Silly, clever, and with a more than a hint of the truth … Watch as Uncle Jay sings his year-end summary of the news.
Uncle Jay has a website he says "helps small minds understand big news."
Happy Holiday Season, and Best Wishes for the New Year.
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Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading
Taking a break from your holiday mail-merge? Here are some of the posts that caught my eye.
Hope you find something interesting.
- 8 Common Mistakes in How We Think and How to Prevent Them. (Bufferapp)
- How to Become an Expert on Something (or Anything). (Bakadesuyo)
- 25+ Resources for Holiday eCards. (Mindjet)
- Caffeine Quantified: Your Favorite Coffee Chains Ranked, Weakest to Strongest. (FastCocreate)
- What's Your 'Fitness Age'? (NYTimes)
- Morgan Stanley's 10 Big Macro Investment Ideas for 2014. (BusinessInsider)
- Greenspan: Recession is ‘small price to pay’ to fix debt. (Money)
- Paul Brodsky: "The Fed Is Holding A Burning Match". (ZeroHedge)
- Economists Are Different From You and Me. (Economix)
- Congress Uses Cartoon Video to Explain the Problems with Patent Trolls and “Legalized Extortion”. (GigaOM)
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E-Mail Merge: Sending Holiday Wishes, Without Losing Your Holiday Spirit.
If you hate writing personalized holiday cards, you'll love this tool. It does what it is supposed to, it's easy to use, and it's going to save you a ton of time and effort.
The Task I Put-Off Every Year.
Even though composing a message and signing cards is a relatively simple task, some part of me resents and resists it.
Call me Ebenezer Scrooge, but I don’t enjoy writing thank you notes and holiday cards.
On one hand that embarrasses me a little, because I recognize that both are expressions of appreciation and being grateful for relationships and nice things. On the other hand, it's the thought that counts. I can be grateful and appreciative without suffering. How much time and effort I spend is irrelevant to how much goodwill I feel or express.
EMail Merge Pro.
That's why I recommend you try this e-mail merge software. It allows you to send personalized holiday cards, invitations or other messages, in a fraction of the time it used to take.This easy-to-learn, easy-to-use Outlook mail merge solution has a helpful Wizard interface that gets you up and running in minutes. It takes you through a step-by-step process that makes it very easy to select who you want to send to, and how you want to personalize the message (for example, adding a first name or some other information from the contact record).
Now that I have a "Holiday Card" category in Microsoft Outlook, the hardest part of the process is tagging the new people who I want to get a holiday card.
It is the Right Tool for the Job.
If you need to tap a nail into the wall, a chain-saw is not the right tool. Likewise, most people don't need commercial e-mail services. Still, it is a great convenience having a tool that you can use, from time to time, when you want to send personalized messages to a bunch of people.
EmailMerge is a one-time purchase that allows you to send unlimited emails to unlimited contacts no additional fees or costs.
I tend to use this program two or three times a year; and every time I use it I'm happy it's there and thrilled with how it performed. Here is a link to a video demonstration.
I've used this software for many years. It is stable, mature, and continuing to improve. I highly recommend that you download a trial from their website.
They also make a number of other add-ins for Outlook worth checking-out and have a blog worth reading.
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Little Drummer Boy by Pentatonix
Not typical of what I'd normally share … But thought this was well done and timely.
Pentatonix were the winners of season 3 of NBC’s instrument-free music competition – 'The Sing-Off'.
Also, here's a link to their cover of Royals.
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A Jobs Chart That Means Something
The unemployment rate dropped to 7.0% (from 7.3%) while the U.S. economy added 203,000 jobs in November. In addition, the labor force participation rate rose to 63.0% (from 62.8%). These numbers were stronger than expected.
Nonetheless, the U.S. labor market remains below its pre-recession employment numbers.
Calculated Risk posts a monthly chart that puts the current jobs recovery into perspective. It is often referred to as the "Scariest Chart Ever". It shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession, in percentage terms, compared to previous post WWII recessions.
via CalculatedRisk.
This chart shows the depth of the recent employment recession — worse than any other post-war recession — and the relatively slow recovery due to the lingering effects of the housing bust and financial crisis.
If things continue as they have been, it appears payrolls will exceed the pre-recession peak in mid-2014.
Currently, there are about 1.3 million fewer payroll jobs than before the recession started; and at the recent pace of job growth it will take about 7 months to reach the previous peak.
Given the circumstances, I think the chart shows we've made good progress. Talk about Qualitative Easing, coordinated actions by global Central Banks … or a pretty visible 'unseen hand' all you want … but the Economy and Market seem to have adapted well to change.
