Archive Category: Money & Finance
Wanted: “People-Effective” Person for $197,000 Job
Psst, want a £119,000 job? (That’s US$197,000 for us Yanks) The job of "Director of Organisation Development" in Yorkshire can be yours … if only you can decipher the want ad:
Huddersfield-based Kirklees Council’s job description mangled the language with phrases like "cross functional experience" and "people effective".
The council advertised the position as "a key leadership role that will help make a complex organisation increasingly confident, energetic and focused as it delivers the outcomes that the Kirklees communities require".
It said the successful candidate would be "a leader with presence, passion and panache" who would "play a key role in ensuring the effective integration of national, regional and local drivers".
Another impenetrable passage warns that the new director will face the challenge of making sure "that the diversity of Kirklees is understood by all in the organisation; is valued as a strength but a strength that challenges us to respond to its complex implications; and is reflected in the career structures within the organisation".
Comment (12)
Permalink
Please share:  email
this 
|
Currency Collages
Artist Mark Wagner takes one dollar bills and cuts them with an Exacto knife, then reassembles them into works of art that sometimes have no resemblance at all to the original bill.
The one dollar bill is the most ubiquitous piece of paper in America. Collage asks the question: what might be done to make it something else? It is a ripe material: intaglio printed on sturdy linen stock, covered in decorative filigree, and steeped in symbolism and concept. Blade and glue transform it-reproducing the effects of tapestries, paints, engravings, mosaics, and computers-striving for something bizarre, beautiful, or unbelievable… the foreign in the familiar.
|
Comment (12)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
How the Government Lost $2 Trillion in a Mere Decade
Image: New York Times analysis of Congressional Budget Office data
Imagine you’re the world’s biggest shopaholic - say, you spend $1,000 a second. Who’d spend more in a decade: you or the government? If you do the math, you’d only spend $0.3 trillion. The government has got you beat by a long margin.
David Leonhardt of The New York Times has an analysis of how the US Government managed to turn a projected $800 billion budget surplus into a $1.2 trillion deficit - a swing of $2 trillion - in a mere decade:
You can think of that roughly $2 trillion swing as coming from four broad categories: the business cycle, President George W. Bush’s policies, policies from the Bush years that are scheduled to expire but that Mr. Obama has chosen to extend, and new policies proposed by Mr. Obama.
The first category — the business cycle — accounts for 37 percent of the $2 trillion swing. It’s a reflection of the fact that both the 2001 recession and the current one reduced tax revenue, required more spending on safety-net programs and changed economists’ assumptions about how much in taxes the government would collect in future years.
About 33 percent of the swing stems from new legislation signed by Mr. Bush. That legislation, like his tax cuts and the Medicare prescription drug benefit, not only continue to cost the government but have also increased interest payments on the national debt.
Mr. Obama’s main contribution to the deficit is his extension of several Bush policies, like the Iraq war and tax cuts for households making less than $250,000. Such policies — together with the Wall Street bailout, which was signed by Mr. Bush and supported by Mr. Obama — account for 20 percent of the swing.
About 7 percent comes from the stimulus bill that Mr. Obama signed in February. And only 3 percent comes from Mr. Obama’s agenda on health care, education, energy and other areas.
Previously on Neatorama: The $700 Billion T-Shirt
|
Comment (14)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Funemployment: Out of Work and Happy About It
Being out of a job usually ranks in the top 3 nightmares of life for most adults, but not for some young folks. Instead of looking for work, these people, usually singles in their 20s and 30s, prefer to stay with "funemployment" and enjoy life a bit.
Kimi Yoshino of the Los Angeles Times has more on the story:
What most people would call unemployment, Van Gorkom embraced as "funemployment."
While millions of Americans struggle to find work as they face foreclosures and bankruptcy, others have found a silver lining in the economic meltdown. These happily jobless tend to be single and in their 20s and 30s. Some were laid off. Some quit voluntarily, lured by generous buyouts.
Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings. They travel on the cheap for weeks. They head back to school or volunteer at the neighborhood soup kitchen. And at least till the bank account dries up, they’re content living for today.
