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American Airlines Slows Growth For 2011 Print

American Airlines announced they will suspend their growth plans for 2011. Primary factor in this decision is the rising cost of oil in a volatile market and a recovering economy. Their plan is to fly less domestically resulting in higher ticket prices. The airline industry according to AMR spokesperson Tim Smith, have hiked fares 12 to 14 times.

AMR has been hammered for the year down close to 30%, currently at $6.56 -0.18 (-2.67%). American Airlines lost an estimated $50 million in revenue due to the cancellation of over 8,000 flights during storms across the U.S.

American plans to phase out their fleet of MD-80’s with the newer and larger Boeing 737-800’s that are 35% more fuel efficient. Luckily for American they were able to hedge 35% of their estimated fuel consumption for 2011 at $2.52 a gallon. Currently the cost of one gallon of fuel is $2.83, up almost 40% from 2010.

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Weekly Initial Claims Statistics (2/19) Print

The Department of Labor reports unemployment (initial claims) statistics as follows.

“In the week ending Feb. 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 391,000, a decrease of 22,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 413,000. The 4-week moving average was 402,000, a decrease of 16,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 418,500.”

Entering the 300 thousand level is a good sign in the job market. More data is need to determine if the labor market is recovering or stagnant.

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Happy Valentines Day – Social Networking Statistics Print

Mashable.com has created an infographic based on a survey conducted on 400 Facebook and Myspace users. Kinda of interesting, check it out! See where you fit in.
“Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and lovers from coast to coast are getting ready. Here’s an infographic built using data from 400 Facebook and MySpace users that might give you insight into love in America, circa 2011.
Buried in the data are some interesting anomalies, too. For instance, notice that 16% of the single people have their current relationship status on Facebook as “dating,” “engaged” or “married.” On the other hand, 0% of the married respondents called themselves “single.” Good move, fellow married people — you know what’s good for you.”
Source: Mashable

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Weekly Initial Claims Statistics (2/5) Print

The Department of Labor reports unemployment (initial claims) statistics as follows.

“In the week ending Feb. 5, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 383,000, a decrease of 36,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 419,000. The 4-week moving average was 415,500, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 431,500. ”

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How To Finance A Low Budget Film Print

Check out this infograph from Visual Economics.

The success stories of low budget films look tempting enough to invest in. However, don’t be fooled only a small fraction of low budget films make it big. I think we should see an infograph on the failure of low budget films, now I know that would be a never ending infograph haha.

Source: Visual Economics

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44 States Projected Budget Gaps Print

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 44 states and the District of Columbia are projecting shortfalls. Shortfalls are collectively estimated to reach $125 billion for 2012.

Click on Graphic for interactive data.

Sources:
The Wall Street Journal
U.S. Census Bureau (for revenue shortfalls), the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (for budget gaps and spending cuts)
*State has a two-year budget
**Four states, Montana, North Dakota, Alaska and Arkansas, have not reported budget shortfalls in fiscal year 2011.

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Weekly Initial Claims Statistics (1/22) Print

The Department of Labor reports unemployment (initial claims) statistics as follows.

“In the week ending Jan. 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 454,000, an increase of 51,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 403,000. The 4-week moving average was 428,750, an increase of 15,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 413,000.”

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Iraq War Cost the U.S. Deficit $3 Trillion Print

Check out this info graphic from Perceptual Edge. The graphic presents the outrageous spending and the cost of the Iraq war. Money wasted and added to our deficit.

Thoughts from Ritholtz “Whenever I hear a a congress critter discussing deficit spending, the first thing I do is check their vote on the Iraq war to see if they are legitimately concerned about deficits, or not. … You will find most of these born again deficit hawks are hypocritical partisan hacks . . .”

“Deficit hawk or Hypocrite? You decide:”
• Iraq War Resolution, Roll Call Vote – House (clerk.house.gov)
• Iraq War Resolution, Roll Call Vote – Senate (senate.gov)
Sources:

www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/01/the-three-trillion-dollar-war-2/
Perceptual Edge

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The Best 25 Companies Hiring Print

 

The Best 25 Companies to work for are hiring, totaling about 137,000 available jobs.

Company                                                                                 Openings
1. Boston Consulting Group                                             2000
2. Wegmans Food Markets                                               2000
3. NetApp                                                                             2500
4. Edward Jones                                                                 890
5. Cisco                                                                                 4591
6. Whole Foods Market                                                      1800
7. Baptist Health South Florida                                          869
8. American Express                                                           813
9. Intel                                                                                   2900+
10. Mayo Clinic                                                                     800
11. Deloitte                                                                              3511
12. Adobe Systems                                                              1000
13. Publix Super Markets                                                     1590
14. Marriott International                                                      4459
15. Microsoft                                                                          6338
16. PricewaterhouseCoopers                                              9144
17. Nordstrom                                                                       3663
18. Ernst & Young                                                                10000
19. CarMax                                                                               1035
20. Booz Allen Hamilton                                                          700
21. KPMG                                                                                 5000
22. CH2M Hill                                                                           719
23. Darden Restaurants                                                       3600
24. Starbucks                                                                           2000+
25. Accenture                                                                         64000

Source: www.cnnmoney.com

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Weekly Initial Claims Statistics (1/15) Print

The Department of Labor reports unemployment (initial claims) statistics as follows.

“In the week ending Jan. 15, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 404,000, a decrease of 37,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 441,000. The 4-week moving average was 411,750, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 415,750.”

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