Female Entrepreneurship In The USA

"Women entrepreneurs in the USA have come a long way over the last 40 years. Before 1974, banks could require women borrowers to guarantee their loans with co-signatures from husbands, fathers or male business partners," said a spokesperson for the 'Online Business Degree'.

"Today, women aren’t only starting small businesses faster than men, but they’re also creating more jobs. And the types of businesses and jobs they’re starting are diversifying workplaces in big ways. Women-owned firms are more likely to be smaller and also more likely to offer workers benefits like venture profit-sharing and tuition reimbursement. Making employee enrichment more of a priority is only one of many positive changes female leaders are bringing to business."

"Of course, the glass ceiling isn’t falling just yet. Women founders still receive very little of the annual seed capital handed over to investors each year. And the number of tech start-ups with female co-founders is still very low. Female-focused incubators and networking organizations are looking to change all this. Check out the graphic below to see how far women entrepreneurs have come and where they’re going next."

Source: Online Business Degrees

The Soft Landing Contines. German Confidence Unsteady

Soft landing continues. The German ZEW index increased in October on the back of fading short-term tensions in the euro crisis. Nevertheless, the ZEW index which measures investors' confidence still stands in negative territory, now -11.5, from -18.2 in September. At the same time, investors have become somewhat more negative on the current economic situation. The current assessment component dropped for the fifth consecutive month.

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New EU Human Rights Envoy Faces Big Expectations

The EU's new strategy for promoting human rights must be duly implemented, scrutinized and given proper visibility, Foreign Affairs and Human Rights MEPs told EU Special Representative for Human Rights Stavros Lambrinidis on his first day in office on Monday.

"I am delighted that this new office has been introduced," said Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Elmar Brok (EPP, DE), underlining that the strategic framework for human rights, agreed by the Council over the summer, should provide its substance. The fact that Mr Lambrinidis, himself a former MEP and Vice-President of the Parliament, met MEPs on his first day in office raises hopes for "a demonstration of accountability of our human rights policy", he added.

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The Bundesbank Doctrine. The End.

The ECB meets on Thursday, it will discuss the details of its new bond purchasing programme. For some, the new plan marks the final end of the Bundesbank doctrine; for others, it is a necessary evil to calm the crisis. It is obvious to us that Mario Draghi’s congeniality and some vague words alone will not have the same calming effect as in August. In our view, the ECB might eventually present targets for short-term bond yields linked to the refi rate.

However, not all the detail might be revealed this week, perhaps because there is not yet full agreement within the Governing Council, but maybe also to keep pressure on peripheral governments.

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What a cost-benefit analysis of EU membership might reveal

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100170980/what-a-cost-benefit-analysis-of-eu-membership-might-reveal/

Female Entrepreneurs Needed Now, Says Matera

“Flexible job opportunities and new entrepreneurial ventures help single mothers and the young unemployed female population to regain economic independence,” said Barbara Matera, MEP and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. The Italian MEP, hosted over 100 participants from the European Parliament, government agencies and business stakeholders for a lunchtime debate on Female Entrepreneurship.

Speaking in the Parliament’s Members’ Salon, Madi Sharma, Member of the Economic & Social Committee, added: “It is not about social or gender arguments; the economic argument is the relevant one. To get us out of the crisis, women entrepreneurs can generate much economic development”. Read More...

"Split" Screens America's Verbal Civil War

Where’s Kipling when we need him? The poet penning ‘If’ saw much of man’s political calalmity, distasterous distractions, and the turbulence wrought on a maturing empire. Rudyard Kipling’s view of “Split”, Kelly Nyks Red v. Blue political documentary, would surely chime with Britain’s wartime slogan ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’, for Nyks brings to the screen a verbal civil war, and a sense that the enemy is within. Dutch-born American Nyks unplugs the network news cycle, driving across America in pursuit of a clearer perspective on the root causes of America’s divided politcal culture. His youth, relative to Kipling, does not diminish an aversion to visceral politics and unreasonable behaviour. Though we know the themes, the rhetoric, the pomp of Red versus Blue, Nyks brings a narrowed focus to the screen; blurring hues of political difference, he reveals a degree of self-interest in American society easily recognisable to Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, and perhaps even the unwashed wannabe proletarian, Marx. Read Article, Click Here

by Brian Maguire, Brussels