The Economy as 2016 winds up to a close and Obama's leaves a legacy

2016 started strong with it's ups and downs on the economy. As we wind down the year amidst a change in the administration on January 20, 2017, 

It has been said that the election of President elect Trump gave a good economic indicator boost from the investments and banking industry in lieu of his plans on taxes, jobs and the like, the future still lies beneath.

Such boost as economists' stated would have not made an impact if Hillary Clinton had won as the markets transcends Clinton was a carry over of the Obama policies.

Yet economist noted that the US economy has been stable and strong with Barack Obama's legacy of job creation and turning around the biggest recession in modern time after taking over the reign from George W. Bush in 2008.

With an average of 180,000 monthly jobs created from January 2016 to the elections in November 2016, the labor market had been growing in the last 74 months.

In Spite of this, the business investments and new productivity efforts did not turn out a lot as expected for the year. Hence, the quality of life of US workers was one the main drawback with Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Obama administration. It is said the a lot of mainstream workers in the midwest and where industrial zones gave a hefty approval and vote for newly elected Donald Trump.

Consumer confidence soared after 15 years this holiday season hence 20,000 point benchmark from the Dow Jones index which Trump twitted as a vote of confidence for his election.

The question lies on how a sitting president will be able to pass policy legislations with congress as after all this is where the divides on opinions was always the challenge of any sitting president. Trump talks about a 4% growth on the economy when he officially takes over, a goal we have to watch and see.

As of the writing of this article, outgoing President Obama had just signed an executive order with sanctions on Russia. Diplomats in Washington and San Francisco were given a 72 hour notice to depart the US while Trump acclaims he will lift the said sanctions as soon as he takes the oath of office. The great divide is with this signing today, the US Congress vowed to make their own independent investigation of the Russian hacking of the US Presidential elections of 2016 with a promise of more harsh sanctions.

As investments and productivity played a big factor in this turn around of the outcome of US elections being said that the declines were compared to the Great Recession and which started to improve right after the elections, this is where we can come back a year from now if this was indeed worth for the outcome.

The maybe's are there as what Obama mentioned that until you get to officially take the helm of the Office of the President is when you indeed will get to know what to do next. Credit goes to Trump as a billionaire business expert on managing the economic aspects needed but until he gets to sit on the chair will he realized what the position entails.

While the strong US dollar right now enjoys a rise in exports, domestic US companies which have international operations had been hurt as their goods and services became more expensive overseas. Hence, Trump's lessening the taxation in order to pushed local operations instead of international, has been one of the battlecry of this incoming administration.

Although the job growth in 2016 was exquisite, a lot of the growth factored on retail and fast foods for example which unequal opportunity factors as these jobs are low paying and minimum wage jobs.

So far economist viewed this neither positive or negative as this were not really good jobs per se.

Another factor affecting investments and productivity especially for small independent businesses are still lacked of working and access to capital. As an example, on the bookselling industry, booksellers were extremely hurt pre and post elections on book sales. The dominance of leading Amazon still continues to hold market share and the price stability of the actual book market value continues to be a challenge to be profitable as an independent small bookseller.

Connecting all of this in 2016 predicts 2017 to be a big working year to get back on track, be "positive" and after all we just have to wait and see how the new incoming administration will deliver their campaign promises to the detriment of the working class Americans.

As I continue my philanthropy in writing in behalf of the small independent businesses, the young entrepreneurs and low income families, my staff at ADLE International and http://www.affordable-booksonline.com contiuues our efforts on books which I thanked greatly.

Alex Esguerra

Bureau of Economic Analysis Data - What's in for the New Administration

On December 22, 1016 comes a new data release from the BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) from the last revision last Nov. 22, 2016.

On our particular industry on books retail line 31 S4 Book, periodical, and music stores - the 4th quarter of 2015 had 4,065 from 2015's 3rd quarter of 3,937 vs. 2014's 4th/3rd quarter of 3,865 and 3,876. This year 2016 - 3rd quarter was 3,964 and 2nd quarter was 4,044.

Then looking at line 35 S4 on Used Merchandise Stores, the 4th quarter had 4,037 and 4,154 on the 3rd quarter of 2015. 2014's 4th quarter was 3,820 and the 3rd quarter was 3,907. 2016's 3rd quarter is 3,976 and 2nd quarter is 3,940.

On line 37 S2 Electronic Shopping and mail order houses (Nonstore retailers) 2015's 4th quarter was 112,187, 3rd quarter for 2015 was 109,582 versus 2014's 4th and 3rd quarter of 100,752 and 97,741. 2016's 3rd quarter is 124,191 and 2nd quarter is 121,019.