"I feel like I’ve been given a gift of time and clarity," said Aubrey Howell, 29, of Franklin, Tenn., who was laid off from her job as a tea shop manager in April. After sleeping in late and visiting family in Florida, she recently mused on Twitter: "Unemployment or funemployment?"
Link (Photo: Genaro Molina / LA Times)
|
Comment (20)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
LOL Fat Cats
by Rande Daykin
Move over, LOLcats! There’s a new meme in town. Here’s LOL Fat Cats: Link (Now, why didn’t I think of this?) - via Nag on the Lake
Previously on Neatorama: Top 15 Amazingly Fat Cats
|
Comment (8)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Countries Least Affected by Recession
Digital Inspiration features a map illustrating the countires least affected by the global recession, as ranked according to a survey conducted by Servcorp for the Herald Sun.
Australia takes the top spot followed by China with India and Singapore in equal third place. Qatar is the only gulf nation that figures in this “relatively” recession-proof list.
The data is based on the results of a business confidence survey that was done on international business people of 24 nations to identify which countries they believe are surviving the crisis the best.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
|
Comment (10)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Psst! There’s a Real Estate Boom (Yes, a Boom) in Phoenix, Arizona
After the big real estate bust in Phoenix, Arizona, a new trend is afoot: a boom in the market for foreclosed homes, where investors buy properties then lend it back to the (former) owners turned renters:
With this sweltering desert city enduring one of the largest tumbles in housing prices for any urban area since the Depression, there is an unrelenting stream of foreclosures to choose from. On some days, hundreds are offered for sale at the auctions that take place on the plaza in front of the county courthouse.
There is also a large supply of foreclosed families who can no longer qualify for a loan. And that is prompting a flood of investors like Mr. Jarvis, who wants to turn as many of these people as possible into rent-paying tenants in the houses they used to own.
Real estate got just about everyone into trouble in Phoenix, and the thinking seems to be that real estate is going to get everyone out.
The low end of the real estate market here — and in some equally hard-hit places like inland California and coastal Florida — is becoming as wild as anything during the boom.
David Streitfeld of the New York Times has more: Link
(Photo: Joshua Lott / NY Times)
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Young Bride Divorced Rich Old Man Because She Can’t Keep Up
It’s not so unusual when we hear that an old, rich man marries a beautiful woman young enough to be his granddaughter.
What is unusual is when they divorce because she can’t keep up with him. That’s what happened to Kristin Georgi, a 22-year-old blonde who married 84-year-old lumber magnate Joe Hardy:
The lavish lifestyle could not overcome the newlyweds’ incompatibility. Georgi said they divorced because Hardy’s life was too fast for her — not because of their difference in age. The couple announced their divorce in August 2007 and approved by a judge in April 2008.
"Everyone asks, ‘Wasn’t it weird?’" Georgi said. "It really wasn’t because he was very young at heart. So, he was very hard for me to keep up with … When you climb on your own jet for the 10th time and everything in four days — Europe was crazy — and we were in each place for a day and a half. It was a bit too fast-paced for me," Georgi said.
Georgi said she left the relationship with some money, but she believes that size of the settlement vindicates her.
Georgi said the demands of such a lavish life took her away from her first love, saying she chose [her son] Matthew over marriage.
|
Comment (10)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The Danish Free Newspaper War of 2006
Jon Lund of New Media Trends wrote a fascinating post about the Danish Free Newspaper War, which happened when newspapers tried to "out-free" a free Icelandic paper that entered their market. The whole thing ended up costing the collective newspaper industry in Denmark more than $150 million …
On October 6 2006 “Nyhedsavisen”, a new Danish daily newspaper hit the streets. A quality newspaper staffed with 100 journalists and ambitions of being the largest Danish newspaper with a daily circulation on 500.000 and 1 million readers (total Danish population equals some 5,5 million). The newspaper should feature an editorial mix prioritizing both prize-winning critical journalism and stories close to the everyday life of ordinary Danes.
