Today 26 November in Business History

1832 1st streetcar railway in America starts operating
1983 Heathrow Airport, robbed of 6,800 gold bars worth $38.7 million
1984 John W Mercom Jr announces NO Saints are up for sale for $75 million
1990 Matsushita purchases MCA for $6.6 billion

Today 25 November in Business History

1715 1st English patent granted to an American, for processing corn
1834 Delmonico's, one of NY's finest restaurants, provides a meal of soup, steak, coffee & half a pie for 12 cents
1867 Alfred Nobel invents dynamite
1884 John B Meyenberg of St Louis patents evaporated milk
1983 World's greatest robbery-œ25,000,000 of gold, Heathrow, England
1988 Convention on exploitation of Antarctic mineral resources signed

Ireland Low Tax Rate

Ireland economic success was built on a policy of charging corporations only 12.5 percent in income tax, one of the lowest corporate rates in Europe. That rate, which compares with 28 percent or higher in Britain, France, Germany, and the U.S., has lured multinationals to set up manufacturing, research, and service centers in Ireland over the last 20 years.

Companies such as HP, Google, Bank of America, Microsoft have set up their european headquarters in Ireland employing thousands of employees and making exports that total in billions.

Today 24 November in Business History

1949 Britain nationalizes its steel & iron industry\
1971 Dan "DB" Cooper parachutes from a Northwest AL 727 with $200,000

Today 13 November in Business History

1789 Ben Franklin writes "Nothing . . . certain but death & taxes"
1895 1st shipment of canned pineapple from Hawaii
1933 1st modern sit-down strike, Hormel meat packers, Austin, MN

Today 11 November in Business History

1987 Van Gogh's "Irises" sells for record $53.6 M at auction

Today 10 November in Business History

1989 Word Perfect 5.1 is shipped

Why You Should Avoid Free Financial Advisors

You will get what you pay for. Any advisor that offers "goal planning" for free, or claims that the analysis is included in the fee to manage your assets is most likely using the concept of planning as a tool to gather more assets. Be on the lookout for asset gathering tools used by firms offering to "assess your goals." These may simply be masquerades for real financial planning and serve as a conduit for product sales. Advisors lumping "goal analysis" into asset management fees are typically salespeople.

Today 9 November in Business History

1848 Post office at Clay & Pike opens
1864 1st export of goods from Burrard Inlet, BC to a foreign country
1930 1st nonstop airplane flight from NY to Panama
1963 2 high-speed commuter trains collided with a derailed freight

Today 8 November in Business History

1944 25,000 Hungarian Jews are loaned to the Nazis for forced labor
1966 President Johnson signs anti-trust immunity to AFL-NFL merger
1967 Silver hits record $1.951 an ounce in London
1973 Nevada approves pari-mutuel betting on Jai Alai

Steve Ballmer Sells His Microsoft Shares

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has sold $1.3bn (£800m) worth of shares in the firm.

Is it a case of rats running away from a sinking ship?

The CEO claried the sale, he said the sale of shares was made to diversify his investments and help his year-end tax planning. Mr Ballmer said he was "fully committed to Microsoft and its success".

Today 2 November in Business History

1904 British newspaper, "The Daily Mirror," begins publishing
1920 KDKA (Pittsburgh) goes on the air as 1st commercial radio station
1957 1st titanium mill opened, Toronto Ohio
1964 CBS purchases NY Yankees
1988 Computer virus strikes Pentagon, SDI research lab & 6 universities

Today 29 October in Business History

1911 Joseph Pulitzer American newspaperman, dies in Charleston, SC
1957 Louis B Mayer MGM producer, dies at 71
1904 1st intercity trucking service (Colorado City & Snyder, Texas)
1929 "Black Tuesday," Stock Market crashes triggers "Great Depression"

Today 27 October in Business History

1904 World's 1st subway, the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit), opens in NYC, subway/bus fare is set at one nickel
1920 Westinghouse radio station in East Pittsburgh, KDKA begins
1938 DuPont announces its new synthetic fiber will be called "nylon"
1967 Expo '67 closes in Montreal, Canada
1969 Ralph Nader sets up a consumer organization known as Nader's Raiders
1988 Larry Flynt paid hitman $1M to kill Hefner, Guccione & Sinatra

Calamos Asset Management

Calamos Asset management today reported third quarter 2010 results, including revenues of $78.4 million and operating income of $30.6 million. Income before income taxes was $34.2 million for the current quarter. The company's net income of $4.7 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.23 reflect the public ownership interest of 21.67% of the investment management business. The remaining ownership interest of 78.33% is attributed to the Calamos principals. At September 30, 2010, assets under management totaled $32.6 billion.