Hovering at this data, the true facts over the years are that the 2nd quarter is the back to school time and the 4th quarter is the holidays. Hence, the 3rd quarter is usually a drop in between for bookselling. Used merchandise had a growth in the 3rd quarter of 2016 as this category is general meaning it embodies all used merchandise where clothing plays a big factor as well.

Although line 38 S2  Electronic Shopping is also general in category, it is said that since 2012 to 2016, books online shopping has been a growing trend in this category. Although, a typical traditional book buyer still goes to a book retail store front, it is a fact that online book sales has consistently grown over the years.

So from traditional big book online marketplaces also comes the typical brand big box retailers like Sears.com or even technology websites like Newegg.com now augmenting a lot of accessory sales on what they carry with new release books.

Textbooks still plays a big chunk online for students but new release books has been growing more and more than used books. This is especially true with fiction, juvenile fictions, and bestsellers like Harry Potter's "Fantastic Beasts".

As the online space continous to grow in the bookselling industry, still the typical challenges are there for independent bookstores and online book sellers. From the dominance of mighty Amazon, minimum wage, health care for employees to "Still" lack of working capital and expansion for warehousing and home offices.

Thus, this is what faces the upcoming Trump administration's slogan of making America Great Again. Now that a billionaire businessman takes over the US Presidency, lies the question of how this administration will role out it's economic policies fitted for small business in industries that had grown over the years.

Come 2017, the data speaks as well as the problems faced by independent booksellers. 

Affordable Books

Thanksgiving Inspiration

BOOKSHELF TOUR | 2016

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One & Two (Special Rehearsal Edition Script): The Official Script Book of the Original West End Production - Rowling, J.K.; Thorne, Jack; Tiffany, John

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One & Two (Special Rehearsal Edition Script): The Official Script Book of the Original West End Production - Rowling, J.K.; Thorne, Jack; Tiffany, John

It finally arrived:

About the Author

J.K. Rowling is the author of the seven Harry Potter novels, which have sold over 450 million copies and have been translated into 79 languages, and three companion books originally published for charity. She is also the author of The Casual Vacancy, a novel for adults published in 2012, and, under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, is the author of the Cormoran Strike crime series. J.K. Rowling is making her screenwriting debut and is a producer on the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a further extension of the Wizarding World, due for release in November 2016.

Jack Thorne writes for theatre, film, television and radio. His theatre credits include Hope and Let The Right One In, both directed by John Tiffany, The Solid Life of Sugarwater for the Graeae Theatre Company, Bunny for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Stacy for the Trafalgar Studios, 2nd May 1997 and When You Cure Me for the Bush. His adaptations include The Physicists for the Donmar Warehouse and Stuart: A Life Backwards for Hightide. On film his credits include War Book, A Long Way Down and The Scouting Book for Boys. For television his credits include The Last Panthers, Don’t Take My Baby, This Is England, The Fades, Glue and Cast-Offs and the upcoming National Treasure. In 2012 he won BAFTAs for best series (The Fades) and best serial (This Is England 88).

John Tiffany directed Once for which he was the recipient of multiple awards both in the West End and on Broadway. As Associate Director of the Royal Court, his work includes The Twits, Hope and The Pass. He was the director of Let The Right One In for the National Theatre of Scotland, which transferred to the Royal Court, West End and St. Ann’s Warehouse. His other work for the National Theatre of Scotland includes Macbeth (also Broadway), Enquirer, The Missing, Peter Pan, The House of Bernarda Alba, Transform Caithness: Hunter, Be Near Me, Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us, The Bacchae, Black Watch, for which he won the Olivier and Critics’ Circle Best Director Awards, Elizabeth Gordon Quinn and Home: Glasgow. Other recent credits include The Glass Menagerie at A.R.T. and on Broadway and The Ambassador at BAM. Tiffany was Associate Director of the National Theatre of Scotland from 2005 to 2012, and was a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University in the 2010-2011 academic year.

The Candidate's Speech Entrepreneurial yet Clueless on Foreign Policy and Statesmanship

I'm working on my computer overwhelmed by this candidate's acceptance speech which caught my attention for a few minutes to pause and listen.

Listening through, I remember when I hit 21 years old successful transform a start-up 2 years of ago to US$500,000 which back then was a lot of equity and stability for a micro cottage enterprise. I started with this as this was the arena how I got started to be a presidential appointee for the Youth and Young Entrepreneurs then. 

