TED talk: A Growing Threat to Democracy

By Tim Berry

About a third of the way into this talk from last year’s TED global the speaker says: Have you wondered why politicians are not what they used to be? It’s not because their DNA has degenerated. It is rather because one can be in government today and not in power, because power has migrated from the... Read More »

A Physicist’s Deep-Dive into Who Controls the World Economy

By Tim Berry

In this TED talk, physicist James B. Glattfelder looks at who controls the world economy, focusing first on ownership as a complex system. He says, in his introduction: “We spend billions of dollars trying to understand the origins of the universe while we still don’t understand the conditions for a stable society, a functioning economy, or... Read More »

Infographic: Does Big Business Control the World?

By Tim Berry

The infographic here reminds me of the 1970’s movie Rollerball, in which the world was controlled by seven corporations: food, energy, entertainment, transportation, etc. It seemed at the time, when I saw it, like a reasonable guess at the future. But then there’s the change led by technology, which seems to splinter the world and allow... Read More »

The Best-Ever One-Word Answer to A Critical Entrepreneurship Question

By Tim Berry

In one of the best moments of our regional angel investment event last month, keynote speaker Diane Fraiman was asked to name the biggest obstacle to entrepreneurship in Oregon. Her answer (the first emphatically-delivered word of her answer): PERS It’s been more than a month since and I didn’t take notes so the rest of... Read More »

Infographic: The Value of Women in Startups

By Tim Berry

This interesting infographic called The Value of Women in Startups is from onlinebusinessdegree.com. Lots of interesting information here. (Via.) Read More »

Pop Quiz: Greatest Challenge in Workforce Planning

By Tim Berry

According to this infographic, summarizing more detailed research, the greatest challenge is finding and hiring the right people. Which I think would have been true last year, five years ago, and 20 years ago too. The greatest uncertainty: the economy. I got this infographic today from the Compliance and Safety Blog: Featured By: complianceandsafety.com Read More »

Why Not Grant Visas To Promote Startups in the US?

By Tim Berry

Vivek Wadhwa’s column on the Washington Post site is titled America’s Irrational Immigration Fear. He goes into the background about visas for entrepreneurs and technology innovators, and some of the problems involved. It’s good background information, based on a July 18 report from the Brookings Institution. Here’s a summary of the findings: Report authors, Neil... Read More »

Infographic: Small Business and the US Economy

By Tim Berry

Palo Alto Software’s marketing team prepared this infographic from information provided by 10,000 users of its LivePlan web application for business planning. So that’s not a random list of small business owners, but it is a list of people who have wanting to plan a new business, or grow an existing business, in common. So... Read More »