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Housing starts fell 5.0 percent in June, as the expiration of the homebuyers’ tax credit led to a pullback in new building. Single-family starts slipped 0.7 percent. Permits for multi-family, however, rose 19.6 percent.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index declined for the second consecutive month in April to its lowest level in over a year as homebuilders remained less confident about housing market conditions. The downward trend in builder sentiment, mortgage applications, sales, permits and starts continues to suggest residential construction will likely fall this summer.

Hotelier Chip Conley shares with TED audiences how his company embraced happiness in its business model. Inspired by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need and a Buddhist king, Conley learned the importance and value of “the intangible of happiness.”

By Wells Fargo Research

Retail sales fell slightly more than expected in June, with overall sales declining 0.5% and sales excluding motor vehicles declining 0.1%. The weakness was not totally unexpected as several weekly sales measures have been posting declines for much of the past two months and consumer confidence and buying plans both fell sharply in June. The loss of momentum is most apparent in the three-month rate of growth, which has slowed to a 4.1% pace for overall sales and just a 2.7% pace for sales excluding motor vehicles.

Sales at motor vehicle dealers fell 2.3% following a 0.6% drop in May. The major motor vehicle manufacturers recently announced they would keep assembly plants operating throughout the summer, as sales were reported to be robust and inventories were reported to be in line with demand or possibly even a bit tight. This morning’s sales figures cast some doubt on these predictions and raise the possibility that we may see an unintended build in inventories this summer that requires more extensive sales incentives or production cutbacks to clear out inventory.

The one big gainer for the month was electronics stores, where sales jumped 1.3 percent, following a 0.9 percent jump in May. The increases likely reflect the introduction of a number of new smartphones, most notably the newest iPhone, which debuted in June.

Last 7 July, the IMF updated its World Economic Outlook and is now expecting the world economy to grow at around 4.5% in 2010 and 4.25% in 2011. That is, increasing by 0.4 percentage points its growth estimate for 2010 and leaving 2011 intact.

This better short-term outlook for 2010 is product of a rosier picture in emerging economies (especially in Latin America and Developing Asia).

• Manage the information that’s publicly available about you as professional
• Find and be introduced to potential clients, service providers, and subject experts who come recommended
• Create and collaborate on projects, gather data, share files and solve problems
• Be found for business opportunities and find potential partners
• Gain new insights from discussions with likeminded professionals in private group settings
• Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
• Post and distribute job listings to find the best talent for your company

Join LinkedIn!

Best business schools according to the FT

The Financial Times (FT) publishes its ranking of global MBA programs every year. Its ranking attempts to “assess the effect of the MBA on … subsequent career progression and salary growth.” Consequently it draws its data from the schools themselves and from surveys of graduates at least three years after earning their MBA degree.

In building its rankings, FT analyzes “alumni salaries and career development; the diversity and international reach of the business school and its MBA program; and the research capabilities of each school.”

In comparison to the traditional rankings by Bloomberg BusinessWeek and U.S. News and World Report that focus on U.S. MBA programs only, the FT Global MBA Ranking includes international MBA programs as well as domestic U.S. schools together.

The top five business schools according to the FT global ranking and its three-year average rank are:

1. London Business School
2. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
3. Harvard Business School
4. Columbia Business School
5. Stanford University GSB

Recently, I heard about Fred Wilson and I wondered who he was. He is a New York-based venture capitalist and a very famous blogger. Wilson is the co-founder of Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm with investments in Web 2.0 companies such as Twitter, del.icio.us, FeedBurner, Boxee, foursquare, tumblr, zynga, among many others.

Wilson has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Fred Wilson: 10 Ways to Be Your Own Boss from 99% on Vimeo.

The following verbal public manifestations by Mockus during the first days of May may have led to a change of the electorate from the ‘greens’ to Santos:

1. Saying that he would extradite Uribe and then taking it back.
2. Admitting that he admires Hugo Chávez, taking it back, and then changing ‘admiration’ for ‘respect.’
3. Declaring himself as an atheist and then making a confusing explanation of life after death; the priests forgave him, insinuating that ‘decent atheists go to heaven too.’ Read the rest of this entry »

