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The pharmaceutical industry has had a banner year in many ways, fueled by a slew of major drug approvals in recent years, numerous mergers and acquisitions, and significant corporate reorganizations that have helped to boost earnings. The specialty and generic drugmaker Actavis plc (NYSE:AGN) is a prime example of this industrywide phenomena. Since moving its tax base outside of the U.S. through its acquisition of Warner-Chilcott in 2013, the company has used its tax savings to buy up a host of branded drugmakers. The net result has been an earnings bonanza, causing its shares to more than double.
With a stronger than expected third quarter on the books and more acquisitions coming into the fold, here are five things Actavis' management wants investors to know moving forward.
Revenues are growing at a breakneck pace, driven by branded medicines
Actavis' CEO Brent Saunders got the third-quarter conference call started on a high note, stating, "We're proud to report an 83% increase in total revenue to $3.7 billion." A big chunk of this upswing was due to Actavis' acquisition of Forest Laboratories. Specifically, Actavis reported a total of $507 million in sales for two key Forest products, namely its Alzheimer's medicine Namenda, and Linzess, indicated for Irritable Bowel Syndrome-C in adults.
Given that Namenda is scheduled to lose patent protection next year, the company has been busy moving patients onto an extended release version of the drug dubbed "Namenda XR". Saunders let investors know that this process is unfolding as expected: "In our CNS franchise, we continued to focus on the conversion of Namenda IR to XR with XR sales increasing as we enhanced manufacturing capacity." So Namenda's patent problems shouldn't cause a major drop in revenue anytime soon.
Saunders also noted on the call that the renewed direct-to-consumer campaign originally launched by Forest and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) for Linzess is producing results. He said that the company saw growth continue for Linzess, benefiting from the resumption of DTC efforts. Lizness should therefore become an increasingly important value driver for Actavis moving forward.
New acquisitions, new branded drugs coming into the fold
The seemingly ever-evolving nature of Actavis was a big theme on this quarter's call. For example, the company announced plans to acquire Durata Therapeutics (UNKNOWN:DRTX.DL) in October for its next-generation antibiotic Dalvance, recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration. On the call, Saunders updated investors on this process. "In early October we announced the proposed acquisition of Durata Therapeutics, a development and commercialization stage company focused on innovation in unmet infectious diseases. We're extremely excited about this acquisition," he said. Dalvance should be an important new medicine in the fight against acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections, although it will immediately face competition from Cubist Pharmaceuticals' (UNKNOWN:CBST.DL) rival therapy Sivextro.
On a final note, management gave us an update on the regulatory process for its other IBS drug candidate, eluxadoline, acquired through its purchase of Furiex Pharmaceuticals last July. Sauders noted on the call, "We anticipate an FDA approval decision during the second quarter of 2015 and a possible launch of the product in late 2015 or early 2016. If approved, eluxadoline would represent a significant advance for patients with IBSD." Given that eluxadoline posted strong late-stage clinical trial results and has the potential to reach blockbuster status, this is an important regulatory review for investors to pay attention to going forward.
Actavis' best days may be yet to come
Actavis' skyrocketing revenue in the third quarter looks like a preview of things to come for this serial acquirer. After all, the Linzess commercial campaign is only now picking up momentum, the Dalvance commercial launch is getting under way, and eluxadoline should be approved within the next six months. Actavis has also been linked to a possible mega deal with Botox maker Allergan (UNKNOWN:AGN.DL), and has even been approached by growth-starved Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), according to reports. In sum, I think big things are coming down the pike for this rapidly growing biopharma, making it a great stock to keep tabs on next year.


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World News: 11:30 GMT Thursday 26th May 2016. [Ennis, Inc. via Businesswire via SPi World News]
Ennis Inc the Company NYSE EBF today announced that it hasthe previously announced sale of Alstyle LLC and its subsidiaries which constituted the Companys apparel the Ap parel D...
Business Wire: 11:30 GMT Thursday 26th May 2016
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Japanese kid’s clothing for boys are quite like the ones worn in America or every other Western nations. Time will inform what the future holds, however for now listed below are 10 issues that it is advisable to know concerning the state of Japanese road trend in 2016. The combined exercise and social interplay between its adherents increases the potential of this newly widespread fashion evolving into a full-blown style subculture.
Lengthy before manufacturers like Comme Des Garcons, BAPE, and Undercover became family names within the West, they’d already made names for themselves on the streets of Harajuku. A growing number of widespread Harajuku boutiques help South Korean streetwear designers in 2017.
Tv appearances vastly boosted social media followers and title recognition, launching several Harajuku style icons who, whereas stylish, didn’t push the bounds of avenue style like previous generations of Harajuku stars. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a growth in Harajuku children featured on Japanese television exhibits.
Korean internet pattern shop Type Nanda simply opened a vivid pink building on Takeshita Dori (Harajuku’s most famous teen purchasing road) to massive fanfare — and long lines. Korean streetwear manufacturers Esc Studio, Open The Door, and One other Youth each held their own profitable popups within Never Mind The XU’s Harajuku boutique this spring.
In 1970, Hitomi Okawa founded Milk — the proto-Lolita fashion model, and now-iconic Harajuku kawaii boutique. We’re optimistic that the wave of young Japanese kids who started visiting Harajuku based mostly on current TV protection will one day mature into the neighborhood’s future fashion stars.


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UPDATED: World Trade Center Opens in Rogers - Innovate Arkansas
UPDATED: World Trade Center Opens in Rogers
By Andrew Jensen, 4/13/2007 12:00:00 AMThe Arkansas World Trade Center opened its doors in January but had to wait until April to host the dignitaries worthy of a true grand opening.
Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., Deputy Secretary of Commerce David Sampson and ambassadors from Central America and the Dominican Republic joined University of Arkansas Chancellor John A. White on Friday in Rogers to commemorate the occasion with area business leaders.
Costa Rican Ambassador Rene A. Leon credited Boozman for his leadership and help launching the World Trade Center. Leon also thanked Boozman and Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., for their support of CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Leon said CAFTA led to a 30 percent increase in trade between the U.S. and Central America in 2006 and that northwest Arkansas has the political leadership, the companies and the man power to make the World Trade Center a success for both sides of the border.
“A World Trade Center is an institution to promote peace and prosperity through trade,” Leon said.
Boozman said he told White to “think big and move quickly” after the idea of a World Trade Center was proposed last year.
“We’re here to help manufacturers, farming, small business and business in general,” Boozman said. “Arkansas can compete with anyone.”
Sampson said the Commerce Department and the World Trade Center share a concurrent mission to bring life to trade agreements like CAFTA by building relationships between nations and companies.
“We work with World Trade Centers to achieve these goals,” Sampson said.
Sampson there are “winds of isolationism and protectionism” blowing in
Washington, D.C., but growing a vibrant economy means reaching 95 percent of the world¹s consumers outside of the U.S.
“We have to plug into international markets,” Sampson said. “Northwest Arkansas has seen it. There is an environment to innovate and a link to global markets.”
The Trade Center was established in September 2006 with an agreement between the UA and the World Trade Centers Association. The center moved into its offices at 330 Market Street, Suite 400 at Rogers on Jan. 15.
The center, which is affiliated with the Sam Walton College of Business at the UA, will seek to bring help Arkansas businesses gain a bigger share of the global marketplace.
Dan Hendrix is president and chief executive officer of the trade center.
Hong Zhou of Arkansas State University has received an Arkansas Science & Technology Authority grant of $43,374 to fund his research into early detection and prevention of skin cancer.
Bentonville finds itself in the Advertising Age spotlight Tuesday. Ad Age has a look at how Bentonville -- aka Vendorville -- and the region have been transformed by the growth of Wal-Mart and its cache of vendors on the ground in northwest Arkansas.
Europe's increasing emphasis on renewable energy lies behind the announcements this summer that two companies plan to build wood pellet plants in Arkansas.
For close to 40 years now, mentoring in the workplace has been examined extensively in hundreds of peer-reviewed studies. The results of these studies demonstrate many benefits to the career success of the protege, the career of the mentor and the organizations that encourage informal mentoring or have developed formal mentoring programs.


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August 13, 2015
By ALLISON GATLIN
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
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Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ:SWKS) stock was up nearly 1% Thursday afternoon, after the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) chip supplier announced it will expand operations in Osaka, Japan.
Skyworks teamed up with Osaka-based Panasonic in April 2014 to design and develop high-performance filters for use in mobile devices and the emerging Internet Of Things markets.
Skyworks expects its expansion — a two-story, 405,000-square-foot facility — to be complete by September, according to its press release.
Those operations will be critical to addressing the increasingly challenging task of keeping up with consumer demand for constant connectivity, CEO David Aldrich said in the release.
“Given the increasing importance of filters to our target markets and customers, we are expanding our internal capability to meet current and future demand in a world-class environment,” he said.
Skyworks stock has risen 115% to above 90 since its April 2014 team-up with Panasonic. The stock broke out in May, setting a record high at 112.88 in June before hitting a snag that sent it back below its 200-day moving average a month later.
In early afternoon trading on the stock market today, Skyworks stock was trading near 90.50.
In its IBD Electric-Semiconductor Manufacturers group, Skyworks boasts a leading 98 Composite Rating. Qorvo (NASDAQ:QRVO) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) follow at 93.
Connect with Allison Gatlin: Twitter | Facebook.


