For American corporate honcho Richard Parsons, owning a winery is pretty close to a dream job come true. In 2000, Parsons, chairman of Citigroup Inc. and the former CEO of Time Warner Inc., purchased Il Palazzone, a 20-acre Tuscan winery that has been producing wine since 1990. Running a winery is quite different from running a public company, he concedes, but that hasn’t stopped him from making the most of his soul-satisfying project.

Facing unprecedented budget pressures as the worst recession since the 1930s continues to roil the economy, public and private-sector institutions alike are slashing costs to the bone, taking such measures as consolidating supply chains to favor larger suppliers who can offer greater bang for limited bucks.

Facing unprecedented budget pressures as the worst recession since the 1930s continues to roil the economy, public and private-sector institutions alike are slashing costs to the bone, taking such measures as consolidating supply chains to favor larger suppliers who can offer greater bang for limited bucks.

In 1960, Britain’s political elite conceded that the sun was indeed setting on the British Empire. Their capitulation is enshrined in a Feb. 3 address by then-British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to the parliament of South Africa during his tour of the dying empire’s African colonies.

An unemployed worker’s solution to finding a full-time position could begin with a temporary job. A temporary position gives the company a chance to get to know you. The manager will see your work ethic and team-player abilities. If a full-time position opens, management would most likely put you at the top of the candidate list.

After the rally of 2009, uncertainties for the next nine months are now curbing gains for African and Caribbean markets. There are two opposing worldviews. One holds that the economic recovery underway is the start of a bull market. The other predicts a bearish stretch because the markets are overbought and the recovery is fragile.

As a child I learned to fear ignorance. My mother would open her eyes wide and wag her hand menacingly as she dismissed a senseless argument with the words, “I don’t deal with ignorance!”

Corporations — both large and small — are looking to “outsource” a lot of internal functions to outsiders. If you’re thinking about setting up a consulting business, here are 12 things you will need to get started:

I have always entertained a high regard for the gentleman from New York, because I believed him to be a useful member of the House. He is a gentleman of talent and of fine education, and I have thought heretofore that he would certainly be charitable toward a race of people who have never enjoyed the same advantages that he has.

Very quietly, and without any of the fanfare with which it was announced a year ago, the government ended its safety guarantee for money-market mutual funds. Last Sept. 18, the Treasury Department’s Temporary Guarantee Program for Money Market Funds was allowed to expire.

One aspect of U.S. trade that gets little attention is Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZs), areas in which businesses and manufacturers enjoy reduced tariffs (import duties), tax breaks and a host of other advantages. Licensed by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Foreign-Trade Zones Board and supervised by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, FTZs are restricted-access sites in or near ports of entry.

As important as it is for Black empowerment in America, President Barack Obama’s first year in the White House led to no appreciable impact on the lives of many African-Americans, the National Urban League says in its latest assessment of the economic and social state of the country’s Black community.

The statistics are discouraging. A survey by Smith Travel Research, an independent research company focusing on the U.S. lodging industry, found that American hotels had a record-low 45.1 percent occupancy rate — the lowest for the month of January since 1987. Yet many hotels owned by Blacks have found new ways to attract guests locally and new business opportunities internationally.

Spring has sprung! You’ve been anxiously waiting to take that vacation with your family, significant other, or even alone. Looking to relax and commune with nature?

In 1998, St. Lucia, a beautiful island in the Caribbean, rich in natural resources, was a “best-kept” secret. Twelve years later, the island is a popular tourism destination, dotted with luxury developments, chain hotels and a compromised ecosystem.

In the near future, you might not even have to visit a bank or an ATM to deposit a check. You’ll simply snap a couple of photos of it with your cell phone. Applications to do just that are already available for Apple’s iPhone and gadgets from USAA, a company that provides insurance and banking mainly for military veterans.

Jawn Golo watched flames destroy her home and possessions in the Liberian Civil War and thought that her world was over. 

New York City is considered the jazz capital of the world, the hip-swinging city where the music genre icons Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis came to make their name