The value of the equity invested in business not publicly traded is known as the private equity market.

Why not just get a bank loan?

Since the early 1970’s the private equity market has been growing steadily.  The private equity market continues performing strongly and is still in growth today despite the still unfavorable financial climate.  A greater proportion of equity is generated across the private equity market as venture capitalists invest less and less regularly and with smaller financial commitments.  Banks are becoming highly reluctant to lend with the economy remaining so volatile.  Businesses are looking more than ever to the private equity market to raise capital.

Investing can seem like a scary thing to many young people. After all, the global markets are very volatile right now, paving the way for massive sell offs in the market. Global pressures of debt and political unrest in many parts of the world are also adding fuel to the fire - making it seem like a horrible time to start investing.

Well, here’s some news for you: it’s almost never a bad time to start investing. In fact, to quote the ever wise Warren Buffet, “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.” Markets will always be volatile, and with anything in life there will always be some bad that comes with the good, but even with the rocky nature of the stock market you may still earn a higher return for your investment than you would in a regular savings account. Furthermore, the younger you start, the more time you'll have, allowing you to wait out rough patches in the market and recover from short-term dips.

Unfortunately, young investors have shown to be the first to bail during rough economic times. However, for those of you who are young and want to take advantage of the potential gains there are some great books you can read to get you started.

Stocks Collapse Post Inauguration

What started out as a mildly weak day turned very much more negative after the Inauguration completed shortly after lunch. Stocks steadily declined all afternoon finishing sharply lower, 4% for the Dow Jones Industrials, near 6% for the Nasdaq, and 5.25% for the S&P 500. Financial's were the weakest of all the industries with questions about Citigroup and Bank of America still creating weakness across the board.