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OneWest Bank, CIT’s Southern California retail bank division, has announced the Turn Paper into Trees campaign in celebration of Earth Day. Between now and May 31, OneWest will plant a tree in California each time a customer signs up for eStatements, Online Banking, Bill Pay or Direct Deposit.1
“We’re pleased to launch this initiative and invite our customers to join us in making a meaningful contribution to the communities where we live and work,” said Heather Ellison, senior vice president of Retail Banking for OneWest Bank. “By going paperless and planting new trees, we can collectively make a substantial impact on the environment.”
As part of the campaign, OneWest Bank is partnering with One Tree Planted, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reforestation. In 2017, OneWest and its parent company CIT launched its first interactive philanthropic partnership with One Tree Planted and garnered support to plant nearly 18,000 trees in California and Florida to restore forests affected by wildfires and hurricanes. Last year, CIT planted an additional 25,000 trees in California through a separate partnership with the organization.
According to One Tree Planted, California lost over one million acres to forest fires in 2017 alone. To sign up or find out more visit OneWest Bank or one of their branch locations across the Southern California area.
For more information, visit OneWestBank.com.
Submitted by Olivia Weiss


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The RS12000 SmartMCU MCUs, says the company, are designed specifically to meet the high MIPS, memory, and security demands of IoT devices, while at the same time improving battery life compared to traditional ARM Cortex-M4 MCUs. Based on an optimized multi-core IoT processor architecture, the new devices are said to deliver best-in-class performance, ultra-low-power, and highly-secure operation, making them ideal for IoT edge-intelligent, voice assistant-enabled, and network and cloud connected devices.
“Redpine has fifteen-plus years of deep industry experience developing highly differentiated wireless connectivity solutions for the IoT market, and we have fully leveraged that know-how in our new SmartMCU architecture,” says Venkat Mattela, CEO of Redpine Signals. “Existing MCU solutions in the market feature either high performance or low power, forcing IoT device designers to choose one mode or utilize multiple MCUs in their designs.”
“With its unique gear-shifting architecture,” says Matela, “Redpine has – for the first time – empowered IoT designers with both high performance and low power within a single processor core. By combining this architecture with the RS12000 series’ best-in-class trusted execution environment, Redpine is accelerating the development of the next generation of intelligent and wireless connected devices with zero compromise on security.”
Offering a power consumption of 19uA/MHz at 20 MHz and performance of 1.07 GOPS in a single chip, the RS12000 SmartMCU family features an ARM Cortex M4F running up to 250 MHz; a sensor hub DSP coprocessor at 125 MHz; a four-threaded network security processor based on the company’s ThreadArch running up to 160 MHz; and a full suite of analog and digital peripherals.
The devices’ high-performance configurations feature up to four cores and, says the company, provide double the processing power, memory, and peripherals by including two gear-shifting ARM Cortex M4 processors and two ThreadArch network security processors. The integrated network security processor includes the ability to run an embedded TCP/IP stack, offloading the primary M4 processor and providing the IoT designer full access to the M4 processor cycles and RAM, while the sensor hub coprocessor accelerates DSP processing (CMSIS-DSP) and machine learning (CMSIS-NN) functions within a local sensor data buffer, freeing up the M4 further.
Secure RS12000 SmartMCU products are based on a trusted execution environment (TEE) architecture with a separate network security processor, and include suite-B Crypto HW accelerators, secure boot, secure firmware upgrade, secure XIP and secure peripherals. Such high-security levels are ideal for applications such as smart locks, medical devices, and secure voice-based ordering, the company says.
The RS12000 SmartMCU series include the RS12100 SmartMCU, RS12200 high-performance MCU, and RS12300 secure MCU with trusted execution environment. The RS12000 SmartMCU series devices are offered in QFN, BGA, and WLCSP packages, and are sampling now with volume production starting in Q1 2019.


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2 arrested after burglary attempt, police chase in moving van
A Wylam man is behind bars after investigators say he ripped the front doors off a gas station with a U-Haul truck during a failed burglary.
Derrick Dewayne Thomas is accused of trying to break in to the Brookside Town and Country store on Cherry Avenue in Forestdale early Thursday.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Thomas and a 17-year-old juvenile backed a U-Haul truck up to the building’s front doors and used packing straps to pull the doors off their frame.
Then someone driving by spooked the duo and they drove off without stealing anything from inside the business.
Deputies responding to a burglary in progress call spotted the truck and began to follow it.
"Something that large pulling up to the front of a store at 1 o'clock in the morning with straps wrapped around the front door is pretty bold and not something that we normally see," Chief Deputy Randy Christian said.
The truck led them on a 10-mile chase into the heart of Wylam, where the suspects abandoned the vehicle and ran off.
Both were caught a short time later.
Thomas is charged with attempting to elude, resisting arrested and public intoxication.
The 17-year-old faces charges in juvenile court.
A store employee said they believe the pair were after an ATM located in the back of the business.
"The fact that they were in a U-Haul makes us believe that they planned to load it up or at the very least go from store to store to store that were closed," Christian said.
Investigators are crediting the witness who startled the burglars and called 911.
"Nosy neighbors or people that are watching or people that are paying attention that are willing to get involved in that manner without putting themselves in harm’s way is the key to a lot of our cases. We depend on that," Christian said.


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The car manufacturer will cut 23,000 from its workforce at the biggest VW unit in Germany.Read the full story ›
The hosting company said it now plans to offer guests the opportunity to plan and book every aspect of their trip through the firm.Read the full story ›
The UK arm of the American firm, which employs around 1,100 staff in 106 stores in Britain, has been bought by a restructuring specialist.Read the full story ›
Around 380 people's jobs are threatened by the planned closure in response to a drop in the price of oil.Read the full story ›
Internet giants take action to curb falsified reports spreading through their platforms after accusations they swayed the US election.Read the full story ›
ITV News readers have been sharing their experiences and opinions on whether shops should be open on Boxing Day.Read the full story ›
A petition which calls for retailers to let their employees spend time with loved-ones at Christmas instead of working gathers momentum.Read the full story ›
Budget airline easyJet has posted a 27.9% tumble in pre-tax profits to £495 million for the year to September 30, from £686 million a year prior, after the plunging pound cost it £88 million.
It also lost around £150 million from "unprecedented" events. Airlines have been knocked by a combination of political turmoil, terror attacks, strikes, and intense competition in the sector.
The airline said it was planning a review over the next year to make "meaningful" savings and a "simpler, more efficient" company.


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VMA holds first programme at SMS Campus | 2012
The newly constituted Varanasi Management Association (VMA) held its maiden programme in the form of a panel discussion on “FDI in Retail Sector in India: The Issues Ahead” at the Khushipur campus of the premier B-School of the region, School of Management Sciences (SMS), Varanasi where a panel of experts constituting the Founder-President of VMA, Prof. S. K. Singh (Dean, FMS-BHU), Founder-Vice President Prof. P. N. Jha (Director, SMS-Varanasi), Prof. J. P. Mishra (Dean, SMS Varanasi), Prof. Chhote Lal (Director, IMS-SHEPA, Varanasi) and Prof. A. K. Agrawal (FMS-BHU) expressed their viewpoints about the hot debatable topic for more than an hour.
In his address to the gathering of entrepreneurs, academicians and a large number of student community, Prof. S. K. Singh, President VMA, said that various studies and worldwide indices are indicating India as the hottest destinations for retail sector in the time to come. In the Global Retail Development Index, Russia and China trail behind India and same is the case with Retail Labour Index. Moreover, the growth of the ‘middle-income group’ and the absence of ‘organised’ retail (India has only 4% organized retail) make India attractive for retail giants. However, it will need a huge investment which means that the break-even would be achieved with delay. Our GDP growth rate is also linked to this issue. China witnessed the best GDP growth since they opened up retail in 1994 and India is tipped to grow with retail but there is a caution, we need restricted FDI within a legal framework, said the President in his opinion.
Prof. P. N. Jha, Vice-President VMA opined that our ‘kirana stores’ are not going to vanish away if FDI in retail penetrates India. Instead, it will assist in the development of required infrastructure and would benefit the farmers and consumers both. He further added that the 51% factor means relinquishment of control which is indigestible. Further the coming of e-commerce in a big way would certainly have its say.
Prof. Chhote Lal as a Guest panelist envisaged that Retail is the next thing to happen in India but the major concern is what about the profits earned from the Indian soil and repatriated back to the origin country? Infrastructure breeds growth and this sector will help in developing needed infrastructure, he added. He said FDI has to be accepted but through certain safeguards. Government should be clear in Tax liability and related provisions.
Prof. A. K. Agrawal, another Guest Panelist at VMA, said that eliminating ‘middleman’ is not the solution but more the competition, better it is for the consumers. Prof. J. P. Mishra as a panel member questioned that it is for us to understand whether this issue is an economic decision or a social decision? Whether can we revert back from our Globalization steps? Whether this FDI would help us bridging the foreign trade deficit gap? Whether we have reached saturation?
Mr. Rajkumar Singh (Swasthyavardhak Pharmacy, Varanasi) said that five entities would be affected – the unorganized retail, the MSMEs, farmers, employment generation and of course consumers. Others who shared their views from audience included Prof. S. C. Singh, Dr. Abhijeet Singh, Dr. Anurag Singh (all from FMS-BHU) and Mr. Sandeep Singh (Associate Professor from SMS Varanasi).
Earlier Prof. S. K. Singh presented the theme of the panel discussion while the Joint Secretary, Mr. Anupam Kumar (Reader, SMS Varanasi) presented the objectives and activities of the VMA. He said that the local entrepreneurs, industry professionals and academicians should join the VMA in order to strengthen it further to the benefit of the masses. A membership drive would shortly be initiated where both individuals and institutions can join VMA. Shortly the next programme of VMA would be announced. The treasurer Prof. N. B. Singh, other founder members Dr. M. P. Singh (Executive Secretary, SMS Society), Dr. Amit Gautam (Assistant Professor, FMS-BHU) were also present on the occasion. The vote-of-thanks was proposed by Prof. J. P. Mishra while the programme was conducted by Mrs. Anjana Harish, members VMA.


