Word: expressions
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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What to do? Investors already in hock must prepare a game plan on how they'll raise cash if they face a margin call, says Lloyd Woelfle of American Express Financial Advisers. If you're a novice investor tempted to buy on margin, using leverage is O.K., but you may need to set aside more money than you think to play this game. If you buy on margin, better to stick to high-quality equities, which have a lower downside risk. Borrowing to buy volatile Internet stocks is walking the high wire. And right now that wire is really, really...
What motivates rockers to relive their most painful moments on TV? For one, fans respond viscerally to hearing stars speak openly about personal obstacles. "They appreciated getting to know me more personally," says Donna Summer, who detailed her battle with depression. And it doesn't hurt that fans express their appreciation with cash. Sales of Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1977 Street Survivors more than doubled the week after its show premiered. In June, Tony Orlando took out a full-page ad in Variety to thank BTM for reviving his career...
...tough to imagine the CEO of a lean, mean operation falling for that one five years ago. It's tougher still to imagine that it would work, as a lot of CEOs apparently now do. Major businesses like Pfizer, American Express and Southwest Airlines, along with much smaller outfits, are laying out more than $55.3 billion annually--almost twice what they spent in the mid-1980s--on training. And the hottest new training device is the offsite, a company- or department-wide session away from the office. But today's offsite isn't a few meetings in a windowless hotel...
...same way that banks are bombarding customers with ATM and service fees, giants like Citigroup, MBNA, Bank of America and American Express are raising fees, to $20 or $30, for being late or over limit. They're also shortening and rigidly enforcing grace periods on bill payments, upping foreign-transaction fees and imposing penalty interest rates of 20% or more. Some bewildered customers are being punished for not charging enough (inactivity fees). And even if you pay your MasterCard, say, but fall behind on your Discover charge, the MasterCard issuer might raise your interest rate, because you're deemed...
Even American Express, which makes much of its money from merchants on its credit and charge cards, is using its popular Membership Rewards program as a fee generator. The company has hiked annual fees in the program 60%, to $40. If you want to link your personal card with your corporate card, that's another $10, please. And if you're late with your card payment, you pay a fee of around $15 and forgo your points for that month--unless you ransom them for another $15. Like many issuers, Amex has added a mandatory-arbitration clause, so customers...