Word: benchmarking
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...clear, late spring day, hundreds of people pass the Morison statue. A few breeze on by-usually they are bikers or roller bladers or skaters. Others stop for a while to notice and admire the sculpture. Still others use the statue's location as a benchmark or rendezvous point...
...auto industry, where being biggest or fastest has always mattered most, the startling new benchmark for bragging rights is being greenest. That's what Ford Motor Co. chief executive Jacques Nasser seemed to be suggesting last week when he announced that beginning this fall, the company's popular F series pickup trucks will pollute the air no more than its cars do today. Just a year ago, Ford said it was cleaning up its sport-utility vehicles' emissions. Now Nasser says the 2000 model trucks will meet Environmental Protection Agency regulations mandated for the year 2004--without costing consumers...
...excuses. There was the dubious, theoretical 10,000, reached March 12 by adding individual peak prices for each component to come up with Dow 10,043. Never mind that at no point during the day was the average near that level. Then came the modestly credible intraday benchmark last Tuesday, when the Dow briefly traded at 10,002 based on actual prices before ending the day much lower. On Friday the Dow traded well above the magical mark most of the day, only to sell off again...
This credo is at the heart of what scares traditionalists about the market and entices the newer generation. I was schooled at Goldman Sachs--could it be just 15 years ago?--that nothing could be safer, and have less risk, than U.S. Treasuries. They set the safety benchmark against which you could measure everything else, and when I got in the business, that benchmark was a hefty 14%. That return, backed by the full faith and credit of Uncle Sam, was simply too competitive to even consider equities. Stocks had done nothing for a generation; bonds seemed like the only...
...outwheeled, GM will unveil its new Chevrolet Suburban next month. Considering that the Excursion is nearly a foot longer than the current Suburban (18 ft., 3 in.) don't be surprised if GM has enlisted the Pentagon for design cues. "We set the benchmark for this type of vehicle," boasts Chevrolet/GMC spokesman Dee Allen. "We don't intend to simply hand it over...