The prizing of Nyhedsavisen was simple: it was free. And, as something entirely new: it was (intended) to be delivered to the homes of all Danes – without any costs. Not only the newspaper itself was free, delivery was free as well. It was in effect “double-free”.
Read the rest of the story here: Link - via The Long Tail
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Cemetery in Foreclosure
The funeral industry is usually recession proof. After all, as Arvin Starrett, spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association, said "The honest-to-goodness truth of the matter is that everybody does die."
So it goes to show how bad the current economic situation has become: a cemetery on Highway 86 in Imperial, California, is in foreclosure!
Annika Mengisen of Freakonomics Blog has the answer to the question I’m sure you’re all thinking of: will the …, um, occupants be evicted? Link
|
Comment (10)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Housing Crunch Turns Literal in Victorville: Cheaper to Demolish Than To Complete Building
The real estate market may be bad everywhere, but it is particularly bad in Victorville, California, where the real estate crash has turned quite literal. There, failed developments are being torn down because the cost of demolishing the houses are cheaper than completing and selling them.
Peter Y. Hong of the Los Angeles Times has more:
The Victorville demolition is one of the most dramatic ends to a bad bet made during the housing boom, but abandoned developments have become an all-too-common sight in California. Nearly 250 residential developments totaling 9,389 homes have been halted across the state, according to one research firm.
The developer of the Victorville project had hoped to sell the houses for more than $300,000 as they were being built last year, Forrester said. But reality quickly diverged from that vision. Home prices have tanked faster in San Bernardino County than any other Southern California county during the downturn. In March, the median home sale price for the county was $160,000, down 43% in a year, according to the San Diego-based research firm MDA DataQuick.
Officials of Guaranty Bank of Austin, Texas, which took over the development last year, were unavailable for comment. But Victorville city spokeswoman Yvonne Hester said the bank decided not to throw good money after bad.
"It just didn’t pencil out for them," she said. "They’d have to spend a lot of money to turn around and sell the houses. They just made a financial decision to just demolish them."
Link (Photo: Christina House / LA Times)
|
Comment (10)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Bill Backs
Have you ever really taken a good look at US currency? In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you’ll be shown the buildings on the backs of US bills. Can you match each to the correct denomination? I scored 60% due to educated guessing, since I don’t usually have any cash. You will do better! Link
|
Comment (5)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Monopoly Money
It’s a shame we can’t pay our income taxes with Monopoly money, the subject of today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. Can you distinguish the denomination of Monopoly bills by their color? It’s easier if you’ve played the game lately! Link
|
Comment (8)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Enjoy Subprime Lending
Flickr user Enjoy Banking posted a series of photos where derelict shops and other urban decays in New York are tagged with giant "Enjoy Subprime Lending," "Enjoy Stimulus Package" and other cheeky stickers.
Y’know what’ll go great with this? Neatorama’s $700 Billion T-Shirt
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
What Billionaires Have In Common
What do billionaires have in common besides a lot of money? Forbes magazine decided to find out, and did an in depth analysis of the 657 self made billionaires on their list from a few months ago. Amongst the things they analyzed are the billionaire’s parents, education, job, and social standings.
Some of the surprising common traits they found are:
September Birthdays
Of the 380 self-made American tycoons who have appeared on the Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires in the past three years, 42 were born in September–more than in any other month. Maybe that’s because September is the month the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans is published.
Tech Titans Who Dropped Out of College
Forget everything your guidance counselor told you: You don’t have to go to college to be successful. More than 20% of the self-made American moguls on the most recent list of the World’s Billionaires never finished college. Many of them made their fortunes in tech. Among them: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, (Oracle) and Theodore Waitt (Gateway).
Skull and Bones
Several current and former billionaires rounded out their Yale careers as members of Skull and Bones, the secret society portrayed with enigmatic relish by Hollywood in movies like The Skulls and W. Among those who were inducted: investor Edward Lampert, Blackstone co-founder Steven Schwarzman and FedEx founder Frederick Smith.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
|
Comment (6)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Plastic Surgery for Job Seekers
Billboard advertisements. Holding signs on busy street. Making online videos. These are just some of the unconventional methods used by job seekers in these trying economic times.
