Why do you have a job? That is the question I posed to people I was having dinner with recently.

Both of the people I dined with were young graduate degree holders.  Both of them expressed disappointment with their current employment situation.  So I wondered why they were not taking advantage of their education and the current economic/political climate to start some venture of their own, even if it does not mean immediately quitting their day jobs.  Well at least one of the people at the table reminded me of the classic response, which is fear.  I wonder though, what are most people afraid of?  Afraid of failure?  Afraid of hard work?  Afraid of the unknown?  There could be a dozen things one could be afraid of, but I don’t understand the fear when you have nothing to lose.  Starting a business does not mean large expenditures or quitting your current job with no reliable income.  The only thing there is to sacrifice is your “free time” (if you are not happy with your position in life and successful, by your own definition of the word…you really should not have any “free time”)and a couple hundred dollars in filing fees.  Since I started my own company (continue reading…)

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that last week the new “World’s Tallest Building” was opened in Dubai(the Burj Khalifa). I have read several articles about the fact that every time there has been an opening of a new World’s Tallest Building, the economy has been in a downturn. At the time when these buildings break ground there is a time of prosperity, which causes someone to splurge and break the old record. Without fail, the economy sours before construction is complete. The silver lining to this cloud is that after each economic downturn the world bounces back stronger and technology takes leaps ahead. We can only wait and see if 2011-2012 bring about a new round of prosperity, or if we will be in the throws of a massive recession/depression fueled by the crash of the Chinese economy(see the next paragraph for more on China’s possible problems).

I also came across the article below which describes James S. Chanos’s view that the global economy is about to take a massive turn further downward. This gentleman believes that the economy of China is about to take a plunge due to several factors and historical patterns. One very interesting suspicion James has is that (continue reading…)