When I started that new role,  I have all these entrepreneurial ideals that I've tested in being successful as an entrepreneur. This speech tonight reminded me of this idealistic ideals I did have to start then especially when I entered the foreign affairs relationship as APEC Youth Representative and co-chair of then APEC Young Entrepreneurs Assn. 

During those years, I've to admit although some of my entrepreneurial skills and ideals were really essential I also learned a lot of what race, culture, foreign policy/relations as it relates to trade policies and governance. Likewise, I got a more better understanding why politicians have these so called platforms as when I started of course I just associated them with corruptions, dynasties and the like.

As I hear this speech tonight, my biggest concern as a struggling small independent business thinking back to my days and exposure to foreign policy is we cannot afford an individual that will be in the learning process and curve like me.

This country's liberal and urgent problems needs an experience statesman as we cannot afford for that person go through a training process. Of course, I don't mean to state that the other candidate my be the ideal person neither had we heard that other candidate's speech and platform.

Criticizing the starting from the the present policies does not give the message of what this candidate indeed brings to the table. However, I may be wrong just because I compared what I'm hearing to my personal experiences.

All I can say, let's hear what is there for the independent small businesses?

http://www.affordable-booskonline.com

Young Entrepreneur's Emerging Saga Then and Now

Under 18 and making serious $$$

What do billionaires Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban and Richard Branson have in common?

They each started their first business before graduating high school.

Stories of 20-somethings launching start-ups from their dorm rooms seem to pop up everywhere, but it seems entrepreneurs are getting even younger.

While they aren't billionaires yet, these eight entrepreneurs under 18 years old are making a name for themselves—and some serious cash.

—By CNBC's Sarah Whitten

Posted 27 July 2015

This quote is barely a year old yet the principle that lies beneath goes back ages when entrepreneurs start on a early age. It goes way back then when we started the APYEA or APEC Young Entreprneur's Association in Ottawa, Canada in 1997 during the APEC Economic Ministerial Meetings leading to the Declaration during the Economic Leaders Meeting.

Thank God in the quote above are some names that were also in the helm of establishing their business empires so lol I don't feel that "old" in such sense. I guess nowadays it's already kinda hard to continue my discipleship on young entrepreneurship when I've graduated that age demographics. Yet, I still have the spirit, the mission, enthusiasm and most I still fell responsible in continuing the quest as my flagship site: http://www.affordable-booksonline.com  continues to exist with it's core mission built of my discipleship.

Continuing on the CNBC article above, here is my favorite part of the youngest millionaire at 7.

Sebastian Martinez

He's only 7, but he's already CEO of his own company and a philanthropist.

Sebastian Martinez's passion for collecting bright and zany socks turned into a business when his mother suggested he design his own. The result was a company called Are You Kidding which Sebastian started at age 5.

In 2014, Sebastian made $15,000 selling his specialty socks with the help of his director of sales and big brother Brandon Martinez.

Since January revenue has continued to grow. "We have been able to already reach the $15,000 that we made last year and are on track to double and hopefully triple our sales this year," Rachel Martinez, the president of the company and Sebastian's mother, told CNBC.

Are You Kidding teamed up with organizations like the American Cancer Society and the Live Like Bella Foundationlast year to raise more than $3,000 for cancer awareness. In April, the company partnered with The Hue Studio and donated 25 percent of all proceeds from its "Eye See You" sock sales to Discovery Arts, a charitable organization that brings art programs to children with serious illnesses.

My take on Sebastian and the new emerging young entrepreneurship keep up the spirit yet enjoy life to the fullest after all youth is the best part of growing up in life.

Alex Esguerra

The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time

The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time

How Diamond Makes A Retailer Want To Weep - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News

How Diamond Makes A Retailer Want To Weep - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News: Mimi Cruz is the manager of Salt Lake City's Night Flight Comics. A major figure in getting comic books into libraries over a number of decades, she has ma

What Lies Between Us, A Novel by Naomi Munaweera, New York Times Bestsellers

What Lies Between Us, a winner of the Regional Commonwealth Book Prize for Asia signifies similarity to a lot of Asian Americans having the culture within yet living the challenges of growing up as an American.

                         Like Ganga fulfilling the American dream of graduating from college, moving to a city like San Francisco, working as a nurse while reminiscing the scars from the past. After which a love story begins with Daniel yet secrets from the past haunts her until she finally commits the terrible dreaded act followed by her confession.

                         Author Nayomi Munaweera a foreign born Sri Lankan who grew up in Nigeria deficts the story of Ganga. Nayomi immigrated to the USA as a teenager and currently is resident in Oakland, California. 

