A 2009 study tracked the beer bought during different holidays and events.
Which of the following do you think were the top 5 events/holidays in terms of beer purchased (measured by the # of cases purchased in the U.S.):
Halloween
Labor Day
St. Patrick's Day
Cinco de Mayo
Father's Day
Fourth of July
Christmas
Thanksgiving
Super Bowl
Easter
Memorial Day
Yes, New Year's did not even make the top #11.
Answers to come Friday...
The effective federal income tax rate for the 400 taxpayers with the very highest incomes has declined by nearly half over the past two decades, even as their pre-tax incomes have grown five times larger, says a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The top 400 households paid 16.6 percent of their income in federal individual income taxes in 2007, down from 30 percent in 1995.
To make it into the top 400, a household needed an adjusted gross income of at least $35 million in 1992 (in 2007 dollars) and $139 million in 2007.
The decline in effective tax rates at the very top is due in large part to the capital gains tax cuts enacted in 1997 and 2003. The top marginal tax rate on capital gains is now 15 percent, less than half the top tax rate on wages and salaries. The top 400 taxpayers derived two-thirds of their income from capital gains and qualified dividends in 2007.
Over roughly the same period, the top 400 filers enjoyed huge gains in pre-tax incomes. The average pre-tax income of this group rose by over 400 percent between 1992 and 2007, equivalent to a $275 million increase per person, after adjusting for inflation.
From:
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3090&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cbpp%2FfYJq+%28Center+on+Budget+and+Policy+Priorities%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
Soccer (Football) fans from Britain are not known for their compassion. A new commercial from PUMA aims to change that perception. The band Savage Garden would no doubt be proud:
I am on vacation for the week so blog posts will resume March 29th. Have a great week.
The top 5 companies in the US by market cap are:
#5 - Berkshire Hathaway - $195 billion
#4 - Apple - $198 billion
#3 - Wal-Mart - $206 billion
#2 - Microsoft - $250 billion
#1 - Exxon Mobil - $314 billion
What surprises you more, that massive corporations like Johnson & Johnson, Procter and Gamble, and General Electric are not on this list and Apple is, or that Exxon Mobil is a full $108 billion dollar larger in market capitalization than WAL-MART!?!?
Market capitalization is the amount of shares a publicly traded company has outstanding multiplied times the price per each share. It is widely viewed as representing the markets view of a companies net worth. Any guesses on what the top 5 companies by market capitalization are in the US? Here are your choices:
Procter & Gamble
Wal-Mart
Johnson & Johnson
General Electric
Microsoft
Berkshire Hathaway
Apple
Exxon Mobil
Bank of America
Google
Answers to come Wednesday...
ESPN has an ombudsman and I had no idea what an Ombudsman was. For anyone else who is interested, an ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing the broad scope of constituent interests.
From what I gathered, ESPN pays an individual to address the issues that ESPN customers have with ESPN. Ombudsman are also prevalent on college campuses where they address the interests of the student body as a paid employee of the university.
sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=ohlmeyer_don&id=4582425
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman
If there is anything of interest you guys have seen online recently, feel free to post it in the comments.
OK Go is a band know for their amazingly creative music videos. They are most known for their video "Here it goes again":
However, they may have topped themselves with their new music video for the song "This Too Shall Pass":
The creativity is astounding.
And you thought American bankers were bad...
"On the day when Royal Bank Of Scotland announced it was handing out £1.6 billion in bonuses, a mystery banker ran up a bar bill of almost £44,000 at Mayfair club Aura."
"He was with five friends as they splashed thousands on Cristal champagne in just two and a half hours. A source said: “They were a smartly-dressed group led by an American banker in his thirties. They took a table in the VIP area and seemed determined to celebrate. They were just ordering bottle after bottle and handing them out to anyone and everyone in the bar."
Guess I have to take that back, an American was involved.
From: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23810386-mystery-banker-runs-up-bar-bill-of-nearly-pound-44000-at-mayfair-club.do
Senator Dick Durbin is organizing an online petition campaign designed to show our leaders how people are simply fed up with the filibuster. The filibuster is the rule that has allowed the Senate to grind to a halt because a 40 person minority has effectively stopped the will of the majority. I really urge everyone to investigate the issue and if you can please sign the petition. Thanks.
http://ga3.org/campaign/fedup2?rk=q1519V9a5JO4E
A vast majority of the news in a given day is connected by others stories that are reported by a variety of news outlets.
Every wondered how it is all connected. Well 'News Dot' is an addictive tool that organizes and displays the interconnectedness of the days headlines.
Check it out @:
http://slatest.slate.com/features/news_dots/default.htm
My favorite Olympic sport is curling and I am devastated that it is over.
While you contain you laughter it is with great pleasure that I inform everyone that curling fever is sweeping the nation (maybe an overstatement but still)
Here is my evidence:
It Is Like Merlot”: Wall Street's Secret Curling Obsession (Vanity Fair)
Everybody must get stones: Why curling is the Olympics' best Party (Sports Illustrated)
Wall Street Warms up to the Charms of Curling (CNBC & NY Times)
Curling Fever Hits Houston As Only Curling Fever Can
The Perfect Winter Olympic Sport - Curling, Really (Yahoo News)