Monthly Archives: May 2015

Legal Marijuana Faces Another Federal Hurdle: Taxes

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“Even as more states embrace legal marijuana, shops say they are being forced to pay crippling federal income taxes because of a decades-old law.  The tax rule, an obscure provision referred to as 280E, catches many marijuana entrepreneurs by surprise, often in the form of an audit notice from the I.R.S. [..] This year, Allgreens, a marijuana shop in Colorado, successfully challenged an I.R.S. policy that imposed about $30,000 in penalties for paying its payroll taxes in cash — common in an industry in which businesses rely on armed guards and cash-stuffed safes because they cannot get bank accounts.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/us/politics/legal-marijuana-faces-another-federal-hurdle-taxes.html?_r=0

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Chinese woman pays for new BMW with mountain of one-yuan notes

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“A woman stunned staff at a car showroom by making a part payment for a new BMW 730Li using 100,000 yuan (HK$126,700) in one-yuan banknotes.  The unnamed buyer, who owns a food retail business, paid the rest of the cost of her one-million-yuan car with her bank card.  She said people often paid her at work using small denomination notes.  As she was often busy she had decided to keep the banknotes until she was able to spend them all at once when buying a car. Li Moran, general manager of the car dealers, said the purchase had been the first time he and his staff had counted so much cash.”

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1772697/chinese-woman-stuns-dealership-heavyweight-payment-new-car

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PIMCO ex-CEO explains why his money “is mostly concentrated in cash”

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“Mohamed El Erian has an estimated net worth of some $2.3 billion. He also served 2 years as president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the entity that manages Harvard’s endowment and related accounts, leaving at the end of 2007 to return to PIMCO, just before the Harvard endowment suffered massive capital losses in the 2008 bear market.  El-Erian seems to have learned something about the importance of protecting savings from the ravages of Fed induced asset bubbles.  This week he gave an interview with the Orange County Register explaining, among other things, why he holds most of his personal wealth in cash today–not in stocks and bonds.”

http://jugglingdynamite.com/2015/04/06/el-erian-explains-why-his-personal-money-is-mostly-concentrated-in-cash-today/

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Foreign Money Is Pouring Into U.S. Real Estate, and It’s Not Just Houses

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“Blockbuster real estate deals are back and breaking records as cash from around the globe pours into U.S. office buildings, apartment complexes and other investment properties.  Demand for property from warehouses to skyscrapers is booming, helped by more than six years of Federal Reserve efforts to stimulate economic growth by keeping interest rates low, and stockpiles of cash from overseas investors seeking a haven.  Surging prices for the best buildings in big cities such as New York and San Francisco are driving the real estate recovery. Centrally located office towers are fetching prices 33 percent above records set in 2008.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-13/mega-real-estate-deals-return-in-u-s-as-haven-offered

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Billion-dollar startups everywhere — but no billion-dollar entrepreneurs

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“To build a $1 billion company, you need to already have a $100 million company; and to build a $100 million company, you need to already have a $10 million company; and to have a $10 million company, you need to build something people want. So focus on building the $10 million company first, then when you’re there, think about the $100 million one. Only when you’ve built that $100 million one should you think about how to build the $1 billion company. And I’m not talking funding-based valuations, I’m talking revenue-based valuations, which is even more fun.  Oh, and don’t listen to people who say you shouldn’t worry about dilution. You should, a lot. Just do the math.”

http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/13/billion-dollar-startups-everywhere-but-no-billion-dollar-entrepreneurs-yet/

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These free market services show just how inefficient your government is

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“The private postal services that charge a premium to mail postcards for tourists in Venice are not the only examples of businesses helping to ease the pain of such bureaucracy taxes.  In war-torn Detroit, for instance, private police services have cropped up to help homeowners protect their property.  Detroit residents with something to protect can now band together and hire their own police service for the neighborhood, with the companies using that money to provide free services to poorer neighborhoods.  And in the even more bureaucratic France, surprisingly good private train companies have popped up to take people not just within France but to Germany, Austria, and elsewhere.”

http://nomadcapitalist.com/2015/05/11/free-market-inefficient-government/

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Nasdaq is experimenting with revolutionary technology behind Bitcoin

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“The Wall Street Journal reports that the Nasdaq is experimenting with blockchain technology in a pilot project, a move that could — if successful — transform the financial industry.  Nasdaq is hoping to bring the efficiency promised by the blockchain to other areas of finance, potentially dramatically reducing the need for lawyers and intermediaries.  Nasdaq is implementing the technology in its Nasdaq Private Market, ‘a fledgling marketplace launched in January 2014 to handle pre-IPO trading among private companies.’ Once a deal is done, the parties would cryptographically sign a contract, and the rights would be transferred over almost instantaneously — no lawyers required.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/nasdaq-private-market-blockchain-bitcoin-experiment-currency-ledger-2015-5

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Despite Recession In Europe, Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Developing

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“European entrepreneurs are less confident about their country as a place for startups than those in America, Canada or Brazil, but regardless, entrepreneurial ecosystems are developing across Europe.  Greece seems to be adopting to a rapid entrepreneurial culture that counts incubators, funds, tech hubs and accelerator programs, as well as successful startups such as Taxibeat, which has raised $6.7 million in three rounds or Workable, which raised $7.5 million in three rounds from Greylock Partners and other investors. Looking elsewhere in Europe, Dublin is a booming tech hub, also praised as the Silicon Prairie. Another example is in my country, Cyprus.”

http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/05/despite-a-creeping-recession-in-europe-entrepreneurial-ecosystems-are-developing/

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The Latin American startup movement gaining momentum

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“An incubator is usually the physical space where entrepreneurs deposit the eggs of their ideas, and keep them warm until they are ready to ‘hatch.’  Many coworking spaces also function as incubators. Reports that there are over 141 coworking spaces in Latin America.  Brazil leads the coworking trend with 95 spaces and counting.  Once the business concept is ready to see daylight, the founder can enroll in an accelerator program.  In 2014, Fundacity issued a report on the accelerators of Latin America.  They noted that the total investment in the Latin American region was US$35,381,944 in 872 startups by 53 accelerators.”

http://nomadcapitalist.com/2015/05/06/latin-american-startup-movement-gaining-momentum-030/

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Pacific Alliance: Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica growing fast

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“Four countries—Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Chile—three years ago formed a free-trade bloc called the Pacific Alliance. Tiny Costa Rica joined the club in 2013. Together, they’re a bigger economy than Brazil, and they’re expected to grow three or four times faster than their huge neighbor over the next few years.  The five Pacific Alliance members, with a collective GDP of $2.2 trillion, are expected to grow 3.3 percent in 2014, and 4 percent in 2015. Economic reforms within individual member states can take some of the credit. All of the countries have free trade agreements with the United States, but the Alliance takes down barriers between the countries themselves.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102537826

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