“Commercial Awareness Is Global.”
Note: This article is a collective work by the futurologist Jens Hansen and digital expert Carsten Lexa. Digitization brings us disruptions in a wide variety of industries. Newspaper publishers, video rental companies, retailers, bookstores — all have already undergone a major transformation. The change in the retail business for books was particularly bad especially in the USA. In 2011 the
What do you do when you have an idea for a company, but nobody is waving with money to support you? “Bootstrapping” is the magic word, at least if you want to try your idea in the real world. But what does that actually mean? A chic term — for a precarious situation “Bootstrapping” is the term for a company founded entirely
No matter how good a business idea may be, without capital it will be hard to turn the idea into a business. Fortunately, there are now a variety of financing options for founders. However, not every one of them fits in with their own concept — so it is important to weigh the chances and risks of each form of financing. Below
By: Rechtsanwalt (Attorney) Carsten Lexa, LL.M. The German finance court of Cologne has ruledthat poker is a game of skill. The ruling is in response to poker player Eduard Scharf´s claims that his poker winnings shouldn’t be taxed because poker is a game of chance, and “anyone can win a game of poker.” The court disagreed, ruling that “he had to pay
By: Carsten Lexa The German Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe dismissed motions on Wednesday that sought to block the Euro Zone’s permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, or ESM. The ESM is designed to handle bailouts and work in tandem with the European Central Bank to buy the bonds of countries, such as Italy and Spain, that are straining
By: Eran D. Grossman Yes that’s right. With growing concern about a commercial real estate bust and home prices continuing to fall, real estate stocks are soaring. What you say? Shares of Real Estate Investments Trusts, a/k/a REITs, are lucrative investment vehicles thus far in 2010. The IShares Dow Jones Real Estate exchange-traded fund, which owns about seventy-five real estate
By: Eran D. Grossman, Esq. More problems are on the horizon between government regulators and local U.S. banks (smaller, regional and/or community banks) over how to handle falling commercial property values. Currently, banks are holding roughly $1.9 billion in commercial real estate loans, which equals about a quarter of all outstanding loans, according to Moody’s. The values of such loans
By: Carsten Lexa On August 13th, 2009, I wrote an article here on Commercial Law International about the “secrets” of the US credit card business and about how the existing rules make it hard for customers to pay off their credit card debt. On November 3rd, 2009, I wrote in a the second article about a Goverment proposal regarding new legislation for
By: Ainsley Brown Islamic banking and finance (IBF) is a subject that I have longed to blog about here on Commercial Law International and after much procrastination here is a brief commentary. And by brief I mean brief – don’t get me wrong this is by no means all I have to say about the subject, far from it. I
By: Rechtsanwalt (Attorney) Carsten Lexa, LL.M. On August 13th, 2009, I wrote an article here on Commercial Law International about the “secrets” of the US credit card business and about how the existing rules make it hard for customers to pay off their credit card dept. Now, a new Goverment proposal tries to help customers to reduce their credit card