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PS4 Release Date Is 13 November
Though Sony revealed a lot of positive news during E3 2013, it failed to provide a more definite PS4 release date beyond the already confirmed ‘Holiday 2013’.
A recent retailer poster spotted by a NeoGAF user suggests that the PS4 could be released by 13 November 2013.
Media Markt, a large German retailer, has a poster clearly stating the PS4’s release date is 13 November.
Meanwhile CVG spotted that Dutch website bol.com also carried a listing for the PS4 with the same PS4 release date of 13 November 2013, though the website has since changed to claim 31 December 2013 – a temporary date until the official one is confirmed.
The same website also has an Xbox One release date of 21 November 2013, though Microsoft has only confirmed that its next-gen console will be released in November with no further confirmation on a specific date.
If true this will put Sony’s PS4 release date ahead by a week and when the stakes are as high as they are this time around that could be an important coup for Sony.
We wouldn’t expect to see a confirmed release date from Sony on the PS4 until Gamescom, however.


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Marks & Spencer has detailed proposals to shut nine stores as part of its drive to optimise space across its estate.
The affected stores comprise three full-line branches in London’s Wood Green, Stevenage in Hertfordshire and The Fort Birmingham, along with five outlet stores – Hounslow, Pontypridd, Aldershot, Walsall and North Shields Royal Quays.
One Simply Food store in Shirley, near Solihull, will also close.
Marks & Spencer will offer all the staff at the stores redeployment if the proposed closures go ahead.
It does not intend to add net general merchandise space this financial year and is focusing on improving the quality of existing space.
The retailer is still adding square footage at pace at its food division.
An M&S spokesman said: “We are managing our store estate to ensure it is fit for the future of M&S and will continue to ensure we’re in the best locations to serve our customers.
“As we said at our prelim results, we have a clear property strategy which includes opening 250 Food stores and further improving the quality of our general merchandise space.”
The retailer has approximately 850 UK stores.


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Adam’s Nursery has expanded its gift shop to offer twice as many options for customers.
The store, which is now double the size it was, offers a selection of collegiate gear, educational items for children, garden decor, jewelry, candles, LED canvas wall art, Old Whaling soaps and lotions, purses, and home decor. They also sell Jumping Goat Coffee, which customers can samples, plus jams and jellies, molasses, and old school cornmeal and grits.
“We don’t want to carry things that big box story carry,” said Adam Altman.
Following the closure of Evelyn’s Jewelry & Gifts in November 2018, Altman and his wife Jennifer decided to expand their store to provide more options for Barnwell County residents.
“We want people to have the same pleasures that people in Aiken and Columbia have right here at home,” said Jennifer.
They have started carrying some merchandise that Evelyn’s stocked, such as Nora Fleming serve-ware pieces, Willow Tree angels, and Southern Gates jewelry. They have also implemented bridal and graduate registration, which was a popular feature at Evelyn’s.
Several items are made in South Carolina, including cloth books and signs made by local resident Alta Miller.
The Altmans said they are steady adding new products because they want to keep things fresh by providing what customers want.
The gift shop is located inside the garden center at 10066 Ellenton Street, Barnwell. It is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Contact the store at (803) 259-5631.


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A few weeks ago I wrote a post about my personal decision to stay away from credit cards and my struggle with a society that is rigged in favor of them. The post didn't advocate getting rid of credit cards; it advocated getting rid of a credit score system and other incentives that make it difficult not to have one.
The comments section for the post on reddit had a variety of opinions in response, both positive and negative. But many of them used the words "dumb," "idiot," "lazy," "stupid." They used words such as "responsibility" and "discipline" and "self-control." The crux of these arguments is that those who get into heavy credit card debt are financially illiterate (or just plain naive). This viewpoint rests the blame of soaring American credit card debt on those who get the cards, rather than the companies who issue them. There is of course a grain of truth in this -- many people who have credit card debt spend beyond their means. And there are ways to be savvy about credit cards and not run up a balance.
But that is not what a credit card company wants, and you may in fact find yourself rejected from getting a card if you are that responsible. You are far outside the sweet spot, or what Ronald J. Mann, a professor of law at UT Austin, calls the "sweat box": "the spectrum from those who carry balances, to those who routinely make minimum payments, to those who miss payments altogether... [where] the interest rates that borrowers pay...greatly exceed the cost of the lender's funds." Mann wrote a paper in 2006, right after Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. Proponents of the act relied heavily on a moral argument: that it is shameful Americans could ‘easily' walk away from their debt by filing for bankruptcy. Those pushing the reforms were concerned that consumers used bankruptcy as a convenient part of financial planning, not as a last resort. Thus the rules for filing had to be tightened.
But Mann smelled something fishy: the credit card companies had lobbied heavily and expensively with this bill. But the bill was unlikely to return enough income through increased bankruptcy payouts to justify the expense of lobbying. In fact, it had none of the effects you might think credit card companies would want: deterring risky borrowing, increasing bankruptcy payouts, or lowing bankruptcy filing rates. So why did they do it? It turns out that the major outcome of this bill, and all that lobbying, was to delay consumers from filing for bankruptcy. The credit card companies weren't worried about losing money when a customer defaulted; they were worried that too many defaults too early led to lower profits. This is where credit card companies make their money. Not off of customers who are so irresponsible as to default right away, not off of customers who are so responsible that they pay their bills on time. Rather, off of those who are just bad enough to drag out their balances for a long period of time. And that's where they want to keep you -- in the sweat box.
Credit cards have evolved along the same path as mortgages. As Elizabeth Warren, tireless consumer advocate, puts it: "The financial industry has perfected the art of offering mortgages, credit cards, and check-overdrafts laden with hidden terms that obscure price and risk." Need proof? The average credit card contract has bloated up to 30 pages, from a page and a half in the early 1980s. Issuers advertise a single interest rate and then bury the real details in the contract. (It's no coincidence that the landmark Marquette Nat. Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp. case was decided in 1978, which said that states could no longer regulate interest rates on nationally-chartered banks, leading them to easily find the laxest state laws and regulators.) Similarly, to quote Elizabeth Warren again, "More than half of the families that ended up with high-priced, high-risk subprime mortgages would have qualified for safer, cheaper prime loans." Wonder why that is. Maybe all those families were interested in high-stakes gambling with their houses? "A recent Federal Trade Commission survey found that many consumers do not understand, or can even indentify, key mortgage terms." Hmm, maybe not.
The responses to my credit card post mimic the response to the subprime mortgage catastrophe, which placed the blame on homeowners who got mortgages without the adequate funds to pay them back. Again, there is truth in this viewpoint. It is true that many people with little to no income bought houses that they couldn't afford. But why were so many of these mortgages given out? Who gave them? And what were their motives?
Gary Rivlin may answer some of these questions in the chapter "The Birth of the Predatory Lender" in his book Broke USA. He writes about the early 1990s, when nonbank lenders started to realize that there were profits to be made from low-income neighborhoods. They preyed upon the poor, as "the typical customer...didn't feel ripped off paying interest rates of 20% or more but instead felt grateful that finally, someone was saying yes." A lawyer working to help some of these customers climb out of their debt "suspected that the lender was more interested in seizing homes through judgments of default than in accruing steady profits through regular monthly payments." And indeed, Fleet, one of the first large banks get into the business, "lost $17,000 per home on the 101 homes it sold at a loss, [but] it made an average of $32,000 per home on 194 homes." Again the story of relaxed regulation in the 80s comes to play: the state caps on interest rates banks could charge on mortgages were barred in 1980. Two years later, Reagan went further and gave lenders the ability to sell creative home loans, including balloon mortgages and adjustable-rate mortgages. A whole new lingo emerged: "packing" a loan, in which a salesperson was able to load it up with points and fees and credit insurance; "flipping," in which a broker could convince customers to refinance loans again and again, each time adding more points and fees; and all of these practices falling under "equity stripping," in which banks siphoned off the equity customers had in their homes. The cards were stacked against mortgage customers so that banks could profit. By the turn of this century, "Increasingly, mainstream banks were revving up profits by purchasing or starting a subprime subsidiary," Rivlin recalls. And we all know how that turned out.
It's tantalizingly easy to place the blame for huge problems like credit card debt and subprime mortgages on individual consumers. The solution to that is for them to "just man up," as one of the reddit readers suggested. And as I said above, individual responsibility will always be a factor when it comes to these issues. In Elizabeth Warren's words: "Nothing will ever replace the role of personal responsibility. The FDA cannot prevent drug overdoses, and the CFPA cannot stop overspending. Instead, creating safer marketplaces is about making certain that the products themselves don't become the source of trouble." And therein lies the rub. It is far more difficult to think and talk about the system in which so many of these decisions are taking place.
The flood of comments and reactions to my piece heartens me, however, for two reasons. One is that people who had similar stories to mine came out of the woodworks. Friends, family, coworkers, strangers all started telling me how they either stayed away from credit cards for similar reasons or got into debt early on, found a way out, and then stayed away. The second heartening thing is that clearly this is something that people care about. President Obama just signed sweeping financial regulation into law, and whether or not it's strong enough to prevent another crisis, the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau promises to right many of the wrongs listed above. Contracts will become clearer. Regulators will do a better job of regulating these products. Consumers will actually be able to compare credit products, because they will really understand them, and innovation and competition can come back to the market. But none of this will deal with the problem my original post addressed, which is the way our society tethers its people to debt products. If so many people care, so many people wish to be credit card-free, maybe this can change too.
Bryce Covert is Assistant Editor at New Deal 2.0.