Now, add cosmetic surgery to the list. Job seekers are now turning to plastic surgery in order to turn back the clock and appear more youthful and ‘fresh’ for job interviews.
Mr Grabow’s surgeon, Payman Simoni, performs what he calls a “wide awake facelift” using only local anaesthesia, which he says slashes the recovery time as well as the cost of the procedure, making it popular among job seekers.
“Before the economy turned down, people would come in because they wanted to have more fun and enjoyment out of life,” Dr Simoni said.
“But now plastic surgery has become a necessity for some. People cannot only rely on their skills in this market. They want to look refreshed and youthful so they can compete for jobs,” he said.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by
|
Comment (2)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Zimbabwean Dollar: World’s First Trillion Dollar Ad Campaign
To protest the hyperinflation that has rendered the Zimbabwe currency worthless and to raise awareness of the dire economic situation there, the Zimbabwean Newspaper created an ad campaign featuring huge posters, wall murals, flyers, and even billboards all made out of trillions of Zimbabwean dollars. Check out the photos from the newspaper’s Flickr photostream.
The Mugabe regime has destroyed Zimbabwe. It has presided over the brutal oppression of the opposition, a cholera crises, massive food shortages and the total collapse of their economy. Furthermore anyone brave enough to report this has been bullied, beaten and driven into exile. One such group is ‘the Zimbabwean Newspaper’. However, not content with having hounded these journalists out, the regime has slapped an import ‘luxury’ duty of over 55% on them which makes the paper unaffordable for the average Zimbabwean. In order to subsidize the paper they need to sell it in England and South Africa, to raise the foreign currency.
A unique campaign was devised to promote the paper to raise awareness and increase readership. One of the most eloquent symbols of Zimbabwe’s collapse is the Z$100 trillion dollar note, a symptom of their world record inflation. This note cannot buy anything, not even a loaf of bread and certainly not any advertising, but it can become the advertising, it can be a powerful reminder about Zimbabwe’s plight and the need to hold someone accountable.
Link - via thehouseofmarketing
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
|
Comment (11)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
The Problem of Money in Star Trek Economy
Warp coils and photon torpedoes aside, have you ever thought of the weird fact that there’s no money in Star Trek? Or how people get stuff done in real life when they can just … erhm, enjoy what the holodeck can offer?
Our very own John who blog at The Zeray Gazette has, and he’s given it some serious thoughts:
… my usual interpretation of the economics of Star Trek: they were unrealistic, as they eliminated the first law of economics — scarcity. Thanks to the replicator, there is virtually no need to manufacture anything. Although there were a few objects, such as latinum or yamok sauce, that could not be replicated, there was essentially nothing that your replicator could not provide for you — including more replicators.
Come to think of it - how would a money-less economics of the future a la Star Trek work? Who’ll do the scut work?
|
Comment (36)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Dear AIG: I Quit!
In the ongoing saga of the economic crisis, AIG has been squarely portrayed as the villains. Everybody piled on the bandwagon of villifying the greed and brazenness of their multi-million dollar bonuses (yes, including this blog).
But is that the full and true story? Here’s a letter published in the Opinion section of The New York Times - it’s a resignation letter, actually, sent by Jake DeSantis, an executive VP of the AIG’s much maligned Financial Products unit, explaining why he quit:
I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.
After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.
I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.
(Photo: jdiggans [Flickr])
|
Comment (32)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Tough Times are Good for Vasectomies
When the going gets tough, the tough gets … snipped? It may be economic doom and gloom for you and me, but not for doctors performing vasectomies: they see a little boom in business!
They looked at their statistics and realized the uptick started around November as the economic crisis deepened. October went down in the history books as one of Wall Street’s worst months.
Since then, the Cleveland Clinic has seen a 50 percent increase in vasectomies, an outpatient surgery that is the cheapest form of permanent birth control. Vasectomies are less invasive and cheaper than tubal ligation, which involves blocking, tieing or cutting a woman’s fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy.
