CITIES have long offered tax incentives to encourage companies to stay and newcomers to relocate. But another option is gaining currency in old manufacturing cities looking to prop up their struggling economies—homegrown nonprofit groups that nurture new businesses from the ground up.

Updated at the bottom: We have short memories in Silicon Valley, which is both a blessing and a curse. We forget the bad times as quickly as we forget the good times.

At the turn of the century, everything went to hell with the dot-com bust. Then the pendulum started to swing the other way; the pessimism that once reigned supreme was being replaced by wild-eyed optimism. Now Silicon Valley is in for a long-overdue reality check, one that should worry one and all. Why? Because the news coming out of advertising-focused companies is not good.

For many of us, the thought of asking someone for help or a favor—be it a colleague, friend, or stranger—is fraught with discomfort. We figure we're imposing or tend to assume the person will say no, which could leave us embarrassed or humiliated.

But new research verifies the old adage, "Ask and you shall receive." A series of studies reveals that people tend to grossly underestimate how likely others are to agree to requests for assistance.

Grappling with a shaky economy, baby boomers are looking for new ways to make money. A new survey estimates that a chunk of these Americans are launching "encore careers"—positions that combine income and personal meaning with social impact. (Audio)

In the United States, employers have often treated health benefits as a necessary evil. They have focused on the rising cost of providing health insurance benefits and taken aggressive steps to bring costs down, or at least to slow the rate of increase.

In many other countries, employers have ignored health care altogether, leaving it to government or dutifully paying their mandated health contributions. Many U.S. employers are dropping health benefits or hoping for reforms that will transfer responsibility for health insurance to individuals or to the government.

Think again. Employers cannot get out of health care, no matter what kind of health insurance system is put in place.

As the credit crisis grinds on, the prospects for a quick recovery darken

Firms Join Forces On Social Networks To Raise Profiles

Last year, Matt Milletto, director of training for the American Barista & Coffee School in Portland, Ore., had an idea for generating some buzz around the specialty coffee industry: Why not create an online social network where independent coffee-house owners, baristas, roasters and java lovers could swap tips and stories, pose questions or arrange to meet in person?

Along the streets of downtown Playa del Carmen, Mexico, "barkers" for restaurants beg passersby "try our steak!" "Drink specials!" "Happy hour!"

Person after person ignores the barkers; their in-your-face advertising oozes desperation.

The pressure to lift the share price is building. But CEO Jeff Immelt's options are limited

Elle Newmark ... is a former advertising professional whose real passion is writing. She went through four different agents in New York over four separate book projects but never really got where she wanted to go.

At 56, she said, "I don't have time for this anymore," and self-published her new book, a historical fiction tome, through print-on-demand provider iUniverse ...

With the No. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman helped millions of readers see and understand globalization in a new way. Now you can have it for free.

If you’re in Seattle next week, join us for the next Bunko Breakfast [on 29 July]. More details on the BunkoBlog.

(And if you’re on the other side of the continent, in the other Washington, don’t forget our Washington, DC, event ... [tonight], July 24, at 630pm.)