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Many of us assume that we consume more calories eating a fast-food meal than eating at a full-service restaurant (what kind of restaurant, can we give an example?), but it turns out that’s not the case. The results of a recent study reveal that full-service meals contain more calories than fast-food as well as offer more vitamins, sodium and cholesterol.
"People usually view fast food as junk food, and blame it for serving an extra intake of calories, sugars and sodium," said study author Ruopeng An, an assistant professor in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "That's often true when compared with eating at home. But we found that when the comparison is with full-service restaurants, fast food is not necessarily worse.” Researchers of the study collected seven years f data from more than 18,000 people, asking them to detail their meals from within the last 24-hour period. The results showed that eating at home is considerably healthier for you than eating fast food or at a full-service restaurant.
So home-cooked wins, once again. What if you just don’t have the time to whip something up? We suggest going the route the experts in the study advise, and that’s taking home restaurant food. By doing this you won’t have access to free extras and seconds—such as breads, sauces and dressings. You’ll also be more likely to combine your meal with healthy stuff from your own fridge and pantry. Are you surprised by this new research? What are you planning for your next meal?


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The 2012 Tokyo Game Show opened for the press on Thursday with over 200 companies exhibiting their latest games. In recent years the spotlight has moved away from gaming consoles towards online gaming as the popularity of smartphones has increased. This was especially evident with online gaming company Gree boasting a huge display while Nintendo was surprisingly absent from the show.
Check out the GaijinPot YouTube Channel for more videos of the Tokyo Game Show.
Lucky to those who get to go!!! Why are the states so far away, lol?!


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When it comes to tech, most travel management companies have focused on improving the user interface or putting in more automated features. Instant messaging hasn’t been high on the list, but thankfully that’s starting to change.
Instant messaging is now a huge part of people’s everyday lives, but corporate travel has been slow to catch up.
American Express Global Business Travel became one of the first major travel management companies to incorporate text messaging into its core offerings after announcing its partnership with Apple Business Chat in November. Starting now, American Express GBT customers will be able to text in real-time with actual travel counselors. The service more closely mimics the way travelers communicate with peers, and even sometimes colleagues, making it an easy sell to clients.
“While it’d be great to have our own business chat, we have a large percentage of our corporate travelers who are using iOS devices,” said Mark McSpadden, vice president of global product strategy for American Express Global Business Travel. “So we saw an opportunity to more quickly bring this functionality to them,”
Smartphones are ubiquitous, especially among the business crowd, and it only makes sense that instant messaging would become a major part of corporate travel. According to McSpadden, the service allows customers to communicate directly with travel counselors when other methods fail, such as when travelers are midflight or when they are involved in meetings.
It also allows for asynchronous conversations — meaning conversations that drop off and pick up again at the same place — something which happens all the time in everyday text communication.
For the most part, however, the perks of instant messaging are pretty obvious. There’s a reason why texting has become one of the most popular ways of communication, especially among younger generations. In fact, McSpadden said that the feedback American Express GBT has gotten on the new product has shown high support for it across all age groups.
Instead, the mystery is why it still hasn’t become more widespread. Nearly every travel management company offers chat tools, but these tools are usually confined to the company app or website, and they often involve bots rather than actual humans.
“We talk a lot about the consumerization of corporate travel technology, and most of the time we’re talking about that from an experience and interface perspective,” said McSpadden. “I think that you see a scattered landscape on how to address the intersection of technology and human touch. So you see a lot of bot stuff out there right now, and people saying that you have to automate everything from day one. We’ve obviously chosen a different path than that.”
More Companies Are Next
CWT currently has developed a chat-based product that has already been tested in the market, with select CWT customers already using it. The tool allows clients to text customer support without having to go through the CWT app or website. Utpal Kaul, global head of new product incubation at CWT, acknowledged that instant messaging tools are still pretty new in the industry, but that he expects this to change very quickly.
“We do anticipate a very, very steep adoption of this, especially as more millennials start traveling,” he said. “It’s really one of those things where we feel the time has come.”
Unlike with American Express GBT’s tool, CWT’s chat feature initially puts travelers in touch with bots. If the bots can’t answer the question, however, the travelers are transferred over to a human counselor. The company aims to make this transition so seamless, travelers will not be able to tell whether they are talking to a bot or a human.
To do this, CWT uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to program the bots to absorb and respond to information the way humans do. This is an extremely difficult process, though, and it’s one of the reasons CWT has waited so long to release this product to market.
Another issue is where this chat is taking place. While many companies are comfortable hosting chat features within their own websites and apps — think that “Can I help you?” chat bubble that pops up when you enter a website — it gets trickier when they try to move that functionality over onto the standard text message service people use to talk to friends on their phones.
“The medium of the chat is very important. A lot of companies have chat on their portal, as do we. A lot of companies have chat available on their app,” said Kaul. “But (texting) is universal, you can communicate globally, and you’re not dependent on any app.”
This poses a problem for travel agencies looking to employ machine learning, since there is less control over the input and output of information on a universal tool. To make matters worse, some corporations do not feel comfortable allowing employees to use tools that are not explicitly within the bounds of the travel policy.
Still, travel management companies throughout the industry are making progress, and soon text messaging should become a common feature of corporate travel.
BCD Travel is even working on a way to allow its travelers to use Facebook Messenger when interacting with customer support. And American Express GBT plans to expand its messaging feature to people who own Androids and other types of non-Apple smartphones.
“We’re definitely looking at continuing to expand channels,” said McSpadden. “We’re even looking at the potential of using corporate messaging apps, whether that be Slack or Microsoft Teams. There’s a lot of potential here.”
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Photo Credit: A business traveler uses her smartphone. American Express Global Business Travel announced a partnership with Apple Business Chat in November. It's one of the first major travel management companies to incorporate text messaging into its core offerings. sinkdd / Flickr


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Apple Starts Decorating McEnery Convention Center Ahead of WWDC [Images]
Apple has started decorating the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose for the WWDC conference. The event kicks off Monday, June 5.
During the WWDC keynote, Apple is expected to unveil iOS 11, macOS 10.13, watchOS 4, and tvOS 11. Moreover, rumors suggest that the company will announce new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro units, the 12-inch MacBook, and possibly the 13-inch MacBook Air. Also, we expect to see the 10.5-inch iPad Pro with thinner display bezels and the Siri Speaker. Chances are, the company will also tease the upcoming Mac Pro and iMac.
You can check out the images showing the decoration process below.
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It’s nice to know we still have politicians in Washington who feel it their duty to be good stewards of the American tax dollar.
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is one of these good stewards (full disclosure: I used to work for the Senator and I remain a big fan!). Today, he released a treasure map of sorts—a map that leads to where your taxpayer dollars are being
wasted spent. Treasure MAP: The Market Access Program’s Bounty of Waste, Loot and Spoils Plundered from Taxpayers highlights more than $2 billion in taxpayer dollars that are being used to pay the advertising costs of U.S. companies doing business overseas through a little-known U.S. Department of Agriculture program called the Market Access Program (MAP). That’s right, you, the beleaguered taxpayer are paying the advertising bills for wealthy corporations.
Among the more bizarre findings the report exposes:
- An almond growing company has received more than$28 million from MAP since 1999 to market its almonds overseas.
- A reality television show filmed in India $20 million.
- An American fruit company has received $34.1 million since 1999.
- California raisin growers received $31.7 million since 1998 to promote branded California raisins, internationally.
- A company specializing in organic hair products for dogs, cats, and horses, including “Boost! Volumizing Spray” and “Freeze! Hair Hold” hair sprays for dogs, received MAP funds to boost sales in the U.S. and overseas.


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March 4, 2013 - American Hockey League (AHL) - St. John's IceCaps
Eighteen lucky St. John's IceCaps fans will have the unique opportunity to watch their team play, alongside Danny Williams in his corporate suite. The IceCaps President and CEO will host select fans on Saturday, March 9th for a "Weekend at Danny's."
Two pairs of tickets are available to fans through the IceCaps' Facebook page and Twitter account and a pair can be won via Glendenning Golf Club's Facebook page. Fans can enter by "liking" the Weekend at Danny's post on the Facebook pages or retweeting the contest tweets on the IceCaps' Twitter account. Customers who shopped at IceCaps Alley last weekend also had an opportunity to enter their name for a pair of tickets. Additionally, three season-ticket holders will have their names drawn randomly for a pair of tickets. In addition to watching all the action with Mr. Williams, IceCaps forward Jason King will be on hand, as will team mascot Buddy the Puffin. Winners will also receive an IceCaps prize package courtesy of IceCaps Alley.
Visit the IceCaps Facebook page at www.facebook.com/StJohnsIceCaps, Glendenning's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/glendenninggolf and follow the IceCaps on Twitter (@IceCapsAHL).
All winners will be randomly selected and notified on Thursday, March 7th.
Of course, this fan contest coincides with FanFest, which will be held the following day, Sunday, March 10th from 1-4 p.m. at Mile One Centre. This event will provide fans with an opportunity to meet their favorite IceCaps players, experience interactive activities and enjoy the carnival style set up. There will be unique NHL, AHL and IceCaps merchandise being raffled throughout the day.
The IceCaps resume their six-game home stand next weekend against the Eastern Conference leading Syracuse Crunch. Catch all the action with broadcaster Brian Rogers at stjohnsicecaps.com and on 930 AM This Is Newfoundland Labrador, or watch online at ahllive.com. Friday's contest can be seen live on Rogers TV. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. with the pregame show getting underway at 7:00.


