Thirty-seven percent (37%) of American adults think labor unions have “too much influence on American life and politics today,” according to a recently released CBS News/New York Times poll. Only half as many (19%) believe that unions have too little influence.
"My spouse and I have been looking to buy a business for some time. We've found a good local business with a great location and lots of existing customers.
Voters may question how President Obama is handling the economy and think his new budget doesn't cut deeply enough, but most still blame his predecessor for the problems he's trying to deal with.?
"My partner and I bought a small business five years ago from the person who originally started it. We assumed his existing lease for a terrific retail space, and personally guaranteed the lease. As we are both getting ready to retire, we decided to sell the business. We found a great buyer, who is willing to pay us an above-market price because of the business location.
Does confidence in the direction of personal finances drive sentiment on economic growth, or is it the other way around?
Voters clearly don’t have much confidence in their elected leaders to make the spending cuts necessary to reduce the nation’s historic-level budget deficit.
The documents the White House includes with President Obama's $3.7 trillion proposed budget for 2012 project that government spending will top $4 trillion in the next two to three years, but most voters aren't aware of that increase amidst all the talk of spending cuts.
As frequent readers of this column know, I am not the biggest fan of e-mail.
Half of all Americans own stocks, bonds or mutual funds, but most are also unaware of that fact.
Economists still argue about what caused the Great Depression of the 1930s and what got the nation out of it.
"I have been running a successful online company -- a limited liability company -- for several years, with a number of different lines of business. Another company has made an offer to buy one of my lines of business for a very attractive price, and I'm inclined to accept.
"I have a successful retail business that I want to take online with a killer website and a social media marketing campaign on Facebook and Twitter. The problem, of course, is money. I need to raise $100,000 to build the website and launch the campaign, but am having trouble finding the money.
States are currently not allowed by law to file for bankruptcy, but former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and others have argued that bankruptcy might be the least painful alternative for taxpayers in heavily debt-ridden states like California, Illinois and New York. Voters aren't thrilled with the idea, but they like it better than higher taxes, and they're even more supportive if told government employees might have their pensions reduced in the process.
"For the past couple of years, I have run a brick-and-mortar retail store specializing in customized merchandise. I really want to take this business to the next level by building a website that will enable customers nationwide, and maybe even internationally, to customize our merchandise online. We have a proprietary technology for customizing our clients' orders that our attorneys tell us can be patented. We also have one of the best software developers in America wanting to work with us to develop the website.
It's been more than 30 years now since the first personal computers, and more than 15 years since the Internet, gave us all a digital life. Who today can remember what it was like to do business in the days before e-mail, PowerPoint, laptops, BlackBerries, iPhones, iPods, iPads, mobile apps, Facebook and Twitter?
Americans feel more strongly than ever that the government is more concerned with making Wall Street firms profitable than making the financial system work for the rest of us.
Now that we've tackled the economy, here are a few creative solutions to some of the foreign policy problems you will be facing as the 112th Congress gets under way.
The number of adults nationwide who expect a rise in interest rates has reached its highest level in nearly two years.
Most Americans continue to say they are paying more for groceries now compared to a year ago, and the number who expect to spend more a year from now is at its highest level in nearly two years.
Most Americans continue to lack confidence in the stability of the U.S. banking system, but they also remain unworried that they will lose their money due to a bank failure.