Additionally, the company declared a regular quarterly dividend of 7.5 cents per share payable on November 24, 2010 to shareholders of record on November 9, 2010.

Is Apple Buying Sony

Shares of Japanese electronics manufacturer Sony rose as much as 3% on Tuesday in Japan on rumors it could be a potential acquisition target of Apple.

Apple has confessed to having a cash hoard of $51Billion. With Apple sitting on that pile of money expect it be associated with every vulnerable technology company.

Today 26 October in Business History

1905 1st Soviet (workers' council) formed, St Petersburg, Russia
1941 US savings bonds go on sale
1949 Pres Truman increases minimum wage from 40› to 75›
1958 PanAm flies the 1st transatlantic jet trip-NY to Paris
1988 Donald Trump bills Mike Tyson $2,000,000 for 4 month advisory service

Car Leasing Vs Buying

Leasing a car is just like leasing a home. Cars are leased for a certain period of time or on the terms of the contract signed. A minimal payment is done every month and at the end of the contract you can look for different models or renew your old contract.. The options are all yours, but you have to be aware that the car will not be yours.

When you buy a car the car is all yours. Once you pay of the auto loan you can proudly claim it as your own.

Today 25 October in Business History

1930 1st scheduled transcontinental air service began
1960 1st electronic wrist watch placed on sale, NYC
1971 Roy Disney dedicates Walt Disney World

Credit Score Tips ; How To Survive On Poor Credit Score

It is a fact, renting an apartment with poor credit score isn't easy. If you have a poor credit score there is one thing you can do survive in this unfair world.

If you steer clear of big apartment complexes run by professional management companies, you may find that individual "mom and pop" landlords are more willing to be flexible — particularly if your credit problems were a temporary problem.

Good Luck

Today 24 October in Business History

1836 The match is patented
1861 1st transcontinental telegram sent ending the Pony Express
1929 "Black Thursday," beginning of stock market crash
1939 Nylon stockings go on sale for 1st time (Wilmington Delaware)
1940 40 hour work week goes into effect (Fair Labor Standards of 1938)

Today 23 October in Business History

1668 Jews of Barbados forbidden to engage in retail trade
1876 New Orleans Mint reopens as an assay office
1958 USSR lends money to UAR to build Aswan High Dam
1981 US national debt hits $1 trillion

Ebay Revenues When It Went Public

When eBay was three years old and going public in 1998 it had revenues of just $4.7 million. Today eBay has revenues of a little over $2 billion every three months and is worth around $30 billion.

Today 21 October in Business History

1869 1st shipment of fresh oysters comes overland from Baltimore
1879 Thomas Edison perfects the carbonized cotton filament light bulb
1970 Caledonian Airways takes over British United Airways

Japan Economic Decline Paper

In 1991, economists were predicting that Japan would overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy by 2010. In fact, Japan’s economy remains the same size it was then: a gross domestic product of $5.7 trillion at current exchange rates.

The NIKKEI Japanese stock exchange is now just a quarter of its value in 1989, and in real estate, where the average price of a home is the same as it was in 1983.

Today 20 October in Business History

1898 NC Mutual & Provident Insurance Company forms
1905 Great General Strike in Russia begins; lasts 11 days
1973 OPEC oil embargo begins
1973 The Family Station Inc buys shortwave Radio Station WNYW, changes calls to WYFR & moves station from NYC to Scituate Mass
1983 IBM-PC DOS Version 2.1 released

Today 19 October in Business History

1853 1st flour mill in Hawaii begins operations
1872 World's largest gold nugget (215 kg) found in New South Wales
1953 1st jet transcontinental nonstop scheduled service
1977 Supersonic Concorde jet's 1st landing in NYC
1982 Automaker John DeLorean arrested on cocaine charges (Not guilty)
1988 US Senate passes bill curbing ads during children`s TV shows

Is US Housing on The Rise

According to the latest stats by Commerce department. U.S. housing starts unexpectedly rose in September to a five-month high.

They rose 0.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000 units, the highest level since April. August starts were revised up to a 608,000-unit pace from the previously reported rate of 598,000 units. Is this the beginning of an upward trend?

