March 2011
9 posts
2 tags
Global Variance in the Price of Gas
Another riveting article title COMING AT YOU! I should write romance novels.
Anyhow, I know I write about oil and gas almost as much as I write about retail. Stories about fossil fuels tend to dominate financial news because fuel determines how much transport costs, and transport affects many businesses. Fuel prices can even affect how some businesses develop- back in January I wrote about...
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Elasticity of Demand
Elasticity of demand is an important concept within the consumer sphere. Businessdictionary.com defines “elasticity of demand” as
The degree to which demand for a good or service varies with its price.
The typical play is for demand to INCREASE as price DECREASES and vice versa. I will buy one delicious Cadbury Cream Egg if they are a dollar apiece. I will buy two if they are...
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Proud Iowan Moment
Check it out! According to an article in my hometown Des Moines Register, Men’s Health magazine has named Des Moines one of the 18 “coolest places to live in America”. I couldn’t agree more.
The article cites our growing technology sphere and cultural hotspots like the Pappajohn sculpture park. It also touts Des Moines as having a cost of living 10 percent below the...
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Wal-Mart Takes Sustainability Into its Own Hands
Wowzers. This article in Advertising Age absolutely delights my imagination. Apparently Wal-Mart has a set of policies that rewards suppliers who adhere to certain sustainability parameters and initiatives. These include reducing greenhouse emissions, investing in “community-development” activities, and even reducing sodium and sugar in food products!
There’s more: old...
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Retail Poised for Big Gains
Sure, oil prices are skyrocketing and rising gas prices might doom us all. Let’s not worry about that right now. Check out what’s going on in RETAIL! According to this article on Marketwatch, retail is set to make a big splash when February numbers are reported. Year-on-year sales are set for a whopping 9.3% gain, the largest gain since March of 2000.
We are still expecting a...
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What is Organic?
Certainly not that box of Cadbury eggs I put down yesterday, am I right? Heh. I kid, I kid. The actual definition of “organic” is
Big business. Very lucrative.
I guess I’m feeling ornery tonight. This is all true, though- organic food is a $26.8 billion industry in the U.S., and it’s been growing at about 20% annually for the past 15 years according to this Times...
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Unemployment Drops to 22-month Low
Woohoo! The national unemployment rate dropped to 8.9% in February, its lowest point since April of 2009. Check out the lack of “yes, but”s that I gleaned from a CNNMOney.com article:
The drop was NOT caused by people giving up hope. The number of people who do not count as “unemployed” because they aren’t looking for work remained steady at 2.7 million.
The...
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What is "curated"?
“Curator” is not a new word. I’ve heard it used in relation to museums and art galleries all my life. According to merriam-webster.com, a “curator” is:
one who has the care and superintendence of something
However, I’ve seen the word “curate” pop up in two new contexts in the past month or so. The first time was in a recent CNNMoney.com...
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Baltic Dry Index
I’m a big index fan. I enjoy tracking numbers up and down from day to day and week to week. Not month to month, though. Who has the attention span for THAT? Kidding.
The newest index I discovered is the Baltic Dry Index, or BDI. The BDI measures the demand for room on cargo ships that transport dry bulk materials. A lower index means that fewer bulk materials are being shipped, which can...