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Here Are Some Links to Start Your Week
You can learn a lot by watching puppies. Barley, here, is sporting the "Cone of Shame" … which was our attempt to stop him from licking his nether-region till it was swollen and raw.
Despite our best efforts, Barley has figured-out how to contort his body and use his prehensile tongue to get the job done anyway.
I guess Charles Darwin was right … "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."
Most find a way to get what they must have.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
- How Visionaries See the Future. (PandoDaily)
- Reframing Failure as Intentional Iteration. The secret to success may be trying more stuff. (IAC)
- This Quick Trick Can Vastly Improve The iPhone's Fingerprint Scanner. (HuffPost)
- Top Spotify Playlists for Your Every Mood. (Mashable)
- The Top Five Vitamins You Should Not Take. (Forbes)
- Goldman Expects More Banks To Be Like Goldman Next Year. (Quartz)
- Palantir, a Big Data Tech Company, Raises $100MM at a $9 Billion Valuation. (NYTimes)
- 12 Smart Money Moves to Make Before the End of 2013. (Forbes)
- 15 Highest Paid CEOs in America. (BusinessInsider)
- Minimum Wage Was Once Enough To Keep a Family of 3 Out of Poverty. How much do you think is now needed? – (The Atlantic)
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This ‘Illusion of Choice’ Chart Shows Who’s Really In Control
What happens doesn't matter nearly as much as what you what make it mean … and what you choose to do.
Dallas got about an inch of ice and snow towards the end of last week, and we are still at a virtual stand-still five days later.
Growing up in New England, this would have been so minor that people wouldn't have called it a 'storm'. Because ice is so rare here, and we don’t have sanding, salting, or scraping capabilities (or people skilled enough to be comfortable driving in it) this was a Storm.
As a result, the best plans gave way to the shut-down.
Snow isn't 'good' or 'bad' … and neither was the change of plans.
Fund managers recognize the importance of sensibly diversifying risks and opportunities.
Be that as it may, as MotherJones reported in the wake of the financial crisis, the nation's 10 largest financial institutions held 54% of our total financial assets (compare that to the 20% they held in 1990). Meanwhile, the number of banks has dropped from more than 12,500 to about 8,000.
Here is a map, from the Federal Reserve, that shows the consolidation. Click to see a bigger version.
The infographic, above, shows how 37 banks have merged to become just four — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and CitiGroup (in a period of barely two decades).
Many people are shocked by a chart like this. It must be 'bad' to have so much controlled by so few, right?
But it isn't hard to find a version of this story playing-out in other industries: Print Media, Music, Broadcast Channels, Consumer Products … this type of consolidation happens for a reason.
A firm that marshals that more resources gains competitive advantage and has more ways to win.
They benefit from economies of scale, transactional leverage, better distribution and partners, and more ways to diversify risks. In addition, if they work to communicate, collaborate, and coordinate their actions (and data) they can unlock opportunities that others simply don't have (or can't see).
Here is a Chart Showing Some of the 'Winners' at that Game.
The following chart highlights our "Illusion of Choice". A surprisingly big portion of what you buy comes from one of these 10 mega-companies (Kraft, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kellog's, Nestlé, Proctor & Gamble, , Mars, Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, and Unilever).
It's amazing to see what these giants own or influence. Click the picture to see a bigger version.
via Reddit.
Here is a more specific example. You probably think you are familiar with Nestlé. It is famous for chocolate; but did you realize it was $200 billion-corporation … and the biggest food company in the world? Nestlé owns nearly 8,000 different brands worldwide, and takes a stake in (or is partnered with) many others. Included in this network is shampoo company L'Oreal, baby food giant Gerber, clothing brand Diesel, and pet food makers Purina and Friskies.
Kind of cool?
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Here Are Some Links to Start Your Week
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
- Elon Musk's 15 Business Lessons. (Incomediary)
- People Window-Shop on Their iPhones, But Actually Buy Things on Their iPads. (Qz)
- 10 Websites That Will Help You Do Your Holiday Shopping. (Lifehack)
- It's Better to Be Imperfect Than Sorry. (Harvard Business Review)
- Talk About Turning the Other Cheek: Kissing an Opponent Draws Foul In WNBA Game [VIDEO]. (BusinessInsider)
- The Richest World Leaders Are Even Richer Than You Thought. (HuffingtonPost)
- QE-infinity Is Not Sustainable: The Elephant’s Gonna Have to Leave the Room. (AllAboutAlpha)
- Will Next Time Be Different? A Report from the 30th Cato Monetary Conference. (Economist)
- You Spent $1.2 Billion Shopping Online on Black Friday. (AllThingsD)
- Cyber Monday Brings In Record $2.29B Online Sales. More than 18% of which was purchased via a mobile device (TheNextWeb)