History Of USA Housing Price Trend

The following quote shows how misplaced US public was to house prices.

“Over the entire history of this country, housing prices have never gone down nationally. They have gone down in some local areas, but never nationally,” he told an interviewer for CNBC in early 2005. “Secondly, any homeownership over the 10 years has proved to be the best investment that you could ever make. Over any 10-year period, housing prices go up.”

We now know what happened with house prices in 2007

The above Quote was by Angelo Mozilo former CEO of Countrywide. Countrywide was sold to BOA after it went bankrupt. Mozilo was sued by SEC and settled for millions of dollars.

Is America Economy The New Japan

Charles Evans, the president of the Chicago Federal Reserve regional bank, has said that a temporary increase in inflation was one tool to try to kick start the US economy because conventional monetary policy — lowering the short-term interest rate — isn’t working. From Market watch.

Lowering The Short Term Interest Rate - Isnt working?
This has happened before, when Japanese economy tanked in 1990, the BOJ tried to kick start the economy by lowering interest, interest rates were slashed to Zero but Japanese economy never jump started. The same thing is happening to USA now. USA is stack in long term economic stagnation.

Today 17 October in Business History

1899 Sutro railroad sold to Robert F Morrow for $215,000
1904 Bank of Italy, Today known as Bank of America opens its doors
1919 Radio Corporation of America created
1988 Phillip Morris announces $11 Billion tender offer for Kraft

How Pepsi Got Its Groove Back

Back in the 1950s Coke used to outsell Pepsi by 9-1. For Pepsi to compete with Coke, Pepsi managers overhauled their marketing strategy.

Our job was to convince people that Pepsi was a big enough decision that they ought to pay attention to it, and eventually switch. We decided that we had to treat Pepsi like a necktie. In that era people cared what necktie they wore. The necktie said: “Here’s how I want you to see me.” So we have to make Pepsi like a nice necktie. When you are holding a Pepsi in your hand, its says, “Here’s how I want you to see me.”

We did some research and we discovered that when people were going to serve soft drinks to a friend in their home, if they had Coca Cola in the fridge, they would go out to the kitchen, open the fridge, take out the Coke bottle, bring it out, put it on the table and pour a glass in front of their guests.

If it was a Pepsi, they would go out in to the kitchen, take it out of the fridge, open it, and pour it in a glass in the kitchen, and only bring the glass out. The point was people were embarrassed to have someone know that they were serving Pepsi. Maybe they would think it was Coke because Coke had a better perception. It was a better necktie. Steve was fascinated by that.

We talked a lot about how perception leads reality and how if you are going to create a reality you have to be able to create the perception. We did it with something called the Pepsi generation.

I had learned through a lecture that Dr. Margaret Mead had given, an anthropologist in the 60’s, that the most important fact for marketers was going to be the emergence of an affluent middle class — what we call the Baby Boomers, who are now turning 60. They were the first people to have discretionary income. They could go out and spend money for things other than what they had to have.

When we created Pepsi generation it was created with them in mind. It was always focusing on the user of the drink, never the drink.

Coke always focused on the drink. We focused on the person using it. We showed people riding dirt bikes, waterskiing, or kite flying, hang gliding — doing different things. And at the end of it there would always be a Pepsi as a reward. This all happened when color television was first coming in. We were the first company to do lifestyle marketing. The first and the longest-running lifestyle campaign was — and still is — Pepsi.

We did it was just as color television was coming in and when large-screen TVs were coming in, like 19-inch screens. We didn’t go to people who made TV commercials because they were making commercials for little tiny black-and-white screens. We went out to Hollywood and got the best movie directors and said we want you to make 60-second movies for us. They were lifestyle movies. The whole thing was to create the perception that Pepsi was number one because you couldn’t be number one unless you thought like number one. You had to appear like number one.

From Cult Of Mac Interview of John Sculley Former CEO of PEPSI & APPLE

That is how Pepsi got its groove back

Today 15 October in Business History

1878 Edison Electric Light Company incorporated
1881 1st American fishing magazine, American Angler published
1914 Clayton Antitrust Act passed
1919 14 horses begin 300-mile race from Vt to Mass for $1000 prize money
1924 Lee A Iacocca was born - CEO (Chrysler Corp)
1969 Bank of America World Headquarters (555 California) dedicated
1969 Madison Square Garden TV Network begins (Rangers vs North Stars)