Ever heard of Plains GP Holdings? You should have; it was the largest IPO in 2013

There are roughly 178 million Google hits for “Twitter IPO.” There’s 1.6 million Google News hits right now, and it went public on November 6 — so essentially a month ago. Now, contrast that with Google hits for “Plains GP… Continue Reading

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There are protests right now in Honduras, Ukraine, Thailand and Egypt. What’s going on?

There are protests in progress on four continents right now. Each one has a different reason for being, but they’re still worth exploring individually for a second. The purpose of this post isn’t to go into drastic detail on each one —… Continue Reading

Cyber Monday is sort of a joke

Yea, the money is there — Cyber Monday has been around less than a decade, and sales have tripled in that time. But the term, coined by Shop.org based on research trends in 2004, is a bit outdated. When it… Continue Reading

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Can Robert Reich, formerly of the Clinton administration, change the national dialogue?

Reich went from being Clinton’s Secretary of Labor to a professor at Brandeis (the class was called “Wealth and Poverty”) to, now, a professor at UC-Berkeley. His central issue is income inequality, and his new film (trailer above) is called Inequality for… Continue Reading

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The ‘smart home’ is a future idea, and GE/Quirky have combined on The Spotter

Here’s the essential idea: it’s a small device, and relatively cheap ($49.99). It’s produced by General Electric and Quirky, which is basically an open forum for ideas (you submit, people vote on them, every Thursday a panel in NYC moves… Continue Reading

It’s Small Business Saturday. Has that concept been successful in the U.S.?

Small Business Saturday 2012 registered about $4.5 billion in sales two years after being created (the concept was) by American Express. By some estimates, Black Friday 2012 registered about three times the sales ($11-$12 billion); that was even a drop of… Continue Reading

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Poland, a country with basically 200 years of tragic history, is now Europe’s most vibrant economy

Consider this: only 20 years ago, the Russian army still had troops in Poland. Democracy in Poland didn’t even start to gain steam as an idea until June of 1989, and that followed a long period where many economic observers… Continue Reading

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What exactly happened with PA Governor Tom Corbett’s popularity?

This Tom Corbett situation in PA is endlessly interesting. Basic facts: he’s the Governor. He’s a Republican. He’s insanely unpopular in his own state. He actually just had the worst poll numbers in Franklin and Marshall state polling history, and GOP… Continue Reading