                         Way back the days of ABAC @APEC, Asian literary award giving bodies really recognizes Asians that have exceeded notability. Nayomi's first novel then, "Island of a Thousand Mirrors" won the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize  for the Asian Region, was long listed for the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2013 DSC Price for South Asian Literature.

                          Her first novel was "The Beating heart of Island of Thousand Mirrors is not so much its human characters but Sri Lanka itself and the vivid, occasionally incandescent language used to describe this teardrop in the Indian Ocean" - The New York Times Book Review.

ADLE International - Livre-Rare-Book
http://www.affordablebooksonline.com
http://www.lifeandtimesofalexesguerra.com

Super Bowl 50 San Francisco

Super Bowl 50 invades San Francisco Bay Area.

It was a week of high profile and high security from the NFL Experience at the Moscone Center,  Super Bowl City at the Embarcadero to Levis Stadium in Santa Clara for today's Super Bowl 50 Sunday.

With thousands of people on these venues getting the 1st time Super Bowl feeling in San Francisco the NFL wants everyone to experience what Super Bowl.is about.

The first step on getting to the venues like Moscone Center is downloading the Road to 50 app simplying. the registration process to be able to participate in the activities like throwing a football, picture at the Lombardi trophy etc..

With Alicia Keys playing also at Super Bowl City leading to Game Day which is 8 hours as of writing this blog..

It's all about the feeling and experience of Super Bowl for all walks of life per the NFL.

State of the Nation : Obama's Farewell Writing History

Listening and yet blogging while Barack Hussein Obama delivers his last State of the Nation address, as any sitting President starts on his administrations successes. Watching these speeches on television over the years one thing I've noticed was a change on how the applause was on this congress. The Speaker of the House who sits by the Vice-President seem to be real serious including the Presidential Candidates Republicans on the audience. In saying this, it's the first time I've noticed there were not applauding when the rest are. Over the years as a gesture I remember everyone was applauding or standing.

The President touched a lot of points from the Economy, Unemployment, Auto Industry, HIV-Aids to even Cuba and Bin Laden. Although such audience gesture might indicate agree or disagree, we should looked at the facts of Obama's case. First and foremost he was the first sitting minority as President, he started with one of the hardest part - A Recession, a post Iraq invasion and a climate to redeem trust in the Presidency.

I do want to note the differentiation of then Senator to President Elect Obama as a political figure transcending to a realist commoner leader. From depending Social Security towards his fourth talking point about the future moving forward. Democracy he said goes into a haul distinguishes the difference of the rich and poor  reminiscing his greatest frustration. 

I remember in my year as APEC Youth Representative and the last year of Bill Clinton's Presidency, the similarity of both siting Presidents is this transformation of the true reality of what's going on in America.

Even as a private citizen openly active in youth and political affairs then and now as middle age, you start off with all the ideals that you want to accomplish and over time you augment things, you learn, deviate, mature and transcend your vision towards the real time factors and prevailing conditions.

One ideology I'm proud of is when we started ADLE International in 1998 with the vision of affordability we have endured this vision 18 years after. It's because more than ever what I've seen is that Obama's disparity on the gap between rich and poor really affects a lot of students. This is why till this day we have special promotional prices for textbooks, etc..

Do we make money on this special deals, not really but it's about the vision and mission of what we started and Entrepreneurship is a long development process which one should be looking at the long term results, customer loyalty, fulfillment and   brand recognition. 

As I finish writing this, Obama has just ended his farewell Sate of the Nation. My take, regardless on how history writes about Obama, a salute to a visionary realist the greatest minority President the United States ever had.

                                                                                                                                                                     Alex Esguerra                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Online Shopping Apps and Mobile Integration

Today's online shopping portal has totally evolved. From a world of auction listing bidding and winning to mobile apps integration. Added to it comes seamless e-commerce shopping carts powered by www.google.com, www.amazon.com, www.paypal.com, www.square.com and many more. Gone are the days you have to re run your credit cards or input the numbers manually then you get the continued decline messages even though you haven't  really use your credit line.

Online websites such as ours at Affordable Books have been undergoing reengineering as not only does it needs to be socially interactive and seamless it needs to be mobile device friendly.

Hence from the traditional html/css protocol and API integration we had to wake up and operate differently in this new age.

So when Affordable DVD's,
Affordable Electronics and Quality CD'S came live all of these platform integrations came to effect.  The truth is everything is Mobile nowadays.

So I guess the thing to think about is being mobile friendly on your online selling presence being easy user friendly and seamless.

Alex Esguerra