1. Know the sweet spot. VCs have types of companies and industries they tend to invest in, as do partners. If you do not match their investment criteria or fit into their area of expertise, you need to find another VC. No matter how good the idea. Do your homework, just as you would do before a sales call. Find out what they like to invest in and why.
2. Reach out and get connected. Your company’s ability to communicate with the outside world is directly related to a VCs willingness to fund you. Get the word out about your personal brand and the company’s efforts and manage the information about you from the start. This means more networking, attending conferences, engaging industry leaders, blogging, tweeting and generally be active in the social media world. Your ability to network and publicize your business is directly related to how well you will be able to sell your product. And remember, VCs view cold-calling as a sign of weakness. Emailing a partner directly with no introduction from a connected contact just screams “desperate.” Navigate to a strong, warm introduction every time.
3. Think like a risk manager. Every salesperson will tell you: sales 101 is getting inside the head of your target customer. For a VC, a funding decision revolves around minimizing risk and maximizing profit. Don’t make them uncover the risks. Feature them as part of your pitch and lay out your plan for managing the risks. Provide realistic assumptions—nothing kills a deal faster than when a VC rolls their eyes at the hockey stick charts that promise great profit margin than a monopoly like Microsoft! Project the image of a confident executor, not a dreamer.
4. Read the rest of this entry »

Hewlett-Packard has agreed to buy struggling smart-phone maker Palm for about $1 billion in cash. Palm CEO Rubinstein is expected to remain with the company.

I recently bought an iPad 32GB at the San Francisco Apple Retail Store and I’m more than pleased with it. Since supplies were very limited, I had to wait for over an hour in line before the store opened its doors for me to get one of these puppies. I’d like to review this tablet in terms of functionality, battery life, and user experience.

First of all, in terms of functionality, the iPad is meant to consume, not to create. Watching a movie, reading a book, listening to music, or using probably a dozen of the thousands of apps available in the App Store are the usual functions for which I use it. Additionally, there are productive applications, such as Pages, Numbers, Keynote (all from Apple), Simplenote, WordPress, and others that help users to *create* stuff.

Actually, I’m writing this review using my iPad and an Apple wireless keyboard (connected via Bluetooth) and an application called WordPress for WP blogs. Few minutes ago, I was typing a document using Simplenote, since I discover that it can perfectly serve as a substitute for Pages. And before that, I was doing some trading using the application from Ameritrade.

The virtual keyboard may not work for everyone if used for long texts, like this one. However, the capability of using a Bluetooth keyboard is welcomed. For writing casual e-mails, surfing the web, chatting, and using social media, the virtual keyboard is excellent, especially in landscape mode. If interested on writing a blog or a document, get a wireless Bluetooth keyboard.

The battery life is amazing. This thing could go on and on for over 10 hours of using it. Watching videos, listening to music, surfing the web, or whatever you can think of, the iPad will yield nearly 10 hours without recharging it.

The user experience, in my opinion, will probably redefine personal computing. The multitouch, the operating system, and the user interface radically change the game rules. It is true that the lack of multitasking clearly downplays the device; however, when writing the document I was talking about, I was quitting Simplenote, going to Safari, copying, and coming back to Simplenote to paste, and it didn’t feel like quitting, launching, quitting, relaunching. It was just so fast. Nevertheless, the new iPhone OS will most likely offer some kind of multitasking, so we’ll see from there.

Bottom line, if you’re in for consuming media, Internet, and casually working from home, I would recommend the iPad. However, this will not substitute your main laptop or a desktop when using productive applications (Excel, Powerpoint, statistical packages). I must confess though, I haven’t seen my MacBook Pro recently. The iPad has been able to offer any kind of solution I have asked from a personal computing device.

In case you missed the always spectacular Conan O’Brien say farewell to The Tonight Show, you can watch him go out with a bang below. Early in the show, O’Brien fought off tears, but here he is, all smiles, jamming on the guitar to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird. With the help of best bud, Will Ferrel (who brought his famous cowbell), legends Ben Harper and Beck, and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top (who even wore a suit, by the way), O’Brien went out in pure style.

If you want to help, donate money via iTunes and the Red Cross.

Framing

Framing is a technique often used in politics. A popular example of framing is inheritance taxes. Politicians who are opposed to inheritance taxes will call them death taxes. By using the word death instead of inheritance, all kinds of negative connotations come to mind.

Framing is quite subtle, but by using emotionally charged words, like death, you can easily persuade people to your point of view.

Mirroring

Mirroring someone is when you mimic their movements. The movement can be virtually anything, but some obvious ones are hand gestures, leaning forward or away, or various head and arm movements. We all do this unconsciously, and if you pay attention you’ll probably notice yourself doing it, I know I have.

How to mirror someone is self explanatory, but a few key things to remember are to be subtle about it and leave a delay between the other person’s movement and your mirroring, 2-4 seconds works best.

Read the rest of this entry »