From CaptainCapitalist.com

United Airlines recently announced it's merging with U.S. Airways. Berkshire Hathaway and Brazil's 3G just announced they're purchasing Heinz for $23 billion dollars. This comes in an atmosphere in which shareholders are increasingly telling boards of big corporations to put their cash hoards to work or give it back to the stock holders.

Corporations around the world are sitting on trillions of dollars because the global economy doesn't seem to be offering worthy investments in the minds of many. However, like birds on a wire, when one or two key players decide it's time to go back to the lawn and forage, the rest soon follow en masse.

Warren Buffet has said he's ready for yet another big deal. He likes to keep about $20 billion on hand, which means, even after the investment in Heinz, Berkshire still has about $12-$13 billion to shop with. Apple is sitting on a mountain of over $120 billion in cash. Many investors have decided that putting enormous stockpiles of dollars into money markets in this interest rate environment is a waste of capital.

This could upset the government's apple cart. First, if companies start spending their excess capital instead of buying Treasuries with it, interest rates are going to go up, which means financing the debt gets even more expensive. It also means that money is going to find its way into the hands of people who actually have an idea what to do with it. There could be a rash of new start ups, which is great for the economy, maybe not so great for the government.

If investors start to get the idea that equities are a far superior play than government debt, interest rates go higher, faster.

Of course none of this takes place in a vacuum. The government will see some benefit in increased taxes, but will that outpace interest rate increases? Will the government try to put the brakes on growth, should it occur? Can they stop that train, once it's left the station?

We could be approaching the point where all that "kicking the can down the road" finally catches up with the government. The fact is, even a thriving economy can't fix their balance sheet without massive changes that nobody in Washington D.C. is willing to make.

But it's not all gloom and doom. We could conceivably have a financial disaster in the public sector along with massive growth in the private sector. Where it goes from there depends on how everyone reacts to such a dynamic. I'm not even going to try to predict that.

By Gain-Stovall, Inc.

Email in its various iterations has been around for decades and in wide usage since the 1990s. It is invaluable for business communication, but are users being careless with it?

We know a lot of people through our business, civic and personal relationships that are a lot smarter in person than they appear when it comes to using email. Not only does the improper use of email display a lack of professionalism, it can be hazardous to your computer’s health and your credit rating. Leaving yourself and those you communicate with via email vulnerable to hacking, ID theft and computer viruses isn’t just inconsiderate, it’s downright dangerous.

Email is still the most effective marketing tool for small businesses, according to a survey from Constant Contact. Ninety one percent (91%) of small business owners cited it as the best delivery method for their marketing message. So, since it is a valuable business tool, learn to use email effectively.

Toward that end, here are some tips that will show you as a considerate and savvy person when it comes to using email:

Keep it professional
When using email for business, keep in mind that what you say and how you say it says a lot about you and your professionalism or lack thereof.

Use the subject line
Not using the subject line telegraphs that this may be spam, so it will likely be ignored. Make the subject line short and to the point. The subject line also helps people sort their mail. If your communication back and forth with someone moves to a different subject, remember that you can change the subject line.

Keep your message brief
Just like you, your business clients, prospects and fellow community leaders lead busy lives. Get to the point as soon as possible. If action is needed, be clear on how and when the recipient should respond.

Don’t shout
Using all capital letters is interpreted at shouting, which can also come across as angry. Don’t do it.

Check your message for typos
We all type quickly and even if we have spell check, typos happen. Before you push the send button, read it yourself or better yet have someone else look at it for you.

Respond promptly
Don’t sit on emails for too long, it makes you look indecisive and unprofessional. If you need time to think about it or to gather information, acknowledge receipt and tell them when you will get back to them.

Know when to take it offline
As effective as email can be, it is hard to communicate expression and tone of voice. If the responses back and forth are plentiful and nothing is resolved, pick up the phone. You’ll be surprised how fast this will move things along.