"It’s unlikely that some guy read the Dow Jones numbers that day and said, ‘Why don’t we have a vasectomy?’ " Jones said. "More likely, people have already been considering it and typically a guy and his wife have spoken a year or two about this."
Jones was told by patients that they were getting vasectomies because they were losing their jobs and health insurance, or concerned about being out of work soon.
"They realize they don’t have the financial security long-term with what’s going on," Jones said. "Several of them have mentioned, ‘We can’t afford to have any more children in this economy.’ My perception is that it’s more of the concept of raising children in an uncertain economic future."
Madison Park of CNN has the rest of the story: Link - Thanks Tiff!
|
Comment (23)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
China Calls for a New Global Currency
Is this the beginning of the end of the dominance of the US dollar as the world’s preferred currency? The global economic crisis and the erosion in the value of the dollar has led China of all countries to call for a new "international reserve currency":
[People's Bank of China] Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan’s essay did not mention the dollar by name but said the crisis showed the dangers of relying on one nation’s currency for international payments. In an unusual step, the essay was published in both Chinese and English, making clear it was meant for an international audience.
"The crisis called again for creative reform of the existing international monetary system towards an international reserve currency," Zhou wrote.
A reserve currency is the unit in which a government holds its reserves. But Zhou said the proposed new currency also should be used for trade, investment, pricing commodities and corporate bookkeeping.
Beijing has long been uneasy about relying on the dollar for the bulk of its trade and to store foreign reserves. Premier Wen Jiabao publicly appealed to Washington this month to avoid any steps in response to the crisis that might erode the value of the dollar and Beijing’s estimated $1 trillion holdings in treasuries and other U.S. government debt.
Link (Photo: World Economic Forum [Flickr])
|
Comment (21)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
An Insatiable Greed: Bonus Time!
An
Insatiable Greed: Bonus Time! - $9.95
First they engaged in risky business practices - including insuring trillions in risky derivatives, then their meltdown helped trigger the global economic crisis, then they asked for and got hundreds of billions in taxpayer's money in a government bailout. So, what do they do next for a job well done? Why, it's Bonus Time, of course!
What can you do? Get mad, and then get this T-shirt from Neatorama's Online Store: Link
Other T-shirts about The Economy:
|
 |
 |
|
Comment (11)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Will Stop Publishing Newspaper, Become Web Only
Ever since the advents of the Internet, online publishing, and now blogs, people have tooted (is that the right verb? anyhoo … ) the clarion calls of the immiment demise of print media.
And now, the economic crisis have finally pushed one large newspaper to go 100% "web only":
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will roll off the presses for the last time Tuesday, ending a 146-year run.
The Hearst Corp. announced Monday that it would stop publishing the newspaper, Seattle’s oldest business, and cease delivery to more than 117,600 weekday readers.
The company, however, said it will maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation’s largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product.
"Tonight we’ll be putting the paper to bed for the last time," Editor and Publisher Roger Oglesby told a silent newsroom Monday morning. "But the bloodline will live on."
In a news release, Hearst CEO Frank Bennack Jr. said, "Our goal now is to turn seattlepi.com into the leading news and information portal in the region."
Link (Photo: Joshua Trujillo/P-I)
|
Comment (6)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Man Paid Electric Bill with Duffle Bags of Pennies
John Almany David Crigger was surprised to find that his electric bill jumped to $350, so he decided to get even with his utility company:
That many pennies weighs about 170 pounds, so the two men worked to carry the duffle bags into BVU’s Lee Highway office.
"We pulled into BVU about 2 (p.m.) and took the bags of unrolled pennies to the pay counter," Almany said. "To make my case better, I noticed a man just paid cash right before me. I laid my bill on the counter and told the lady, ‘Here is my bill and I’m here to pay every penny of it.’"
After about 20 seconds of silence, Almany then explained what that meant.
