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The time required to start a business is the number of calendar days needed to complete the procedures to legally operate a business. This chart is from 2017 statistics.
Small business vendors at a public market

Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit."

A business entity is not necessarily separate from the owner and the creditors can hold the owner liable for debts the business has acquired except for limited liability company. The taxation system for businesses is different from that of the corporates. A business structure does not allow for corporate tax rates. The proprietor is personally taxed on all income from the business.

A distinction is made in law and public offices between the term business and a company (such as a corporation or cooperative). Colloquially, the terms are used interchangeably. (Full article...)

Economics (/ˌɛkəˈnɒmɪks, ˌkə-/) is a social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyses what is viewed as the basic elements of economies, including individual agents and markets, their interactions, and the outcomes of those interactions. Individual agents may include households, firms, buyers, and sellers. Macroeconomics analyses economies as systems where production, distribution, consumption, savings, and investment expenditure interact; and the factors of production affecting them, such as: labour, capital, land, and enterprise, inflation, economic growth, and public policies that impact these elements. It also seeks to analyse and describe the global economy. (Full article...)

Selected article

Sir Edgar Speyer, 1st Baronet (7 September 1862 – 16 February 1932) was an American-born financier and philanthropist. He became a British subject in 1892 and was chairman of Speyer Brothers, the British branch of the Speyer family's international finance house, and a partner in the German and American branches. He was chairman of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL, forerunner of the London Underground) from 1906 to 1915, a period during which the company opened three underground railway lines, electrified a fourth and took over two more.

Selected image

Say no to bribes in Zambia.
Photo credit: Lars Plougmann

Bribery around the world is estimated at about $1 trillion (£494bn). The burden of corruption falls disproportionately on the bottom billion people living in extreme poverty who cannot afford to pay and who thus receive sub-standard treatment from officials.

Selected economy

Capital city Astana is the economic centre of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has a developing economy that is considered upper-middle income. It is the largest in Central Asia in both absolute and per capita terms. As of 2023, the nation has attracted more than US$370 billion of foreign investments since becoming an independent republic after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union. It possesses oil reserves as well as minerals and metals. Almost every known element on the periodic table can be found in Kazakhstan. It also has considerable agricultural potential, with its vast steppe lands accommodating both livestock and grain production. The mountains in the south are important for apples and walnuts; both species grow wild there. Kazakhstan's industrial sector rests on the extraction and processing of these natural resources.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the collapse of demand for Kazakhstan's traditional heavy industry products have resulted in a sharp decline of the economy since 1991, with the steepest annual decline occurring in 1994. In 1995–97 the pace of the government program of economic reform and privatization quickened, resulting in a substantial shifting of assets into the private sector. Kazakhstan was granted "market economy country" status by the European Union and the United States, in 2000 and 2002 respectively. (Full article...)

Selected quote

" My dear Bowley,

I have not been able to lay my hands on any notes as to Mathematico-economics that would be of any use to you: and I have very indistinct memories of what I used to think on the subject. I never read mathematics now: in fact I have forgotten even how to integrate a good many things.

But I know I had a growing feeling in the later years of my work at the subject that a good mathematical theorem dealing with economic hypotheses was very unlikely to be good economics: and I went more and more on the rules---(1) Use mathematics as a short-hand language, rather than as an engine of inquiry. (2) Keep to them till you have done. (3) Translate into English. (4) Then illustrate by examples that are important in real life. (5) Burn the mathematics. (6) If you can't succeed in 4, burn 3. This last I did often.

I believe in Newton's Principia Methods, because they carry so much of the ordinary mind with them. Mathematics used in a Fellowship thesis by a man who is not a mathematician by nature---and I have come across a good deal of that---seems to me an unmixed evil. And I think you should do all you can to prevent people from using Mathematics in cases in which the English language is as short as the Mathematical. ....

I find mathematicians almost invariably follow what I regard as Jevons' one great analytical mistake, his eulogy of the Geometric mean in general: and do not see that, according to his use, erroneous weighting may do far more mischief with the Geometric Mean than with the Arithmetic Mean. I always have to spend some time in convincing them of the danger.

Your emptyhandedly,"

Alfred Marshall, Letter to A. L. Bowley, 1906

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On this day in business history

August 12:

General images

The following are images from various business-related articles on Wikipedia.

More did you know

  • ...the term petrodollars was coined by Ibrahim Oweiss to describe dollars that did not circulate inside the United States, and therefore were not part of the normal money supply, and instead were received by petroleum exporting countries (OPEC) in exchange for oil?

Business news

10 August 2026 – Murder of Mir Raza Ali
The government of Sindh, Pakistan, announces that a judicial commission headed by a judge of the Sindh High Court would investigate businessman Mir Raza Ali's death. The decision followed a recommendation by the Sindh Assembly. (Dawn)
27 July 2026 – Economic impact of the 2026 Iran war
Singapore's monetary authority tightens its monetary policy for the second time in three months by increasing the Singapore dollar's appreciation rate against a trade-weighted currency basket, citing rising import costs and inflation risks caused by the Iran war. (AFP via South China Morning Post)
23 July 2026 – Foie gras controversy
Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signs a law banning the production and sale of foie gras, citing animal cruelty. The measure effectively ends Brazilian imports of the product. (Reuters)
21 July 2026 – Tariffs in the second Trump administration
A spokesperson for Canadian infrastructure minister Gregor Robertson announces that Canada has cancelled a joint opening ceremony for the Gordie Howe International Bridge that will connect Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, after U.S. president Donald Trump announced 50% tariffs on Canadian goods. (AP) (CBC)
20 July 2026 – Canada–United States relations
U.S. president Donald Trump signs another executive order imposing 50% tariffs on many Canadian goods, including USMCA-covered products, citing alleged discriminatory trade practices. The duties take effect in 30 days, with exemptions for energy, potash, and products under sector-specific tariffs. (AFP via Vanguard) (CBC News)
14 July 2026 – 2024–2026 Cuba blackouts, 2026 Cuban crisis
Cuba suffers its third nationwide blackout in less than 10 days and fifth of 2026, as the state utility reports a complete grid failure amid fuel shortages caused by the ongoing U.S. imposed blockade, that complicate power restoration. (AFP via RFI)

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