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The homepage of Virtual Property Expo 2021.
Event organiser Rightman Co and digital marketing group YDM (Thailand) aim to achieve 5 billion baht in sales at a four-day virtual property expo which costs a fraction of a traditional brick-and-mortar fair.
Kampol Nisitsukcharoen, vice-president of event organiser Rightman Co, said that expos are one of the most powerful marketing tools as they can generate high sales volumes from one place where a large number of exhibitors and buyers congregate.
“Exhibitions might be halted by the pandemic shutdowns, so every business needs to move on amid the unpredictable, struggling times,” he said. “As volume makes an impact, we will hold a virtual expo for Thai properties to boost sales online.”
Virtual Property Expo 2021, through www.propertyexpo.net, will be a virtual trade fair where developers and buyers can meet online with the same functions as a brick-and-mortar fair.
One virtual booth for one project will cost 80,000 baht, compared with 400,000-500,000 baht for a physical booth at a fair.
The virtual booth will provide a room where up to 100 visitors can meet sales representatives, who can log on from anywhere and have a real-time live chat with customers.
Ten additional private rooms will be provided for a private VDO call.
The event will be held from Oct 14-17 this year, from 10am to 10pm.
“This is a good chance to boost sales in the fourth quarter,” said Mr Kampol. “Return on investment for joining a virtual expo is higher than conducting online marketing on its own.”
Over the past two weeks, the company has promoted the virtual expo among large developers.
At least 10 of them bought five to 10 booths each for a total of 80-100 projects so far.
The organiser expects to host 300 projects and achieve sales of 5 billion baht.
“We plan to do it annually in the early fourth quarter and will expand to overseas markets next year as foreign buyers are a huge market, particularly those from China,” Mr Kampol said.
Thanapon Subsomboon, chief executive of YDM, said online promotion and marketing costs on popular platforms like Facebook and Google have soared as many developers shifted to digital channels during the lockdowns of the past 18 months.
“If developers use the same keyword, they have to bid the prices,” he said. “Social media and influencers come with high prices and non-focus marketing.”
Through precision marketing, the company has a digital platform to collect big data to draw real demand and those truly interested in the project, with around 580,000 on the list.
In June last year, Rightman, YDM and tech company Happenn established Virtual Solution Co, in which they own 40%, 30% and 30% stakes, respectively.
Virtual Solution held expos for Motor Show 2021 and Thailand Science Research and Innovation and an annual meeting for the Metropolitan Electricity Authority.


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Attila Melegh ’19 has been selected by the Blackstone LaunchPad as Syracuse University’s Dorm Room Fund campus ambassador for the 2018 – 2019 academic year.
The Dorm Room Fund provides mentoring to the most promising student startups launched at Syracuse University, and will also consider investment ready student ventures for seed funding. Dorm Room Fund made its first Syracuse investment this year in Power-Spike, a student venture co-founded by AJ Damiano ’18 (Whitman) and Michael Paris ’20 (VPA Communications Design).
The Syracuse University Blackstone LaunchPad was accepted last year into the Dorm Room Fund Campus Organization Network (DRFCON), backed by First Round Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that provided seed-stage funding to technology companies such as Uber, Square and Warby Parker.
First Round provides seed-stage funding and focuses on portfolio companies’ growth during their first 18 months. It has offices in San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York. Fortune Magazine dubbed it the most connected venture network in the Silicon Valley. In 2012, the firm launched and funded Dorm Room Fund for college startups. Since launching, DRF has invested in 150 startups where at least one person on the founding team is a student (undergraduate or graduate). Those ventures have gone to raise $300 million from partner funds.
As DRF campus ambassador at Syracuse, Melegh will work with Blackstone LaunchPad student startups on methods to test their concepts through customer discovery, and build go-to market strategies, and coordinate DRF conversations with founders.
Melegh, from Seattle, is a College of Engineering and Computer Science aerospace major and physics minor. He is also a student entrepreneur with impressive traction. He is founder of Indūlo, an augmented reality platform powered by deep learning algorithms, that allows users to try on accessories such as eyewear (and eventually full-body fashion and accessories), to create an interactive experience that simulates the real-world “augmented” by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities.
Melegh’s working prototype is already more sophisticated than anything else in the market, he says. He is in discussion with major brands about launching a beta project in conjunction with Cyber Monday, and is already actively discussing letters of interest from premium eyewear fashion leaders.
He has also been in discussion with Dorm Room Fund about seed funding, and was recently accepted into YC StartupSchool.
Startup School is a competitive online course to help guide startup founders through the earliest, most difficult challenges of starting a company. This year, for the first time ever, Startup School will give $10,000 in equity-free funding to 100 of the most promising companies that join and complete the course. Those companies will also receive a video interview with a YC partner and a chance to apply to a future YC batch. Faculty include YC co-founder Paul Graham, YC Partners like President Sam Altman and CEO Michael Seibel, as well as notable founders from the startup community.
“I didn’t plan on becoming an entrepreneur,” he says candidly, when describing his own journey. “I saw a problem. I created a solution. Now I am bringing it to the world.”
His advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs is simple but powerful. “Prove your idea. Talk to customers. Make sure it is something that can be big. Make it exciting. Then go out and build it.” It’s the path he has followed, with the best advice he received from advisors who are industry leaders. “Just do it.”
As he works with entrepreneurs to help prepare them for diligence through Dorm Room Fund, he will be looking for similar qualities in student startups. “I have a bias toward action on the part of a founder.” He’s also seeking intelligence, “Not just in the conventional sense, but also in the intuitive sense — someone who can learn quickly, figure out how to get information, make connections, and execute quickly.”
Those qualities are also valued by DRF. Syracuse University student startups are described by many as “bootstrapping, scrappy and very, very smart.”
DRF will work with the Blackstone LaunchPad to offer DRF-hosted sessions for Syracuse startups, with a schedule established in conjunction with the Blackstone LaunchPad and Melegh. The format will be 20-minute calls with a DRF partner to provide feedback. Mentorship will be provided through the LaunchPad and the DRF campus ambassador.
To learn more or make an appointment, e-mail email@example.com


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SpaceX raised a fresh round of funding as the company led by Elon Musk pushes forward with multibillion-dollar projects and faces rising costs.
The company has raised at least $1.5 billion in its latest funding round, according to an investor. The financing values SpaceX at around $125 billion, the investor said. Last year, the company was valued at $100 billion, according to researcher PitchBook.
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Rhode Island breweries continue to fight for the ability to sell more beer from their taprooms for offsite consumption with two new pieces of legislation making their way through the chambers of the State House.
Update March 8, 2021: The RI Senate will conduct a hearing on its own version of Rep. Caldwell’s bill (S199) on Wednesday, March 10 at 5 p.m. This bill is also seeking to increase to-go beer sales limits to 10 cases per person for breweries producing less than 7,500 barrels per year.
In July 2019, RI beer lovers rejoiced when former Governor Gina Raimondo signed a bill to increase the limits for off-premise sales from 288 oz. to one case of 12 oz. cans or bottles (24 total) or one case of 16 oz. cans or bottles (24 total).
A new bill filed by Rep. Justine Caldwell (D-Dist. 30, East Greenwich, West Greenwich) seeks to increase those limits even further for brewers manufacturing less than 7,500 barrels per year. The proposed limit for those breweries is “10 cases or equivalent per person, per day.”
The proposal’s received a lot of local support from brewers, including Tilted Barn Brewery, which testified before the House Small Business Committee in favor of it and helped raise awareness through social media posts last month.
Another bill filed by Rep. David Place (R-Dist. 47, Burrillville, Glocester) proposes an across the board increase of off-premise sales limits from the current 24 12 oz. or 16 oz. bottles or cans to 55 12 oz. and 41 16 oz. bottles and cans. Based on volume, this proposal would allow for 656-660 oz. of beer to be sold to a single person per day.
While this more than doubles the max number of growlers a person can take home, it still limits most buyers to less than two cases of beer since most breweries sell 16 oz. cans.
|Current off-premise sales limits||Rep. Place’s proposal|
|24 12-oz. cans or bottles||55 12-oz. cans or bottles|
|24 16-oz. cans or bottles||41 16-oz. cans or bottles|
|4 64-oz. growlers||10 64-oz. growlers|
|9 32-oz. growlers/crowlers||20 32-oz. growlers/crowlers|
Both bills were tabled for further review but Tilted Barn’s Matt Richardson posted he was feeling positive following the committee hearing.
“Virtually all of the groups who were planning to oppose it backed down due to the support shown for the bill. The committee did not vote on it last night but the hearing went great. They even noted the massive amount of comments emails, phone calls, and written testimony they received on the bill. Talks are ongoing right now and we are hoping for a vote in the near future and promise to keep everyone posted.”Matt Richardson, Tilted Barn Brewery via Instagram
There’s no current timeline for when the legislation may move along, but it’s a sign of forward thinking by lawmakers for the local craft beer industry.