"She seemed shocked and told me, ‘We can’t take that.’ She said we’d have to wrap that up and repeated they couldn’t accept it. I asked her if she was refusing my payment and she said she wasn’t," Almany said. "They said they didn’t have the manpower to count all those pennies and I said as much as BVU is billing its customers, they ought to have all the manpower they need."
Link - via Rue the Day (Photo: David Crigger / Bristol Herald Courier)
Previously on Neatorama: Don’t Mess with New Jersey: Paying with Pennies Got Man Into Trouble
|
Comment (29)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Surprise! AIG Gives Out Bonuses Despite Taking Billions in Bailout Money
If you think that getting $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money would embarass the AIG from giving millions in bonuses, think again: the beleagured financial company is going forward with plans for $165 million of bonuses and employee retention pays … with the government’s grudging approval:
A.I.G. had set up a special bonus pool for the financial products unit early in 2008, before the company’s near collapse, when problems stemming from the mortgage crisis were becoming clear and there were concerns that some of the best-informed derivatives specialists might leave. It locked in a total amount, $450 million, for the financial products unit and prepared to pay it in a series of installments, to encourage people to stay.
Only part of the payments had been made by last fall, when A.I.G. nearly collapsed. In documents provided to the Treasury, A.I.G. said it was required to pay about $165 million in bonuses on or before Sunday. That is in addition to $55 million in December.
(Photo: threecee [Flickr])
Previously on Neatorama: Posts tagged Economic Crisis
|
Comment (10)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Mexican Drug Lord Joined Forbes’ List of World’s Billionaires
Who ever said that crime doesn’t pay? It certainly did for this guy: Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, who made the rank in Forbes’ annual list of The World’s Billionaires.
Mexico’s most wanted man, "El Chapo", or Shorty, heads the Sinaloa cartel, one of the biggest suppliers of Cocaine to the U.S. In 1993 was arrested in Mexico on homicide and drug charges. Escaped from federal prison in 2001, reportedly through the laundry, and quickly regained control of his drug trafficking organization, which he still controls today. In 2008 Mexican and Colombian traffickers laundered between $18 billion and $39 billion in proceeds from wholesale shipments to the U.S. Shorty, an alleged tunnels expert, is believed to have directed anywhere from a third to half of that during the past 8 years. Apparently started out working with Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, "El Padrino", or the Godfather, head of the most powerful drug trafficking group in Mexico at that time. U.S. government is offering a $5 million reward for his capture.
Needless to say, Mexican authorities are livid:
Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora expressed outrage at the publication and described Forbes’ calculations on Guzman Loera’s fortune as mere "speculation."
"I will never accept that a criminal could be recognized as someone distinguished, even if it is by a magazine like Forbes," Medina Mora said to local media during a drug traffic summit Thursday in Vienna, Austria.
Forbes is "comparing the deplorable activity of a criminal wanted in Mexico and abroad with that of honest businessmen," he said.
Link | CNN Article (Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images)
|
Comment (6)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Neatiolicious Fun Facts: Dow Jones Industrial Average
Broker: what you become after investing
in stocks
-
Wall Street joke
Continuing our quest to unearth fun facts from A to Z, here's the latest Neatolicious Fun Facts article. "D" is for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Given the current economic crisis, here are some timely fun facts about the granddaddy of stock market indices:
1. Origins: Charles Dow
The
Dow
Jones Industrial Average (the DJIA or The Dow) is a stock market index.
It comprises of stocks of select large companies and is used to gauge
the performance of the whole stock market.
The Dow was created by American journalist Charles Henry Dow on May 26, 1896, as part of his research into market movements. That explains the "Dow" in Dow Jones, but what about the "Jones" part? That was named after Dow's business partner Edward Davis Jones, a statistician (not related, as far as I could tell, with the current Edward Jones company). Interestingly, Jones didn't have anything to do with creating the stock index, other than being Dow's business partner in their company Dow Jones & Co.
