workers, mortgage processors and others 
Traditionally it could be predicted that for every 100 people who join the ranks of the jobless, seven will attempt to start a business. Some find business niches, others invent and still others find a better way to do something markets are craving. Ingenuity [...]

Depression leads to women shopping more
Women seem to shop more when they are depressed because of recession, a new study suggests.
A survey conducted by Karen Pine, professor at the University of Hertfordshire and author of Sheconomics, found that 79 per cent women go on a spending spree to cheer themselves up.

Products bucking the recession
It’s not all doom and gloom in the U.S. economy. Some products are bucking the recession and flying off store shelves.
Sales of chocolate and running shoes are up. Wine drinkers haven’t stopped sipping; they just seem to be choosing cheaper vintages.
Gold coins are selling like hot cakes. So are gardening seeds. Tanning [...]

The moneyed and those who retire early are likely to live longer, happier lives 
It may not guarantee happiness, but money, it seems, is the key to a long and healthy old age. 
Those who are poorer and less well educated die earlier and develop illness sooner than the better off and well-qualified, a Government-backed study said [...]

Herb Rubenstein, Brent Green, Arjun Sen and Mike Cote at the Startup Junkie Underground
Monday’s Startup Junkie Underground featured ZenMango President Arjun Sen on “Winning Big in a Down Economy.” Sen, bringing experience from retailers including Einstein Bagels and Papa John’s Pizza, began by highlighting the core mantra of his consulting firm: “Guest experience enhancement.” Sen’s [...]