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MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law the rice tariffication bill, his spokesperson Salvador Panelo said on Friday.
The law will replace the present quotas on rice imports with tax.
Local farmers had opposed the rice tariffication bill, fearing it would flood the market with cheaper rice from abroad.
The law will also reduce government's role in rice importation and lead to more rice imports by the private sector.
Duterte had certified the bill as urgent as it is expected to result in lower rice prices and help tame inflation.
He had said the measure would address the urgent need to improve availability of rice in the country, prevent artificial rice shortages, reduce the prices of rice in the market, and curtail corruption and cartel domination in the rice industry.
To assist local farmers who are expected to be hit by the removal of rice import restrictions, the measure provides for a rice competitiveness enhancement fund or “rice fund.”
Finance Assistant Secretary Tony Lambino earlier said the measure is key to bringing down rice prices by P2 to P7 per kilo.
He said imposing tariffs on rice would result in slower inflation, and provide government with more funds to support farmers.
He said the central bank estimates the measure could cut inflation rate by 0.7 percentage point in 2019.
Aside from closely monitoring the implementation of the new law, the government should also craft measures to "temper the impact" of its tax reform law, said opposition Sen. Francis Pangilinan, who previously headed the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food.
"Fuel price increases have pushed prices of commodities up and brought extra cost to the farmers, who are now spending more for transportation cost," said Pangilinan, who served as former President Benigno Aquino III's Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization.
"Without tempering the impact of the TRAIN Law on the farmers and the industry, then the farmers and the industry would face a double whammy that would imperil their existence," he said.
Rodrigo Duterte, Rice Tariffication Law, importation, WTO, rice shortage, agriculture, trade, tariffs,


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Last Friday, Tesla rolled out an update for its autonomous driving software that includes “Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control” capabilities. The latest Autopilot version enables vehicles to stop independently at traffic lights. However, according to driver reports, the new functionality does not always work as intended.
Some Tesla owners have noticed their cars slowing down when approaching green lights. Many have posted video evidence on social media. One driver’s footage even showed the vehicle slowing to a 6-mph crawl while nearing a green light.
According to Tesla, the recent update is still in “beta” testing, which may explain the unanticipated consequences. The company aims to improve the underlying artificial intelligence algorithm over time as it collects more data from the field.
How the Update is Supposed to Work
When working correctly, the Autopilot upgrade displays a visual prompt on user dashboards as the car approaches an intersection. The message initially reads, “Stopping for traffic control in 300 ft. Use accelerator or cruise stalk to continue,” and appears to update the distance as the vehicle gets closer.
Still, Tesla warns drivers to pay attention. After installing the update, the in-car console displays text telling passengers to be ready at any time to take immediate action. The message also articulates the conservative nature of the feature, which makes sense, given that it is still officially in the testing phase.
“This feature will be conservative, slowdown often at first, and will not attempt to turn through intersections,” explains the console display.
Safety Still the Top Concern
Although the green light slowdowns appear relatively harmless, many are concerned about how other drivers will react. Duke professor, Missy Cummings, cautions that slowing vehicles can pose dangers to human drivers who don’t expect that to happen.
In general, she is wary of drivers using an autonomous system that isn’t 100 percent reliable. “There’s no upside to this software,” she warns. “There’s a capability being released to the general public that’s known to have significant defects.”
Professor Cummings’ concerns bring to light the questions that regulators need to answer regarding appropriate autonomous driving software testing. Other experts, like Paul Godsmark of CAVCOE, believe the new Tesla feature will lead to complacent drivers and subsequent crashes, revealing the many complex safety dimensions of self-driving cars.
The Elon Musk Way
Tesla’s iterative approach to software development is nothing new. Going back to 2016, we can find tweets from Musk about Autopilot versions that were still in “beta” after public launch.
Ultimately, the eccentric CEO believes his approach is the best path to achieving completely safe, self-driving cars. Tesla has always been the one to push the limits and break new ground, which has perhaps paved the way for other models. Tesla’s competitors, like Waymo and Cruise, rely instead on virtual simulations and test fleets that use professional drivers to gather field intelligence.
In the grand scheme of things, the autonomous driving wars are only beginning. There’s a long way to go before any single company is ready to roll out the technology at scale. Until then, we may see a Tesla or two sitting quietly at a green light.


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U.S. employers resumed hiring in January, but the weak pace of job gains suggested a long road remains for the recovery.
The U.S. economy added 49,000 jobs last month. The small gain came after payrolls fell steeply in December, the first decline since the coronavirus pandemic triggered business shutdowns last spring. The unemployment rate fell to 6.3% in January from 6.7% a month earlier, in part reflecting fewer people searching for jobs.
“The recovery is only stumbling along at this point,” said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities. “Yes, we managed to eke out a gain, but we’re still 9.9 million jobs shy of where we were back in February” of last year before the pandemic hit hard, she said.
Jobs grew strongly in business and professional services, mainly in temporary help roles, the Labor Department said in its January report on U.S. employment. Many sectors, though, lost jobs last month. The leisure and hospitality sector shed 61,000 jobs, following a steep decline of 536,000 in December. Retailers and warehouses cut jobs in January after adding jobs strongly over the holidays.
The unemployment rate decline in January was driven by two factors. More people dropped out of the labor force—meaning they weren’t actively looking for a job and may have grown frustrated with their employment prospects. Also, the number of people reporting themselves as employed increased, consistent with a generally upward trend in hiring since last spring.
U.S. stocks rose after the jobs figures were released, as investors considered whether lackluster January gains could improve the chance of additional federal pandemic relief.
met Friday with top House Democrats ahead of a vote to advance his $1.9 trillion relief package, following an earlier Senate vote. Republicans have pressed for a smaller plan.
“It’s very clear our economy is still in trouble,” Mr. Biden said Friday, referencing the millions of people out of work.
A separate Commerce Department report showed the U.S. trade balance with China improved last year, narrowing by 10% to $310.08 billion as the U.S. exported more goods such as soybeans, crude oil, corn and cotton to the country. China still accounts for nearly half of the overall U.S. trade deficit, and friction over trade between the two countries is expected to continue in the Biden administration.
The broader economic recovery stalled significantly this winter. Unemployment claims, a proxy for layoffs, have remained above pre-pandemic levels. Consumers cut back on spending, as some were wary of leaving their homes as virus cases surged. Others wanted to shop and dine out, but had limited options.
Late last year, many states and local governments mandated that businesses like restaurants close or reduce operations to combat rising numbers of virus cases. Some places have recently loosened those restrictions. Throughout much of the recovery, positive areas have included manufacturing, with companies reporting increased demand for goods and new hiring, and housing, where low interest rates and the pandemic have boosted home sales.
Economists see the winter lull as temporary. They expect growth to pick up later this year as more people get vaccinated and business restrictions further ease. Many economists also say the economy could benefit from further government stimulus.
Employment at restaurants and bars has been particularly hard hit this winter. The sector cut jobs in January for the third straight month, though last month’s decline was much less steep than December’s. Warmer temperatures will likely help lift the industry in the coming months.
“When the sun comes out down here, and we can get some people out on some patios, we’re going to do a lot better,” said Chris Hall, operating partner for an Atlanta-area restaurant group that includes a deli, a bar, a contemporary American restaurant and a pizza place.
Mr. Hall said his restaurants rehired workers after reopening from temporary closures last spring, but overall staffing levels have hovered near 75% of pre-coronavirus levels since the summer.
“This winter has gotten scary,” he said. The restaurants’ patios are closed and customers remain cautious to dine out amid high virus counts, Mr. Hall said. He recently sent out a message to a group of “die-hard” customers, encouraging them to come support business during a tough winter for sales.
A strong community of customers has helped Mr. Hall’s restaurants survive the pandemic so far, he added.
Friday’s report showed that hiring at public schools and colleges was a bright spot in January, adding a combined 85,000 jobs. Private schools added 34,000 jobs. The Labor Department noted that those figures could be distorted because the pandemic has caused schools to divert from their normal hiring patterns.
Manufacturing, warehousing and construction lost jobs in January. Sectors that build and deliver goods have fared well throughout much of the pandemic but are in some cases confronting labor shortages.
Consumers have been ramping up orders of items to spruce up their homes, aiding growth at United Solutions Inc. The 665-person manufacturer produces trash and recycling bins, plastic storage and paint buckets out of plants in Massachusetts and Mississippi.
It hired 56 workers in January and is seeking to add 100 more employees to its warehouse and factory floors to meet customer demand, said David Reilly, chief executive of the manufacturer.
“We’re just trying everywhere to find the right people,” Mr. Reilly said. “It’s a challenge.”
To attract and retain workers, the company raised starting wages for factory workers by $2 over the past six months to $14 an hour. It is airing job ads on the radio and participating in virtual job fairs. The company is also converting many temporary workers—formerly the bulk of its workforce—to permanent positions.
Companies might struggle to find workers in part because the share of people seeking work remains depressed. The labor-force participation rate was 61.4% in January, down from 63.3% in February 2020, before the virus hit. Some people aren’t looking for work out of fear of contracting the virus. Others are burdened by increased child-care responsibilities or discouraged by limited job opportunities.
The U.S. continues to face challenges to achieving a full economic recovery. More-transmissible variants of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, could keep businesses closed longer. Nearly a quarter of unvaccinated adults said in a Census Bureau survey they won’t get the Covid-19 vaccine, potentially delaying herd-immunity prospects and business reopenings.
Many workers are facing long spells of unemployment. Just over four million people were out of work for 27 weeks or longer in January, the Labor Department said, compared with nearly 1.2 million a year ago. Others who lost their jobs earlier in the virus crisis have regained employment, but at much lower wages.
Danielle Robillard, 55 years old, of Troutdale, Ore., was furloughed as a team lead at a corporate travel agency in April. Her job loss turned permanent in September, when she opted to take a company severance package.
The WSJ Jobs Summit
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She ramped up her job search and was hired in October as an associate expert at
where she answers customers’ questions on phone bills and payment plans. Her new position pays $14.75 an hour, or about half her previous wage, leaving her stretched financially.
“If it was enough to pay my mortgage, I wouldn’t be so terrified,” Ms. Robillard said. Her husband works as a restaurant cook, which means his employment is insecure until vaccines are widely distributed, she added.
Ms. Robillard continues to seek a new job both within and outside of her current company. “The problem is that half the country is looking for a job,” she said.
—Eric Morath contributed to this article.
Write to Sarah Chaney Cambon at email@example.com
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
— to www.wsj.com