Learn how and when to use BCC (blind carbon copy)
When sending an email to a large group of recipients that don’t need to interact with each other, put your name in the “To” section and the intended recipients in the “BCC” section. Why? Putting all the recipients in the “To” section exposes them to spam, email hacking and worst of all, computer viruses.

Reply or Reply to all
Before you hit the “reply to all” button, think about whether everyone needs to see your reply. (See above.) You can also remove some recipients from the reply to all where appropriate.

Think before you send
If reply is emotionally charged, why not wait over night before sending.

Long before people were posting stupid things on Facebook, they were writing stupid things in an email and hitting the send button before thinking about it. Don’t be one of those people. With a little forethought, you can enhance your reputation as a responsible communicator and a savvy businessperson.

Got an old website that’s not workin’ for you anymore? Want a fresh new look with greater functionality and better search engine outcomes? Perhaps it’s time you thought about a Wordpress site.

Wordpress is a free software program for creating clean, compelling websites with or without blog functionality. It’s user-friendly and has hundreds of attractive design templates or “themes” resulting in a wide variety of “look and feel” options. It can totally replace or supplement your existing site.

How do you get a Wordpress site? There are two ways:

Option 1: You can go to Wordpress.com and create a free site in minutes. There are in-depth tutorials to help you navigate and learn the “how-to’s” of creating and managing your Wordpress site. You have a lot of flexibility when choosing a domain name, which would appear as: www.mywebsite.wordpress.com. This option would give you the opportunity to practice with the software and test out your new site without any cost.

But since there really is no “free lunch”, there are a few limitations with this option:
- you don’t really own the site, Wordpress does
- your domain name is less professional looking
- there are design limitations and a learning curve
- you cannot “monetize” your site or accept advertising

Option 2: Purchase your own domain name for about $15.00/year and have your site hosted by a service like godaddy.com, bluehost.com, hostgator.com, etc. for about $7.00-9.00/month. Then you can download the Wordpress software, which is available for free on most hosting sites. 

The benefits of this option include your ability to have full control over your site, to monetize and to choose from a huge variety of theme designs. The costs are affordable: you’ll pay about$100.00/year for hosting and domain renewal. You also present a professional image by having your own domain and software that is clean, crisp and attractive.

White space wars

By Ed Duffy

When TV went from analog to digital transmission, a lot of bandwidth was freed up that stations no longer needed. The term "white space" actually comes from the space between broadcast stations that served as a buffer. This space is readily available because it was/is unlicensed. This portion of the broadcast spectrum can cover large areas from a single location. What if it were put to use for Internet transmission? What if you could tune in the Internet while driving across country, as easily as tuning in a radio station? Actually, it could be easier than that as your device could automatically look for the strongest signal available. You just set it to automatic and it does the rest. 

Unlike traditional Wi-Fi, white space Wi-Fi would travel much farther and through most obstacles. You could conceivably cover an entire town from one point as opposed to installing hundreds of nodes. A relatively small number of sufficiently powered, strategically located stations could cover the entire country. 

So why hasn't such a thing been deployed? Because it would totally shake up the current structure of the market. The FCC is considering using the frequencies for a nationwide free Wi-Fi system. Companies who make their living connecting you to the Internet aren't thrilled with that proposal. What about VOIP? Why would anyone buy a telephone plan when they can make calls across a free Internet? Advantage hardware guys. Other companies like Google, which makes its fortune on advertising, and Microsoft, which sees cloud based services as its future, are all for it. Others think it will interfere with other networks or wireless devices, although the FCC points out that in 10 years of testing, there's no evidence to support that contention. 

I think there's room for compromise. The FCC could license the space to private companies on the condition that they provide free Wi-Fi service within their coverage area. Licenses could be packaged so that if you want the metro-area, you also have to cover some rural area (ensuring coast to coast coverage). A percentage of the licensed space could be retained by the ISP for it's own purposes, such as establishing or connecting to premium networks. Premium networks could be based on security, bundled content, speed or other factors. Other types of networks, fiber, DSL, Cable, 4G, could still exist, but they'd have to come up with new value propositions (new reasons for you to use them).