How to Fix Health Care: Lasik Surgery For The Medical Debate
via youtube.com
What's the market solution? This is the question I have been driving at for a while. The video above does a nice job outlining many of these thoughts.
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EDP Renewables Invests in the US Wind Market
The third largest wind producer in the US, with 2.5 gigawatts of capacity, EPDR, the wind energy department of the Portuguese company Energias de Portugal (EDP.LS) is planning to invest $4 billion in the US wind market by 2013.
Lately, business in the US has had a positive effect on EDPR's stock price. They outperformed market expectations, posting a 19% rise in 9-month profit. This is influenced by their new wind turbines that are predominantly being installed in the United States.
CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (Chart and Text) OCTOBER 2009
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.3 percent in October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
The index has decreased 0.2 percent over the last 12 months on a not seasonally adjusted basis.
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The seasonally adjusted all items increase largely reflected advances in the indexes for energy and for new and used motor vehicles. The energy index rose for the fifth time in the last six months, advancing 1.5 percent as the indexes for gasoline, fuel oil, natural gas, and electricity all increased. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in October, the same increase as in September. The indexes for used cars and trucks and for new vehicles both rose sharply and together they accounted for over 90 percent of the increase in the index for all items less food and energy. The indexes for airline fares and medical care also increased, while the shelter index was unchanged and the indexes for apparel and recreation declined. The food index also increased in October, rising 0.1 percent after declining in two of the previous three months. The index for food away from home increased slightly, while the food at home index was unchanged. Within the food at home group, the index for dairy and related products rose significantly, while the fruits and vegetables index declined for the fourth straight month.
Consumer Price Index Data for October 2009
Food
The food index rose 0.1 percent in October after declining 0.1 percent in September. The index for food away from home increased 0.1 percent while the food at home index was unchanged. Within the food at home group, the index for dairy and related products rose 1.0 percent in October after a 0.5 percent increase in September, and the index for other food at home advanced 0.3 percent. These increases were offset by a 0.7 percent decline in the fruits and vegetables index and 0.2 percent decreases in the indexes for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs and for nonalcoholic beverages. The index for cereals and bakery products was unchanged in October. Over the past 12 months, the food index has declined 0.6 percent with the food at home index down 2.8 percent.
Energy
The energy index rose 1.5 percent in October after increasing 0.6 percent in September. The index for energy commodities rose 1.9 percent, with the gasoline index increasing 1.6 percent. (Before seasonal adjustment, gasoline prices fell 0.8 percent in October.) The index for fuel oil rose 6.3 percent. The index for energy services, which increased 0.1 percent in September, rose 0.9 percent in October. The electricity index increased 0.6 percent while the index for natural gas rose 1.9 percent in October after declining 1.7 percent in September. Over the past 12 months, the energy index has fallen 14.0 percent with the gasoline index declining 17.9 percent.
All items less food and energy
The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in October, the same increase as in September. Most of the advance was due to increases in transportation indexes. The new vehicles index rose 1.6 percent and the index for used cars and trucks rose 3.4 percent, its third consecutive substantial increase. The index for airline fares rose for the fourth straight month, increasing 1.7 percent in October. Outside of the transportation group, the changes within all items less food and energy were largely modest. The medical care index rose 0.2 percent in October after increasing 0.4 percent in September. The shelter index was unchanged in October, as it was in September. The rent index decreased 0.1 percent, the index for owners’ equivalent rent was unchanged, and the index for lodging away from home rose 0.4 percent. Posting declines in October were the indexes for recreation and apparel, which both fell 0.4 percent. For the past 12 months, the index for all items less food and energy has risen 1.7 percent. Kindle: Amazon's 6" 
Wireless Reading Device Original content Bob DeMarco, All American Investor
Producer Price Index Graph
The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods advanced 0.3 percent in October, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
This increase followed a 0.6-percent decline in September and a 1.7-percent rise in August. In October, at the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods moved up 0.3 percent and the crude goods index increased 5.4 percent.
On an unadjusted basis, from October 2008 to October 2009, prices for finished goods fell 1.9 percent, the eleventh consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
Original content Bob DeMarco, All American Investor
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Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device Original content Bob DeMarco, All American Investor
Tuesday Q&A - What's the Difference Between Markup and Margin?
Is there a difference? Absolutely.
A markup percentage is the percentage difference between the actual cost of your product and your selling price. So, if our item costs us $100 and we want to do a 100% markup, we would charge it for $200.
A gross margin percentage is the percentage difference between the selling price and profit. So, our same item that we are selling for $200 have a 50% gross margin percentage (50% of $200 selling price = $100 profit.)
Got it? Good.
This is important because I've once seen a client who marks everything up 100% only to have a 50% off sale by the end of the week. Not the best busines practice if you ask me.
;-)
Interesting: chart of broadband speed, penetration, and price
by Devin Coldewey - October 28, 2009
Just an interesting visualization of the broadband situation out there. Statistics get a bad rap, probably because they’re always in spreadsheet form when they should be in an infographic. Click away for the full-size version.
Uhhhh, Japan for the win.
via crunchgear.com
What should be the right price for Wolfram Alpha? you decide
TechCrunch is rightly pointing at the fact that the new beautiful app by Wolfram Alfa is way too expensive ($50)
how about free? i don't see why i would pay on the mobile for something that is free from my computer. Maybe they should have tried to leverage the new in-App purchase by allowing a few requests for free and then asking people to pay. Wolfram alpha is not a killer brand yet. so i would expect it to try to get market share at first before charging.
So let's have a little poll. What should the price of the app be?
ps: you can download the app from here if you are really not price sensitive
What We Can Learn About Pricing From Menu Engineers
Rapp is a menu engineer. He helps restaurants maximize revenue by hacking common flaws in human decision-making. For example, by simply removing “$” signs from prices, people are less intimidated by them. And he advises against listing items from least to most expensive, because that focuses the consumer on price. Instead he mixes up items, making it hard to find their price — thereby encouraging the customer to emotionally commit to something before finding out what it costs. But my favorite strategy of his is that of putting some absurdly expensive item on the menu. Rapp doesn’t expect many consumers to buy it, but having it there makes expensive items appear cheap by comparison. Think about it: How many times have you ordered a bottle of wine in the middle of the price range?
via gigaom.com
Not all App Stores are equal: Blackberry apps 3X more expensive than the iPhone
Don't forget the minimum listing price in Blackberry App World is $2.99 (which needs to change...) via techcrunch.com
iPhone apps are cheaper than their computer equivalent
MacApper has an interesting post on how the same app for the iPhone is cheaper than the same or similar app on the computer or video console. And the ratio is about x10 or x15 cheaper. This being said sometimes convenience of usage should necessarily drive your choice to the most expensive solution (the computer) simply because it still way more convenient to use an app on a computer when you are in front of your computer.
We put together all the apps mentioned in this post below
