Author: Tom Silva

President Obama was inaugurated for his second term — the 44th president — a day after he took his oath on the constitutionally required date at the White House.  The crowd was smaller, the weather throughout most of the nation was biting cold, and the message was hope chilled with the experience and weariness of […]

When he was a kid, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Pek Pongpaet bounced around the world, living in Asia, Europe and finally ending up in San Francisco. Along the way, he became a martial arts instructor and even played one of the characters in the Mortal Kombat video game. But the reason Forbes and Wired Magazine wrote […]

You’ve heard of Kickstarter where budding entrepreneurs and artists reach out via the internet to regular folk to get them to fund their idea in return for swag or just a thank you? Well now, a group of Occupy Wall Street people are using that idea to get people out of debt. Strike Debt is […]

By 2030, no country—whether the US, China, or any other large country—will be a hegemonic power. So opens a new study, by the National Intelligence Council. The product of 4 years of research, the report offers a number of pronouncements: A return to pre-2008 growth rates and previous patterns of rapid globalization looks increasingly unlikely, […]

As Hostess Brands, Inc. – the 80-plus-year-old baker of such iconic brands as Twinkies, HoHos, Hostess CupCakes, DingDongs and Wonder Bread – enters into liquidation and probable acquisition, the online price of the sugar-filled delicacies is soaring. As soon as Hostess announced the end of production, Twinkie lovers started scrambling to buy every Twinkie they […]

Black Friday holiday sales set a record in 2012 with 247 million shoppers visiting the malls or shopping online. That’s 21 million more people than in 2011.  Total sales topped $59.1 billion.  The typical holiday shopper spent $423 over the weekend, a $25 increase over the $398 recorded last year.  The National Retail Federation (NRF) […]

The October employment report won’t blow anyone out of the water, but showed a modest improvement that caused many to breathe a sigh of relief.  According to the Department of Labor, 171,000 jobs were added in October – the highest number since February.  Retailing (up 36,000); healthcare (up 31,000) and business services (up 51,000) showed […]

With its recent acquisition of Lucasfilm, Ltd., the Walt Disney Company has wagered $4.05 billion that it can increase the worth of the formidable “Star Wars” franchise.  Included in the sale are the copyrights for “Star Wars”, producer shares in the “Indiana Jones” movies, as well as Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), an awards-winning […]

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has been banned for life from cycling and stripped of his titles, with all 14 years of his meteoric career officially expunged from the records.  According to International Cycling Union (known by its French acronym of UCI) president Pat McQuaid, “Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling.”  Armstrong […]

The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in September, the lowest level reported since January of 2009.  That is a 0.4 percent decline from the 8.1 percent reported for the previous month, yet represents a slight hiring slowdown after the Department of Labor revised the July and August numbers upwards by 86,000.  A total […]