Business

I have this thing for annual reports. Even though I don’t own any stocks at the moment, I still find myself reading annual reports on companies that interest me. Lately, that has been large banks. Specifically, I’ve been fascinated by how large of losses many of these institutions had in 2008/2009. They make my own [...]

Although small business starts appear to be consistent regardless of the economic cycle, many people are forced into entrepreneurship during downturns. Some will succeed. Others will fail. Why a small business succeeds or fails is often a subject of great debate and academic research. As a general comment, economic conditions, in and of itself, is [...]

Retailers tell you that retail is a brutal business. Trends shift. Consumers are bargain hunters. Expenses are high. Several years ago, retailers began to shift into the credit card business to pursue higher margin lines of business.  The rationale being that traditional retail was making so little money but, with such high traffic into the [...]