Getty

Often the most visible aspect of the Breast Cancer Awareness month is the number of products that are recolored pink to bring awareness and donations to the cause. A growing number of people and organizations are challenging the idea that these areas are actually bringing real benefit -- calling this trend "pinkwashing".

Mike McGinnis via Getty Images

Using public funds to build professional sports facilities is an ineffective, inefficient strategy for promoting economic development -- and, one might infer, an especially unseemly use of scare resources in a city like Milwaukee where 29 percent of its nearly 600,000 residents live in poverty. But in our new Gilded Age, big money has no shame.

We can't predict when the next one will come, but those who fall in its wake will face a tough road to recovery. That is because recessions are increasingly structural events. They occur less often but involve more economic disruption.

If you ask almost any business owner, the most difficult part of growing a company is in the startup years. Know that you're not alone, and get good at jumping over the many hurdles that are headed your way.

Poland and Germany -- with a long history of conflict -- are very close partners. Chancellor Angela Merkel was instrumental in elevating Poland's conservative Prime Minister Donald Tusk to becoming the next president of the EU council.

Horrific outcomes predicted by generational accountants and economic doomsayers will not come true as foreseen, partly because the generations over age fifty shift paradigms, create new industries, abolish others, and ultimately reshape the social and economic landscape.

In pursuit of my college degrees, work at Fortune 500 companies, and memberships in professional organizations, I was directed and trained to ensure ethical compliance --- as it's a personal, organizational, and company responsibility.

While I believe small talk is BIG, non-verbal communication is small-talk's best friend. As the saying goes: "Actions speak louder than words." And it's a saying that rings true.

Financial advisors, money managers and other financial services professionals can uniformly attest to the gap that exists between what individual investors expect to live on in retirement and what they are likely to have, based on what they've accumulated to date.

It's the beginning of a new fall wedding season, and I've got two fantastic new interns working for me here at Weddings in Vieques. Both recently graduated from college and want to pursue career paths in wedding or event planning.

The key to success is to forget the notion that diversity is a tactic, and instead recognize it as a company value - something that is embedded in the organization from the top down, through and through. It is how you engage with and view the world, how you do business and how you treat every employee, colleague, customer and stakeholder.

The money decisions you make today can lead to either a secure or a scary financial future. Don't be tricked into being complacent. Think ahead, plan ahead -- and avoid these 13 money mistakes that could haunt you for years to come.

The state of parental leave in the U.S. sucks. As these charts show, the U.S. is one of only three countries (the other two are Oman and Papua New Guinea) to not mandate some level of paid parental leave at the federal level.

Begin your presentation with your audience's picture rather than your own. Speak in language they can easily understand. Tell them only about your product or service as it has relevance to them and their problem-solving and/or goal-conquering.

Joe Raedle via Getty Images

Locally our gasoline and diesel purchases are the most lethal toxin in American politics. Just a couple of weeks out from the election it's good to remind ourselves -- lots of voters may not think the ballot counts, but Big Oil knows better.

Ego carries out life's directive to survive by adapting to adverse environmental or organizational conditions. Senior leaders often have large egos; it's what helped them survive the trip to the top of their organization.

"It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business." Sorry, Michael Corleone. You're wrong. And so are all the corporate phonies who cite this pseudo-proverb from The Godfather as an excuse to avoid taking a genuine and substantial interest in the people around them.