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Whenever you find a better way to do things…shouldn’t you take it?
Well, The SimpleFitness Gadget Bundle is a health tracking solution designed to collect your weight, activity level and sleep information automatically. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for 35% off the regular price: only $129.99.
Our fearless commander-in-chief Leander Kahney is a strange cuckoo. He is, of course, a dashing and famous technology journalist par example, while his family is inexplicably a bunch of Luddites.
So check out what happened when Leander tried to coach someone in his family how to set up an extra Airport Extreme base station over the phone. No matter how many times he explained how to do it, it wouldn’t work… so Leander drove over to see what the problem was. This is what he saw.
What’s the most ridiculous tech support problem you’ve had to solve for a family member? Let us know in the comments.
This image of an AT&T van parked outside an Apple store in San Francisco has sparked speculation over whether or not the upcoming fifth-generation iPhone will have 4G/LTE capabilities. Why? Because that Apple store is closed for refurbishment, set to reopen on October 5 — a day after the rumored unveiling of Apple’s new iPhone — and is thought to be having AT&T’s LTE base stations installed inside
Apple’s current AirPort Express portable base station has been continued, according to a new report — making way for a second-generation device which is expected to appear imminently. The current model (MB321LL/A) can no longer be purchased from a number of third-party resellers.


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“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” If you watched Peter Finch make this dramatic declaration in the movie “Network” more than a generation ago, this column is for you.
If you saw it streaming or online, you’re probably too young and don’t have the financial resources to buy a new recreational boat or you’re not in a position with enough seniority to direct a corporate marketing strategy.
Why draw a line in the sand? Because it seems nearly every day I am bombarded with yet another article in a newspaper, magazine, online or on television about the importance of millennials. We’re told that this generation, born beginning in 1982 and also known as Generation Y or the echo boomers, is the market that marketers should be marketing to.
Although that may be true for apparel, bicycles and smartphones, I wouldn’t bet the bank or the marketing budget on this generation just yet if you’re in the business of selling powerboats, associated equipment and services.
The fact is that the oldest millennial is a mere 32 and not in a position to buy enough stuff to turn our industry around anytime soon.
The other fact is that the youngest baby boomer turned 50 in 2014 and the oldest is 68. As a card-carrying member of this generation and a veteran of a week at Woodstock, I can honestly say that I don’t think there are enough boomers left, especially after the Great Recession, who are going to plunk down five to six figures on a new boat.
Many have kids on the eight-year college plan, some have parents who are still alive and most need to keep putting something away for their own retirement because everyone is telling them that they’re going to live a lot longer than they ever had reason to believe.
The sad fact is that neither of these much-touted generations is going to move the needle sufficiently to get the boating business back on its feet. Sure, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is only 30 and many of the newly minted techies in Silicon Valley are that age or younger, but these geeks are more apt to lease an expensive product, such as a Tesla, than buy it outright, or to rent a Zipcar or arrange a vacation through airbnb.com than buy a timeshare.
Instead, it’s high time we take a serious look at the forgotten members of Generation X, those born from 1965 to 1980 and who are now 34 to 49. In my view, this MTV generation represents the sweet spot for the immediate future of the recreational boating industry. How these Gen Xers respond to marketing techniques and how they differ from boomers and millennials and what you can do to tailor your marketing strategy to them is worth reviewing.
To begin, we need to clarify one common misperception regarding Generation X. Although it is true that the number of Americans born into this generation is fewer than that of the baby boom or millennial generations, immigration has leveled the generational gap to the point that the actual size differential is much less meaningful for marketing purposes.
In her book “Marketing to Generation X,” author Karen Ritchie notes that “Xers came of age in a world radically different from the one that boomers inherited.” Consequently, boomers who are still calling the shots in many parts of the marine industry must take into account that Gen Xers have a different way of looking at the world. Marketing strategies that worked for boomers are not necessarily going to succeed with Gen Xers.
According to author Jay Ehret, who writes the blog The Marketing Spot, “Gen Xers are more diverse than previous generations in terms of race, class, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation. They are more likely to be the children of divorced parents than previous generations. Statistically, they have the highest education levels. Gen Xers make less money individually in real dollars than their parents did, but have higher household income because of more women in the workforce.”
Although there is a general consensus that Gen Xers are more skeptical (some would say cynical) than their predecessors, they are also considered to be more technologically savvy than boomers. That said, many of their careers were just taking off when the dot-com boom and bust of 1999-2001 hit.
Generation X is the “Show Me” generation. They believe actions over words. When you develop a marketing strategy to reach Gen Xers, here are a number of insights to consider, according to an article in the Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business by Kaylene C. Williams and Robert A. Page:
• Gen Xers want plenty of information before making a purchasing decision.
• It is more effective to approach them as a consultant than as a seller.
• You must show them that you know what you are talking about.
• They prefer an informal communication style.
• Be frank and use straightforward facts, candor and honesty.
• Use short sound bites to keep their attention.
• They do not respond well to slick marketing pitches because they are skeptical of modern advertising.
According to the consulting firm ROCG Global, “Gen Xers can be reached via direct channels such as direct mail, email, infomercials, telemarketing and the Internet, but their approach is to treat what they find there as information that will help them make a decision, to find out what’s going on in the marketplace and to contrast and compare as many sources as possible to arrive at the right thing to do. What they don’t do is take direct marketing at its face value or just use it to buy something.”
Ehret emphasizes that Gen Xers like to research while shopping online. They read more reviews and visit more opinion sites. This would suggest a couple of tactics, such as ramping up one’s presence on opinion websites, striving for excellent customer service, correcting mistakes as soon as they happen, offering money-back guarantees and using keyword search engine advertising.
ROCG notes, however, that “marketing resistance, particularly to direct marketing, is at an all-time high and members of Gen X are among the most aggressive at rejecting intrusive marketing and resentful of saturation — what’s more they have the knowledge, sophistication, technology and willingness to disconnect themselves from marketers when they feel aggrieved.”
The bottom line: Although I’m not saying your marketing efforts should be solely focused on Gen X, I am suggesting that for the next five years or so — as boomers fade away and millennials come into their own — that the marine industry should put its marketing efforts into reaching out to this much underappreciated generation.
At the same time, the boating industry should take note of a strategic partnership recently announced between Brunswick and Boatbound, the airbnb-like service that connects boat owners with those wishing to rent a boat. I am convinced that boating needs to have more options than simply hoping that consumers — regardless of their generation — will fork over tens of thousands of dollars to give boating a try.
Brunswick should be congratulated for taking this giant step. That said, just how Brunswick moves to develop and monetize this partnership and what the other players in this potentially game-changing arena do will be interesting to watch and may well be a harbinger.
Michael Sciulla is president of Credibility & Company Communications, as well as vice president of the Marine Marketers of America and a member of the board of directors of both Boating Writers International and the Marine Marketers of America. During a 28-year career at BoatUS he built the association’s brand as membership grew from 30,000 to 650,000.
This article originally appeared in the May 2014 issue.


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This country is flooded with contraband goods.
Because of corruption and impunity, the government is unable to keep a tight reign on contraband dealers.
With the new revelations that there is contraband sugar that is in circulation in the country, a lot of people are in danger of contracting strange illnesses. As long as a product is already labeled “Not for human consumption,” there shouldn’t be any imaginations that it can be consumed.
It is sad that Kenyans are consuming an unknown number of commodities that are always so-labeled after production, yet packaged in misleading bags by deceitful dealers.
The prominent sellers of contraband products are supermarkets. A lot of goods that flood the shelves of Kenyan supermarkets are arcanely contraband. For example, most of the honey sold in these supermarkets are often not pure honey although the labels would say so.
The recently exposed contraband version of Kabras sugar now makes everyone question the genuineness of any bag of Kabras Sugar in any supermarket countrywide. Needless to say is the fact that there are certain commodities such as the very sugar and rice which some supermarkets use their brands for packaging. Because of the trust that customers have in them, they can just decide to sell foodstuffs that are unfit for human consumption in packages that they brand.
The biggest loser in this invasion of contraband goods especially foodstuffs or ingredients for human food is the rich and the middle class. These often go to high-end restaurants some of which have notoriously bribed the various bodies that are in charge of standardization of goods. Once a contraband ingredient, for example, the now infamous Kabras Sugar, is used to prepare food, the person who eats it is exposed to unknown kinds of health-related complications
All the government watchdogs have been compromised so badly that citizens are now exposed to uncountable health risks when the health ministry has already been looted dry. What a doomed nation!


