Abe Lincoln signed a Presidential Proclamation declaring Thanksgiving the last Thursday in November starting in 1863. After lobbying by the Retail Dry Goods Association, FDR proclaimed Thanksgiving to be next to last Thursday in November 1939/1940/1941 to lengthen the holiday shopping season. Ev
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11/26/2014
While the rest of the planet economically cools or worse, goes into reverse, today's data shows that the US economy is doing well. First-time weekly claims for unemployment insurance fell and are remarkably low, existing home sales rose a whole 1% and are at their highest level of the year, the P
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11/24/2014
We all have other interestes and hobbies, one of mine is that I love music. Did you know; 77% of all revenue from recorded music goes to the top 1% of bands and solo artists. The 10 best-selling tracks now generate 82% more sales than 10 years ago, while the top 10 songs receive twice the air
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11/24/2014
Did you know; between the years 1976 and 2000, Americans used an average of 20.3 vacation days a year. Since then, it's steadily declined and is now at just 16 days per year. Many of these unused days cannot be paid out, banked or rolled over and many Americans lose 169 million vacation days a ye
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11/15/2014
Did you know that the US still imports 5 million barrels of oil per day? Did you also know that consumers spend a substantial share of their income on energy, and that cheaper oil boosts GDP? Every $10/bbl decline shaves 25 cents off the price of a gallon of gas and reduces oil imports by $50 bil
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11/11/2014
There are currently 18 million male veterans; 15.6% of the male population, and 1.6 million female veterans. 7 million served in Vietnam, 5.2 million served in the Gulf War Era (8/90 through today), 1.3 million in WWII, 2.1 million in Korea, and 4.7 million in peacetime. The oldest living veteran
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11/11/2014
I can't believe this has happened to me again but it's true. First it was the Target breach that got me, months ago. Then last month it's the Home Depot breach that got me. Thank goodness I didn't lose any money. All I had to deal with was tons of spam emails and the creeps taking over my time f
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11/09/2014
Monday marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart" aka the Berlin Wall. The Wall was 96 miles long, and before the border was sealed on 8/13/1961, only after a Berlin railway bypass was built, approximately 3.5 million East Germans, 20% of the population, defec
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11/07/2014
As an agent we get reports from every source out there. And most you would feel should be pretty reputable. But when they have a statement on the very bottom of every report written in the smallest mice type that says “The margin of error in this report . . . “ what are we to think. And am I the
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11/03/2014