Dow and Jones didn't set out to be in the business of keeping track of the stock market. They were journalists who had been working for a newspaper before they decided to go into the financial news business for themselves in 1882 (with another business partner named Charles Bergstresser). The trio opened shop in the basement of a lower Manhattan candy store that later became the New York Stock Exchange. (Source)
The Dow, Jones & Company (they later dropped the comma) published daily hand-written news bulletins called "flimsies" delivered by messengers to subscribers. A year later, they came out with the "Customers' Afternoon Letter," which contained the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
You may not have heard of the Customers' Afternoon Letter, but I'm sure you know what the newspaper later became: The Wall Street Journal (the first edition of which was just 4 pages long and sold for 2 cents).
2. Was the Dow Jones Industrial Average the oldest stock index?
Nope - on July 3, 1884, Charles Dow created the first one: the Dow Jones Transportation Average. It consisted of 11 transportation-related companies (most of which were railroads).
3. The first 12 stocks listed and what happened to them
The first 12 stocks listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, published on May 26, 1896 were industrial (or so called "smokestack" companies). Of these 12, only 1 (General Electric) is still doing business under the same name:
| Company | What happened to it |
| American Cotton Oil | Became Bestfoods |
| American Sugar | Evolved into Amstar Holdings |
| American Tobacco | Broken up in 1991 antitrust action, part of which became Fortune Brands and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. |
| Chicago Gas | Absorbed by Peoples Gas |
| Distilling & Cattle Feeding | Evolved into Millennium Chemical |
| General Electric | Still General Electric |
| Laclede Gas | Still Laclede Gas, but no longer listed in the Dow |
| National Lead | Becomes NL Industries, now manufactures titanium dioxide pigments |
| North American | This holding company for public utilities was broken up in 1940s |
| Tennessee Coal & Iron | Absorbed by U.S. Steel |
| U.S. Leather (preferred stock - a hybrid between a stock and a bond) | Dissolved in 1952. |
| U.S. Rubber | Became Uniroyal, then part of Michelin |
(Source: Dow Jones FAQ)
Oh, and the first day's closing is 40.94. If you had invested $1 then, you'd have $169 today, a return of 16,828%.
4. A "Blue Chip" Index
If
you're financially savvy, you'd already know this: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average is a "blue chip" index, meaning it is comprised of just
30 of the largest companies in the United States.
But why "blue chip"? The term comes from casinos, where blue chips have the highest values. Its first use to describe stocks was coined by Dow Jones staff Oliver Gingold in the early 1920s:
That term apparently got its start in 1923 or 1924 when Gingold was standing by the stock ticker at the brokerage firm that later became Merrill Lynch. Noticing several trades at $200 or $250 a share or more, he said to Lucien Hooper of W.E. Hutton & Co., that he intended to return to the office to "write about these blue-chip stocks." Thus the phrase was born. It has been in use ever since, originally in reference to high-priced stocks, more commonly used to day to refer to high-quality stocks.
5. How Now, Dow Jones
Marlyn Mason, Tony Roberts and Brenda Vaccaro in How Now, Dow Jones
(Photo and more on the musical by Skip Card of Playbill: Link)
In 1967, lyricist Carolyn Leigh came up with the idea of a Broadway musical comedy based on the stock market. She collaborated with Elmer Bernstein (music), Max Shulman (libretto) and David Merrick (producer) to create the musical How Now, Dow Jones. (Source)
Though How Now, Dow Jones was considered a Broadway failure, one song titled "Step to the Rear" became quite popular and was later adapted into The Fighting Gamecocks Lead the Way, the fight song of the University of South Carolina.
6. The best and worst days in the history of the Dow
Given the current economic crisis, it seems that every day brings us bad economic news and even lower stock prices. Indeed, we have seen an incredibly volatile stock market and record-setting daily point gains and losses.
The largest daily point loss was recorded on Sept 29, 2008, when the DJIA lost 778 points (7%). The largest point gain happened about two week later (gain of 936 points or 11% on October 13, 2008) only to be followed with another big drop (733 points or 7.9%). You know what happened next: right now, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen by about 45% from last year.