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Thursday, December 4, 2014
Today's event is a real page-turner: The Observer's ever-energetic Jennifer Rothacker has set up a huge event with local authors ready to sell and sign (sign and sell?) their books at the Mint Museum uptown, 500 S. Tryon St.
It's a pretty high-flying group of authors, including novelists Kathy Reich and Jason Mott, And it includes a few food books: Lisa Leake will be there with "100 Days of Real Food," and I'll be there with "Pecans" and "Bourbon" from the Savor the South cookbook series.
At noon in the Mint auditorium, Dannye Romine Powell will moderate a chat on what it takes to become a best-selling author with Leake, Reichs ("Bones Never Lie"), Mott ("The Wonder of All Things") and Charla Muller ("Pretty Takes Practice.")
The authors and their books are all available from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Mint's atrium. The whole event is free, except for the cost of all those books you buy; seating for the noon talk is first-come, first-seated. And if you buy a book, you get a one-day 50% discount on museum admission and a 10 percent discount on lunch at Halcyon, the museum restaurant.
Details and the full list of authors: Right here.
Posted by Kathleen Purvis at 9:29 AM


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Firm to reward fans with trip to England for Premier League match
Guiness Nigeria is set to give 20 super-fans a chance to express their love for the game of football with an all-expense paid trip to watch a live game in England.
For over 100 years, Guinness has held the hands of football fans from Ireland to Nigeria, in times of heightened emotions, community building and audacious celebrations.
The rise of Guinness’ Black Shines Brightest Campaign and its status as the perfect accompaniment for football moments presents the opportunity for the brand to beam the spotlight on football fans.
Speaking on the launch of this campaign, the Marketing and Innovation Director, Mark Mugisha, said five winners will be picked weekly for a period of four weeks and announced on social media.
According to him, football is a global sport with an estimated five billion fans around the world and Nigeria represents one of its largest fan bases.
He added that the firm is proud to be a longstanding passionate supporter of the beautiful game and excited about its role in helping consumers and fans of football create beautiful experiences, whilst rewarding them for their passion for the great game.
Mugisha said 20 Nigerian super-fans Mugisha would receive the experience of a lifetime via an all-expense paid trip to see a live English Premiere League game on Boxing Day.
He added that to take part, football fans should keep up with more Guinness excitement by following @GuinnessNGR on Instagram and Twitter or Guinness Nigeria Facebook as well as join the conversation with #DearFootballFans on social media.
Mugisha added that five winners will be selected weekly for a period of four weeks and announced on social media.


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Changes to Programme
Amendments to the entry list:
Mazda MX-5 SuperCup
Number change: Adrian Burge – Will now Race as #790, not #71
and will be in Invitation Class
Nankang Tyre BMW Compact Cup
Car #4, Ray McDowall has withdrawn from the meeting.
Car #217, Steven Somerville, is a late entry.
BRSCC ClubSport Trophy
Car #81, Keith Issatt, has withdrawn from the meeting.
Car #550, Thomas Mallett, has withdrawn from the meeting.
Car #42 will only have one driver, Richard Daniels.
Zeo Sport Prototypes
Class Change: Car #77, Charles Hall, will be in Class B, not Class D.
Car #28, Jason Rishover, is a late entry and will be in Class B
Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship
Car #28 – Chris Watts has withdrawn from the meeting
Car 450 Richard Wain Invitation Class
Mazda MX-5 Championship
Car #33 – Jason Greatrex has withdrawn from the meeting.


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- Half (48%) of parents will stop to consider a lender’s impact on the environment when applying for a loan, with only one in 10 (12%) highly unlikely to do so
- Over a third (36%) of borrowers will scrutinise a lender’s green credentials, rising to three in five (58%) among young borrowers aged 16 to 24 years old
- Three in five people now say a lender’s track record on the environment is important, rivalling price, quality of service, and regulatory adherence when choosing between lenders
Consumers are placing a significant emphasis on the sustainability credentials of UK lenders when choosing where to take out a loan, with parents and younger generations most likely to look for evidence of positive action on the environment when applying. That is according to research from leading UK financial services provider Novuna, which sought the opinions of over 2,000 consumers for the study into green borrowing behaviours*.
A third (36%) of all UK adults will now weigh up the green credentials of a financial services provider before taking out an unsecured loan, such as a personal loan or credit card. And it is parents with children under 17 years old who are driving this shift, with 48% showing their concern for future generations by taking environmental factors into account.
This trend is also being felt among the younger generation, who are far more likely to vote with their wallet, eschewing brands they deem not to be operating sustainability or ethically. Three in five (58%) 16–24-year-olds report that they will look at a lender’s track record on green issues before applying for a loan, and half (49%) of 25-34 year olds share this sentiment. Unsurprisingly, it is the older age groups who are less likely to be swayed, with 30% of 45–55-year-olds saying they would take this particular track record into consideration, and just a fifth (22%) of 55–75-year-olds.
The research also shone a light on both the benefits that borrowers believe their decision-making is having on the planet, and a general sense of approval of their lender’s green policies. Two in five (42%) believe that their choice of financial services provider has a positive impact on the environment, with just 5% believing it results in a negative impact, implying a positive consensus among borrowers of the industry’s green credentials. Again, it is those with children for whom this sentiment is more front of mind, with half (53%) of parents believing they are making a positive impact.
Borrowers have historically based their decision-making on price, the quality of customer service, and regulatory oversight, but the research demonstrated how a lender’s track record on the environment is now a similarly major concern. When asked about their main priorities when choosing to take out an unsecured loan from a financial provider, over a quarter (26%) of UK adults said environmental standing as a very important factor, with 60% considering it an important factor. Conversely, just 10% said it carries no importance.
Of particular interest will be the changing priorities of the older generations, which tend to be those in the highest income categories and with the biggest spending power.
Theresa Lindsay, Group Marketing Director at Novuna, said: “Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the impact their spending habits have on the environment, which is extending beyond physical goods and into their choice of finance provider, which is a really positive move. Despite the younger generations setting the benchmark for these green finance habits, the research demonstrated the challenge when it comes to harnessing the power of the grey pound and convincing these consumers that their financial choices really can drive environmental change.
“Whilst there is bound to be a shift in focus in the current climate with the cost-of-living pressures, it’s vital that the finance industry doesn’t lose sight of the growing trend among consumers to vote with their wallet to deliver positive change.”
Notes to Editors
*The survey was conducted by Ipsos Mori on behalf of Novuna (at the time branded as Hitachi Capital) in December 2021. A total of 2,100 British adults between the ages of 16-75 were surveyed. Respondents were asked a series a questions about their attitudes towards the importance of a financial services provider’s environmental credentials.


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On the surface, Coca-Cola (KO -0.89%) continues to reel from declining soda consumption, particularly diet soda.
With sparkling beverages accounting for three-quarters of Coke's annual revenue last year, global volume growth managed only a 1% increase in the first quarter thanks to six additional selling days and the inclusion of the Easter holiday.
With uncertainty still bubbling up, investors are right to question whether the beverage giant's stock is still a buy. However, Coke can still leverage several important catalysts into future growth. Here are three good reasons why it might just succeed.
1. Global growth initiatives
While North America is still Coca-Cola's largest soft drinks market, representing 47% of total revenue last year, it's also one of its most mature. This continent is also where it's enduring some of the worst falloff in business. With unit case volumes coming in flat in the first quarter due to a 1% decline in sparkling beverages, the company needs to look elsewhere.
Volume growth remained robust in the Asia-Pacific region, where sparkling beverage volume rose 6%, as well as Eurasia and Africa, where it was 4% higher, but economic and political unrest in promising developing markets such as Russia and Brazil are headwinds for Coca-Cola. It also faces sluggishness in Japan and China, and currency headwinds everywhere are dragging down performance.
But the company is still investing in all regions as it anticipates future growth, and productivity initiatives launched last October have Coca-Cola expecting to realize $3 billion in annualized savings by 2019. If calm and stability return to its foreign markets, the beverage giant can build on its global value share gains even during this time of upheaval.
2. Innovative partnerships
Cooperative growth also seems to be helping Coca-Cola maintain its leadership position. It just completed a previously announced strategic partnership with Monster Beverage that gives Coca-Cola a 16.7% stake in the energy drink maker.
In addition to Coke becoming Monster's preferred global distribution partner, Big Red is transferring a dozen of its energy drink brands to Monster while claiming Hansen's Natural Sodas, Hansen's Juice Products, Peace Tea, and Hubert's Lemonade from its new partner.
This is in addition to Coke's alliance with Keurig Green Mountain and the launch of a branded Keurig at-home cold beverage system later this year.
Yet there are risks aplenty. For example, while energy drinks are a fast-growing segment of the beverage market, they're also under investigation by federal regulators due to alleged health risks. And Keurig might have hampered the rollout of its new drinks system by pricing it out of the reach of most consumers.
3. Transformative changes
The same people who led a mini-revolt last year against Coca-Cola's board of directors for the gold-plated compensation package handed to CEO Muhtar Kent have also been agitating for the beverage giant to initiate "transformative strategies."
Wintergreen Advisers says those anticipated $3 billion in annual savings are much too conservative for a company with over $17 billion in sales, general, and administrative expenses. It criticizes management for squandering billions of dollars when it invested in Coca-Cola Enterprises' North American bottling assets, and it's none too happy with the partnerships with Monster and Keurig.
Instead, it believes Coca-Cola needs a dramatic overhaul, with a new board of directors if necessary. The investor points to what H.J. Heinz engineered last year when it went private and then made a play for Kraft Foods in March. Only by doing something big like that, the argument goes, can Coca-Cola break free from its grow-slow rut.
What it could mean for investors
CEO Kent has called 2015 a year of transition, but it needn't be a long, drawn-out affair. Coca-Cola remains a brand powerhouse with nearly two dozen beverages that each generate $1 billion or more a year in revenue, and more than a baker's dozen waiting in the wings to join them.
Even if it doesn't pursue a major shake-up like that envisioned by Wintergreen Advisers, Coca-Cola has the assets needed to keep driving sales and market share forward -- growth that could drive up the value of its stock.