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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. 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, ˌiːkə-/) 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's viewed as basic elements in the economy, including individual agents and markets, their interactions, and the outcomes of interactions. Individual agents may include, for example, households, firms, buyers, and sellers. Macroeconomics analyses the economy as a system where production, distribution, consumption, savings, and investment expenditure interact, and factors affecting it: factors of production, such as labour, capital, land, and enterprise, inflation, economic growth, and public policies that have impact on these elements. (Full article...)

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A photograph of traders on the New York Stock Exchange floor in 1963

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit, usually in competitive markets. Income in a capitalist system takes at least two forms, profit on the one hand and wages on the other. There is also a tradition that treats rent, income from the control of natural resources, as a third phenomenon distinct from either of those. In any case, profit is what is received, by virtue of control of the tools of production, by those who provide the capital. Often profits are used to expand an enterprise, thus creating more jobs and wealth. Wages are received by those who provide a service to the enterprise, also known as workers, but do not have an ownership stake in it, and are therefore compensated irrespective of whether the enterprise makes a profit or a loss. In the case of profitable enterprise, profits are therefore not translated to workers except at the discretion of the owners, who may or may not receive increased compensation, whereas losses are not translated to workers except at similar discretion manifested by decreased compensation. (Full article...)

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Barter is a system of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. It is distinguishable from gift economies in many ways; one of them is that the reciprocal exchange is immediate and not delayed in time. It is usually bilateral, but may be multilateral (i.e., mediated through barter organizations) and usually exists parallel to monetary systems in most developed countries, though to a very limited extent. Barter usually replaces money as the method of exchange in times of monetary crisis, such as when the currency may be either unstable (e.g., hyperinflation or deflationary spiral) or simply unavailable for conducting commerce.

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Moscow, the financial center of Russia

The economy of Russia has gradually transformed from a planned economy into a mixed market-oriented economy. It has enormous natural resources, particularly oil and natural gas. In 2023, it was the world's 11th-largest economy by nominal GDP, 6th-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) according to IMF, and 5th-largest according to World Bank. Due to a volatile currency exchange rate, Russia's GDP as measured in dollars fluctuates sharply. Russia was the last major economy to join the WTO, becoming a member in 2012.

Russia's vast geography is an important determinant of its economic activity, with the country holding a large share of the world's natural resources. It has been widely described as an energy superpower; as it has the world's largest natural gas reserves, 2nd-largest coal reserves, 8th-largest oil reserves, and the largest oil shale reserves in Europe. It is the world's leading natural gas exporter, the 2nd-largest natural gas producer, the 2nd-largest oil exporter and producer and third largest coal exporter. Russia's foreign exchange reserves are the world's 4th-largest. It has a labour force of roughly 70 million people, which is the world's 7th-largest. Russia is the world's 3rd-largest exporter of arms. The oil and gas sector accounted up to roughly 34% of Russia's federal budget revenues, and up to 54% of its exports in 2021. Russia has the world's 5th-largest number of billionaires. Russia's inequality of household income and wealth remains comparatively high, with a Gini coefficient of 36 in 2020 as compared to 39.8 in the US in 2021. (Full article...)

