Entrepreneurship

The Food-Truck Business Stinks

"In the ’80s, the city capped the number of carts and trucks at 3,000. Technically, a permit for a food cart or truck is not transferable, but vendors regularly pay permit holders something like $15,000 to $20,000 to lease their certificates for two years. I was reminded of corrupt countries that I’ve visited, like Iraq and Haiti, where illogical and arbitrarily enforced rules create the wrong set of incentives. Perhaps the biggest winner in our current system is an obscure type of business known as an authorized commissary. By city law, every food cart and truck must visit a licensed commissary each day, where a set of mandated cleaning services can be performed." Continue reading →

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Lawyers say case against Kim Dotcom threatens Internet freedom

"Lawyers for Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom accused the US government Wednesday of launching a flawed prosecution against their client with 'frightening' implications for all Internet users. The New Zealand-based Internet tycoon’s legal team released a 'white paper' to coincide with a visit to Auckland by US Attorney General Eric Holder, which argues that online piracy allegations against Dotcom are baseless. The 38-page document says that while copyright issues are normally treated as a civil matter, US prosecutors are trying to use anti-racketeering criminal statutes normally used against gangsters to press their case." Continue reading →

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A Push for a Bitcoin Buttonwood

"Amid the incense, cheap art and herbal remedies for sale in Union Square in Manhattan on Monday, a very different kind of product was changing hands: bitcoins. Just feet from the park’s statue of George Washington, a crowd of young men gathered on Monday afternoon to buy and sell the digital, crypto-currency. The men – and there were only men – were brought together by an online posting from Josh Rossi, 31, a bitcoin aficionado who works in technology at the World Trade Financial Group. He had proposed what he called Project Buttonwood, a reference to the where the New York Stock Exchange had its beginning in 1792." Continue reading →

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The American Hiring Paradigm Is Broken

"Before the economy crashed, I was able to grow a local Spanish-language newspaper into a regional Spanish-language entertainment magazine published throughout 2 states. My company enjoyed such robust growth primarily because I staffed it with great people who contributed to specific company goals. I found these great employees not by seeking applicants with X years of experience in Y roles, but rather by seeking applicants who made the best case that they could contribute to the objectives I outlined. With this approach to talent acquisition, sifting through resumes was easy: I just looked for accomplishments." Continue reading →

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Sleeping Bag Coat for the Homeless Finds Fans in the Fashion World

"A few years ago, Veronika Scott, now 23, set up a coat manufacturing business in a graffiti-covered building in an old Irish manufacturing neighborhood of Detroit. She had a few sewing machines and a drive to help the homeless. Since late 2010, Scott and her employees -- 10 formerly homeless women who moved into housing only after they started working for Scott's nonprofit company, called The Empowerment Plan, have made more than 1,000 of the coats, which have been distributed for free to the homeless nationwide -- mostly by nonprofits in Detroit and Ohio but also in San Francisco, New York, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Aspen and Philadelphia." Continue reading →

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Dave Gold dies at 80; entrepreneur behind 99 Cents Only chain

"Dave Gold launched his 99 Cents Only Stores empire in Los Angeles at age 50 after mulling over the idea for over a decade. The thrifty entrepreneur took the dollar store concept and introduced it to middle-class and upscale neighborhoods. In the process, he created a chain that has become a mainstay for families squeezed during hard times or those who simply love a good bargain. Long before dollar stores dotted many street corners, Gold opened the first 99 Cents Only store in Los Angeles in 1982. It was the beginning of a chain that would exceed 300 stores in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada." Continue reading →

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Life on Mars to become a reality in 2023 according to Dutch firm

"A few months before he died, Carl Sagan recorded a message of hope to would-be Mars explorers, telling them: 'Whatever the reason you’re on Mars is, I’m glad you’re there. And I wish I was with you.' On Monday, 17 years after the pioneering astronomer set out his hopeful vision of the future in 1996, a company from the Netherlands is proposing to turn Sagan’s dreams of reaching Mars into reality. The company, Mars One, plans to send four astronauts on a trip to the Red Planet to set up a human colony in 2023. But there are a couple of serious snags." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin vs. Ben Bernanke

"Thousands of mostly small online merchants are already accepting payment in Bitcoin, The virtual money that debuted in 2009 with a value of zero and traded for the first time in 2010 at a price of three-tenths of a cent recently changed hands at $97. For Mr. Andresen, a Princeton graduate who once wrote technical standards for 3-D graphics on the Internet, Bitcoin has already begun to replace the U.S. dollar. In November, the Bitcoin Foundation, where he serves as chief scientist, began paying him in the virtual currency. So far he has persuaded his barber to accept this new money, but only from Mr. Andresen. A haircut costs half a Bitcoin." Continue reading →

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Shock: Federal Reserve Official Calls for End of Fed, Competing Currencies

"This is a fairly shocking video in the sense that the gentleman being interviewed is a former Fed official. He calls for a free-market gold and silver standard along with competing currencies – just what we've been suggesting. What is just as interesting is the focus on the Fed as a central bank. Stossel points out that central planning has been discredited the world over, so why does the world have central planning for money? This is a big issue and one that will not go away. After a century of central banking the world is in a bad state and getting worse not better." Continue reading →

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Lower Taxes Tapped a Beer Revolution

"As recently as 35 years ago, there were fewer than 50 breweries in the whole country, and the fastest-growing type of American beer was light, which Miller introduced in 1975. The story of the U.S. ascent to the top tier of world beer began in the late 1970s, when brewing was liberated from government taxation and regulation that had held it back since Prohibition. Following the federal example, state legislatures also began rewriting their bans on home-brewing, and it is legal now in every state except Alabama. The rise of American beer wasn't an accident. It was spurred by efforts to cut taxes and regulation that unleashed entrepreneurship." Continue reading →

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