Riding
the Dow T-shirt at Crazy Dog T-shirts
The largest percentage loss occurred in Black Monday of 1987, when the stock markets around the world crashed. The Dow lost 508 points or a drop of 22.6%. Even today economists and financial analysts couldn't come to an agreement as to the reason behind such a crash (some blamed program tradings, others blamed market psychology).
7. Dowism
I
can't bear to close on such a DOWn note (get it? it's
a double pun), so let's end with this pun: dowism. It's a play on the
words Taoism, a Chinese philosophy, and Dow Jones, used to represent the
philosophy of consumerism.
Columnist and radio personality Steve Bhaerman, under pseudonym Swami
Beyondananda wrote in Duck
Soup for the Soul
That day, the Swami swore off sects completely. Spirit was immaterial, he decided, and he now sought fulfillment by filling himself full of all the material goodies life could provide. He moved to New York to study with the renowned guru of the stock market, Yuan Tibet, who instructed him in the Dowist path. Swami became more and more dependent on the stock market prophet, buying soybean futures like there was no tamari. Suddenly, the price of soybeans plummeted (due, it was later revealed, to a rumor planted by unscrupulous dairy- heir that tofu actually came from between the toes of Himalayan hikers). Swami frantically tried to call Yuan Tibet for his sage advice, but he could not be found. Tragically, there had been some prophet-taking on Wall Street, somebody took him, and he was never heard from again.
(Source)
"Prophet-taking?" Oh hohoho! (by the way, "tamari" is a kind of soy sauce. Clever guy, that Steve Bhaerman).
Next up: "E" (which I haven't decided yet) - in the meantime, check out these articles on Neatorama:
- 10 American Financial Meltdowns in the Past Century
- 9 Most Brazen Ponzi Schemes in History
- Past Neatolicious Fun Facts Articles: Apple, Beer, Chess
- From the Neatorama Online Store: Stock Market, The Ride
|
Comment (2)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
24 Ridiculously Expensive Everyday Items
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to have a million dollars you probably only thought about the cars, the yachts and the bling, and overlooked the details like what kind of toilet seat or fancy tennis ball cans you’d use. We tracked down 24 of the most ridiculously expensive everyday items you could blow your wad on.
Shown is a diamond-encrusted bluetooth headset. Link
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
|
Comment (3)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
Extreme Cheapskates Revel in Their Frugality
The current economic crisis has altered the behavioral patterns of everday consumers, but some people really take it to the extremes. Meet the ultra-tightwads:
Amy VanDeventer has always been a cheapskate. The recession is taking her to new extremes.
Before the economy tanked, she was still wearing maternity clothes from her last pregnancy, clipping coupons and using hand-me-downs to dress her daughters, ages 2 and 3. Now, she’s salvaging bagel scraps left on their plates for pizza toppings and cutting lotion bottles in half so she can scrape out the last drops.
“I was already cheap,” said VanDeventer, a 36-year-old mortgage loan underwriter from Broomfield, Colo. “Now I am neurotic about it.” [...]
What surprises frugality bloggers is that many cheapskates such as VanDeventer haven’t lost their jobs and are not in danger of losing their homes. Many have stashed a good chunk of cash away. But the economic uncertainty is catapulting them to new levels of thriftiness.
“I do it out of fear because I would rather put that money in the bank or purchase something we really need,” said VanDeventer, who now saves about 50 percent of her take-home pay, up from 25 percent before the recession began more than a year ago.
(Photo: Ed Andrieski/AP)
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by
|
Comment (18)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
5 Reasons Renting Still Beats Buying a House
Jack Hough of Smart Money weighs the pros and cons of renting versus buying a house, and concludes that renting is better. He gives 5 reasons:
1. Houses produce lousy returns, while stocks produce good ones
2. House prices have further to fall
3.Many houses for sale today seem designed to waste money
4. Big houses are targets for future taxes
5. Neighborhoods are changing in unpredictable ways
As a renter and a former buyer (twice), I tend to agree with him. What do you all think?
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by
|
Comment (43)
Permalink
Please share: email
this
|
-
Your purchase helps support the blog - Thank you!