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"I have not set forth any bills in drafted form ready for enaction, because that is a mere detail which should come at a time when things have shaped themselves so as to make that step necessary. The ground must be plowed before the seeding is done. The people themselves must do the plowing. After that they must seed the land and keep possession of the field if they wish to harvest and reap the fruits of their labor. They have always done the plowing, the seeding, the cultivating, and practically all of the work in the field of industrial enterprise, but they have never reaped the results of their labor. There has always been a Rothschild, a Gould, a Rockefeller, a Carnegie, a Morgan and men of their kind, and a few thousand lesser harvesters who have gathered in the best fruits out of the fields of industry. They are on hand and active at every point of vantage; they understand human selfishness, and know how to deal with the individuals whom the people have selected to represent them. They know that the individual citizen whose interest is the same as that of the citizens in general, will not find it practicable to spend the time in the legislative halls or in Congress, to exert a direct influence over his official representative. But the other parties to whom I have alluded send their representatives to influence the people’s representatives, and the manner of their influence is so varied in its application that no description of its application in one case would serve as an index to another. I shall deal with that particular phase of the subject on another occasion but before dropping it at this point, let me call the attention of the citizen to the fact that he must be on guard that the new progressive spirit and movement is kept alive, and that special interests are made to understand that it is alive. The special interests are more alert individually than the people themselves are individually, for the reason that the interests get the bulk of the wealth that grows out of the work of the people, and, therefore, the special interests are seeking to convert the progressive movement into another victory for themselves. I started as an original progressive when there were but a few on the battle line of progressiveness, and I had known the wily moves employed by the interests in their efforts to divert this progressive movement to their own advantage, not only in dividing the progressives into factions and parties, which means one and the same thing in its effect upon the people, but in what is worse than that, the attempt on their part to fill the ranks of the progressives, with spies and traitors and then presume through selfish influence to convert many of those who honestly started the movement. “Temptation thou art a mighty power in the hands of those who hold the seductive bait.” The interests base their hope of victory upon the temptation furnished, by that "bait" Their first hope was to win by ridiculing the progressives and taking patronage from those whom the people had elected, but this proved a failure."

—Charles August Lindbergh, Banking and Currency and the Money Trust, 1913

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Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that despite not being an economist, Sunarjo Kolopaking became dean for the faculty of economics at the University of Indonesia?
... that Garretson, South Dakota, was named after businessman Arthur Samuel Garretson?
... that Peachtree Arcade, a shopping arcade in the U.S. state of Georgia, was conceived after a local businessman visited the Cleveland Arcade?
... that the creator of Comic Sans also designed a levitating man in a business suit?
... that the University of Maryland's Iribe Center was partly funded by a businessman who dropped out of the university?
... that Dane Hansen started a road-construction business with about 100 mules that he was unable to sell to the US Army after World War I ended?

On this day in business history

April 19:

1958 - Denis O'Brien, an Irish businessman, founder of BT Ireland, was born on this day.

More on this day

General images

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

Image 11/8 share of the Stora Kopparberg mine, dated June 16, 1288 (from Corporation)
Image 2Mexican Stock Exchange in Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City (from Business)
Image 3Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network event in New York City (from Entrepreneurship)
Image 4Offices in the Los Angeles Downtown Financial District (from Business)
Image 5"Jack and the Giant Joint-Stock", a cartoon in Town Talk (1858) satirizing the 'monster' joint-stock economy that came into being after the Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 (from Corporation)
Image 6Time required to start a business in 2017 (from Business)
Image 7Lindley LJ was the leading expert on partnerships and company law in the Salomon v. Salomon & Co. case. The landmark case confirmed the distinct corporate identity of the company. (from Corporation)
Image 8Student organizers from the Green Club at Newcomb College Institute formed a social entrepreneurship organization in 2010. (from Entrepreneurship)
Image 9In 2012, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer greets participants in an African Women's Entrepreneurship Program at the State Department in Washington, D.C. (from Entrepreneurship)
Image 10McDonald's Corporation is one of the most recognizable corporations in the world. (from Corporation)
Image 11Chart of the South Sea Company's stock prices. The rapid inflation of the stock value in the 1710s led to the Bubble Act 1720, which restricted the establishment of companies without a royal charter. (from Corporation)
Image 12Emil Jellinek-Mercedes (1853–1918), here at the steering wheel of his Phoenix Double-Phaeton (from Entrepreneurship)

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More did you know

...that Luca Pacioli, codified the double-entry bookkeeping system in his mathematics textbook Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalità published in Venice in 1494?

...that, as of August 2008, more than 113 countries around the world, including all of Europe, required or permitted IFRS reporting and 85 required IFRS reporting for all domestic, listed companies?

...that IFRS financial statements consist of a statement of financial position, a statement of comprehensive income, a statement of changes in equity, a Statement of Cash Flows and a Notes to the Financial Statements?

...that in the circular flow model, the inter-dependent entities of producer and consumer are referred to as "firms" and "households" respectively and provide each other with factors in order to facilitate the flow of income?

...that Wassily Leontief was the first to use a matrix representation of a national economy, in his input-output model?

...that the balance of payments of a country is the record of all economic transactions between the residents of a country and the rest of the world in a particular period?