Paul Conley

I’ve had some strange and frustrating conversations in the past few weeks with people in B2B journalism. Those conversations are, perhaps unsurprisingly, about artificial intelligence. Much of the world seems to be involved in difficult conversations about artificial intelligence. Why should B2B journalism be any different?
But what I have found particularly troubling is how much these conversations remind me of conversations I had with B2B journalists nearly 20 years ago when Web journalism ...

Banks are buying their way to growth by purchasing registered in-
vestment advisor (RIA) firms at a pace unseen in decades. However,
this boom in acquisitions carries risk. In many instances, the financial
executives on both sides of these deals lack the expertise to avoid it.
“In theory, a deal can look great, but in practice, it’s a lot more diffi-
cult,” said Scott Stathis, managing partner at Stathis Partners.
A slew of factors — tax and regulatory law, a lack of succession
planning by ...

Daoism, a religious tradition with roots in China dating back more than 2,000 years, is undoubtedly the major world religion least understood by Westerners. There are dozens of reasons for that, but the primary one is that the syncretic nature of Chinese religious practices tends to blur the lines between Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, etc. When you meet a Westerner who claims to be a Daoist, you’re likely to find they’re really more of a confused Buddhist or a spiritually inclined Confucian...

Given the various approaches that marketplaces take to product pages, sellers must dedicate resources to managing SKUs and listings across multiple marketplaces.
There may be good reasons for a brand to sell on a number of online marketplaces — most notably that by appearing on a variety of marketplaces, a merchant has access to a broader and more varied collection of possible customers.
But it ain’t easy. Doing what it takes to manage a brand’s products across marketplaces requires a conside...

There’s no federal requirement that employers offer retirement plans for workers. So, a number of states are rolling out requirements of their own. In most cases, these state-administered plans require that workers be auto-enrolled in a Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) funded through automatic payroll deductions.

When Kyle Vassallo joined Timex Group USA Inc. in 2017, he knew something needed to change. The Connecticut-based watchmaker was facing a slew of fraudulent orders, and the system to prevent ecommerce fraud was slow and cumbersome.
“It was a very manual process,” Vassallo, the senior manager of global ecommerce operations, told Digital Commerce 360. Timex had only one employee dedicated to online fraud detection. “He would kind of go through and look at what he judged as possible fraud and th...

Today the Religious Society of Friends, popularly known as the Quakers, is a small group best known for its advocacy of non-violence. Not to be confused with the Amish, the Mennonites or any of the other “peace churches,” the Quakers are largely invisible in the modern world. The drab clothing and the use of “thee” and “thou” in speech persisted in some Quaker communities and families well into the 1900s. But that world is no more.
Today there are Quakers scattered throughout American life. Y...

Municipal bonds may seem like a perfect investment. They yield income that isn't subject to taxes—what could possibly go wrong? Not much, especially if you stick to the higher-rated issues, but that doesn't make munis right for everyone.
Learn how to choose municipal bonds that fit your budget and needs.
Key Takeaways
Municipal bonds are issued by cities, counties, states, and other municipal authorities as a way of raising revenue for earmarked public projects.
When an investor buys a ​munic...

Brokers, Over-the-Counter, and Exchange-Traded Bonds
Bond investing is considerably more complex than stock investing. In effect, corporate bonds are an IOU from a corporation, promising to return the money with interest. The bond market is also known as the debt market because companies are using debt (the bonds) to finance their operations.
Historically, the corporate bond market has been an institutional one, with little room for small investors. Bonds were often bought and sold in the clo...

If you were in New York City this past weekend, you may have caught a glimpse of the near future of the travel industry: the station-wagon vacation.
Temperatures in NYC hit 80 degrees. And New Yorkers, who have endured weeks of stay-at-home orders, ventured outdoors by the thousands. The parks, frankly, were ridiculous. There were too many people gathering too close together and taking too few precautions.
But the streets of lower Manhattan were glorious. And it was there you could see the ne...

Emily Grayson had loads of trouble with returns.
“Returns were just the bane of our existence,” the director of operations and chief of staff at retailer Tuckernuck says. “They plagued us. But there’s no way to avoid them if you’re in this business.”
For Tuckernuck, returns were particularly complicated and time-consuming. The women’s apparel brand operates a single brick-and-mortar store in Washington, D.C., but 99% of its sales come from online. Back in 2020, all returns moved through a sin...

Alternative payments are booming, as new entrants crowd the checkout process with ways to pay. But Michael Hershfield, founder and CEO of Accrue Savings, thinks he’s found a way to rise above the fray by offering shoppers a new way to save for a purchase, well before they reach checkout.
“We all know the last 30 years have been filled with credit innovation,” Hershfield says. “But in savings, there has been almost no innovation. Why shouldn’t a retailer provide a diversity of payment options ...

If you’ve spent any time online or in a bookstore in the past year, you’ve probably come across the Minimalism movement.
Whether it’s the global phenomenon of Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering,” the rise of the tiny home aesthetic, or any of the hundreds of bloggers around the world who have embraced the concept, minimalism is clearly having its moment.
So what, exactly, is minimalism? And what does it have to say about personal finance?
Th...