Word: bottom
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...International expansion is continuing despite the financial crisis, which has ravaged Benetton's bottom line. Profit in the first half of this year plunged 60% to $42 million from $115 million in the comparable period of 2008; sales in the same period were down 11% to just under $1.3 billion. The company has responded by putting in place a restructuring plan that mainly targets operating efficiency in its supply chain. Many financial analysts are lukewarm about the company's prospects because of the weak consumer-spending climate and the tough competition. "Benetton remains under pressure from multiple angles...
...jobs in factories and urban centers. But that strategy has proven insufficient. Income levels in the countryside badly trail those in cities in many countries, while the FAO estimates that the number of poor going hungry in 2009 reached an all-time high at more than 1 billion. "The bottom of the pyramid really depends on agriculture," says Suresh Babu, senior fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington. "There is no other way to bring them out of poverty except with agriculture...
...them invest in labs or radiology clinics so they generate revenue not just from the procedures they do themselves but also from the ones they farm out. Others buy state-of-the-art diagnostic hardware and charge state-of-the-art fees to use it. "Focus on your bottom line," urges a brochure for in-office CT-scan machines from one manufacturer. And as long as insurers pay the bills, patients don't ask what things cost. "A colonoscopy used to take 45 minutes to perform," says Ted Epperly, board chairman of the American Academy of Family Physicians...
...just the mortgage-interest and property-tax deductions amount to $96 billion per year. The elimination of those two deductions alone would virtually pay for health-care reform. I recall the fear expressed when the removal of interest deductions for auto loans and credit cards was first discussed. The bottom did not fall out of those sectors. Nor will it fall out of the housing market...
...jump from 36th place to 20th in this year's eighth annual world press freedom index. Atop the list, which is compiled based on questionnaires completed by hundreds of media experts and journalists worldwide, are a Scandinavian quartet - Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden - and Ireland. The bottom three spots are occupied by Turkmenistan (173rd), North Korea (174th) and, for the third year in the row, Eritrea (175th). The report calls these nations "the infernal trio ... where the media are so suppressed they are non-existent." In between those poles, a few other regions made notable moves this year. Though...