Regardless of company size, it is imperative to decide on the best legal structure of your new company. The legal entity chosen will affect extent of personal liability, taxes and record documentation. Your business structure can take one of five basic forms: the sole proprietorship, the partnership, the regular or C corporation, the S corporation, or the limited liability company.
If you have watched any news lately, you know that Congress just passed the historic legislation that pledges to overhaul the U.S. health care system. But do you know how the bill will affect college students like you? If you are on your parents’ insurance plan, for instance, you will now be allowed to remain on their policy until the age limit of 26 or until you are out of school, whichever comes earlier. This provision, says Rob Mellen, who teaches political science and public administration at Mississippi State University, will be able to “help out students who can't afford their own health care and haven't graduated yet."
Over the last few decades, the landscape for college basketball and to some extent, the NCAA, has changed. Today, the NCAA is nearly a $6 billion collaborative institution, with over 1,200 members – all benefiting from media contracts, merchandise licensing, and of course -- exceptional athletic talent. If the BCS Championship series as well as the NCAA Basketball Tournament has proven anything, it is that money plays a crucial role in the direction and structure of the landscape of collegiate sports, especially football and basketball. As March Madness rolls along, it seems fitting to articulate two serious issues, (I) ‘the one-and-done rule’ by the NBA and (II) it’s correlation to mass sports media and the NCAA.
After resigning from the presidency of Microsoft in 2008, Bill Gates has invested his money in solving global problems of poverty and environment. Two years of concentration on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation must have made him crave for a new challenge in business. The founder of Microsoft has announced an alliance with Toshiba to develop the next generation energy resource that does not require fuel supply for more than 100 years.
According to the media, Terrapower, a venture company owned by Bill Gates, cooperated with Toshiba in information and technology to develop technologically advanced nuclear reactor, TWR. Established in 2000, Terrapower is a technology development firm which Bill Gates technically owns. He has invested approximately eight billion dollars into the TWR project.
Tacked onto the reconciliation bill that the House passed Sunday was legislation overhauling the student loan industry. The sector, once subsidized by the “Federal Family Loan Program” under which the government subsidized loans made by private lenders to students, has now been nationalized, eliminating private lenders from the equation. While institutions such as Sallie Mae will still assist in servicing the loans, the federal government will now be contracting loans directly to students. This change should result in lower interest rates for student loans, reducing the total cost to the borrowers and perhaps helping them pay off their loans earlier. The legislation also expands the Pell Grant program for low-income students, making more aid available to them which doesn’t have to be repaid.
If you have or are considering having a credit card in college, you might want to take a look at the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009, which went into effect a month ago. Although the act addresses a range of issues surrounding the often loosely regulated credit card industry, it contains a set of measures that specifically target young consumers such as college students. Beginning on February 22nd of this year, anyone under 21 years of age applying for a credit card will be required to either demonstrate that he or she has an independent source of funds to pay the bills or ask a parent to co-sign the application. This is not the only change that Congress is making to help keep students from becoming buried in excessive credit card debt.
The recovering market of today can provide just as many opportunities as the booming market of the late 1990s. The trick, and challenge, is looking in the right places. To the untrained eye, the job market with large firms appears uninviting. However, with careful job research and company analysis, students may find small companies as their best option out of school. The average college graduate is facing more competition and greater odds when looking to apply for internships and entry level positions with companies like “The Big Four” (Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, EY). Therefore, the majority of students may see their best alternative in a small company. While the obvious move is to select the most reputable of the lesser known companies to work for, one should also take another point into consideration: Which company is most likely to be bought out by a bigger firm? And secondly, would that be advantageous for that company?
TV, Print and Radio are dying. Everything is going virtual.
The Internet is changing the landscape of media with Blogs, Social
Media, Search, and Video.
HOW IS NOW DIFFERENT FROM THE PAST?
YouTube and Pandora are primary sources of entertainment – Radio
is dying.
Shows can be streamed online at Hulu and ABC.com – TV broadcast is
dying.
Google disseminates information within seconds of publishing. No
need to wait until the next day for ‘breaking news’ – Print
journalism is dying.
Bloggers are gaining a more influential voice online. Social Media
allows people to easily share information and messages within
seconds.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
TV, Print and Radio need to find some way to save themselves. Or
understand that their industries need drastic change or they will
perish. They need to adopt New Media and figure out ways to
incorporate New Media as part of their monetization strategy, because
Although social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn connect millions in the general public, all of these companies have remained privately owned. As perhaps the most widely recognized social networking company with over 400 million users, Facebook – and its founder Mark Zuckerberg – has been deflecting more and more questions about the possibility of an initial public offering, an event which some in the investment world hope would help rejuvenate the struggling Silicon Valley IPO market.
Banks in the U.S. witnessed everything in the last couple of years – regulation failures, massive government intervention, bailouts, and the talks about limiting their size and scope. But what are the consequences of these financial developments? What does the future of U.S. banks look like after the financial crisis?
Let’s start with the famous Volcker Rule, proposed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and publicly endorsed by President Obama. The Volcker Rule, which has not been implemented yet, proposes ban on proprietary trading – trading on bank’s own behalf rather than on behalf of its clients so as to make profit for itself. This rule also bans big banks from investing in hedge funds and private equity activities. While highly controversial and opposed by many bankers, this rule is good for the financial system, because it makes banks focus on what they are supposed to do and what they do the best: serving customers and clients.
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