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Wal-Mart’s dependence on food stamps, revealed

wal-martNow we know why Wal-Mart’s earnings were down sharply: Its customers are getting squeezed by Congress’s cuts in financial assistance. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / March 24, 2014)
Talk about a “poverty trap”! The phrase was recently used by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wisc., to suggest that the nation’s panoply of programs to aid low-income households was keeping them from rising into the middle class.

Wal-Mart’s annual report, issued late last week, puts a different spin on things. Buried within the long list of risk factors disclosed to its shareholders–that is, factors “outside our control” that could materially affect financial performance–are these: “changes in the amount of payments made under the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Plan and other public assistance plans, (and) changes in the eligibility requirements of public assistance plans.”

Wal-Mart followers say this is the first time the company has made a disclosure like that.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan, or SNAP, is the formal name for food stamps, which were slashed late last year and again this year by your Congress. The deal Congress reached on the farm bill and food stamps in January will cut an average $90 a month from the food assistance for 850,000 families. That’s on top of the cut averaging $29 a month (for a family of three) imposed in November.

Wal-Mart says it gets more than half its sales from its grocery departments. Since low-income shoppers are a big part of its clientele, it’s unsurprising that that squealing you hear is coming from its annual report. There’s no indication that Wal-Mart executives stepped up to the plate during the debate in Washington to warn Congress off these cuts in assistance to its customers.

One interesting sidelight of Wal-Mart’s disclosure is that it doesn’t actually discuss how the company benefits from public assistance programs by sticking the U.S. taxpayer with the bill for keeping its workforce fed and clothed. As Barry Ritholtz observed in November, the retailer is one of the nation’s biggest “welfare queens”: In many states its employees are the largest group of Medicaid and food stamp recipients.

Who’s paying for Wal-Mart’s addiction to paying its employees less than a living wage? You are.

But let’s not blame Wal-Mart alone. On average, America’s working families have been getting cheated of a fair share of their labor and productivity since at least the early 1980s, as can be seen in this chart from economists Atif Mian and Amir Sufi:

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The chart shows that while U.S. productivity has continued to soar, median family income has stagnated. Who gets the fruits of this labor? Shareholders and corporate executives, like those of Wal-Mart.

 

Source thechicagotribune.com

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49 Products You’ll Never Look At The Same Way Again

1. The first lip balms were based on human ear wax.

2. Ikea products are actually named based on a system. Beds, for example, are named after places in Norway.

3. And it’s been estimated that 1 in 10 European babies is conceived in an Ikea bed.

4. The Quaker Oats man is named Larry.

5. The Cap’n Crunch guy’s full name is Horatio Magellan Crunch (and he isn’t really a captain).

6. Electric vibrators were invented over a decade before the electric iron and vacuum cleaner, because priorities.

7. A chemical originally found in human sperm is used to prevent wrinkles and therefore you can get a facial* with it.

8. The first commercial toilet paper was made from manila-infused hemp sheets, although people preferred to wipe with pages from the Sears catalogue instead.

9. “Skunked” beer isn’t caused by a change in temperature, but by a change in light exposure.

10. One of Sony’s first products was an electronic rice cooker.

11. And one of Sharp’s was a mechanical pencil, from which the brand took its name.

12. Chicken McNuggets come in exactly four shapes and they all have names: bell, bone, ball, and boot.

13. For a limited time, Canadian McDonalds are selling something called the McLobster.

14. Lysol used to be marketed as a feminine hygiene product.

15. And Kotex was originally manufactured as bandage material during World War I.

16. Amazon’s logo features an arrow pointing from A to Z to show that it sells everything from A to Z.

17. The best-selling products at Wal-Mart are bananas.

18. Clairol once manufactured a “Touch of Yogurt” shampoo.

19. And Colgate attempted to sell the world on “kitchen entrees.”

20. Pepsi A.M. was a valiant stab at creating a breakfast soda that never took off.

21. Pepsi was originally called “Brad’s Drink” after its founder, Caleb Bradham.

22. Wrigley’s Chewing Gum was the first product to feature a supermarket barcode, in 1974.

23. Texas Pete hot sauce is made in North Carolina.

24. Because it’s so processed, American cheese can’t actually be marketed as “cheese” and instead has to go by “cheese product” and the like.

25. Oreos don’t contain any dairy and are actually vegan.

26. Since white strips wouldn’t be invented for another two thousand years or so, ancient Romans used urine as a teeth-whitening agent.

27. WD40 is called that because it took the company 40 attempts to get the formulation (which stands for “Water Displacement”) right.

28. The inventor of Vaseline claimed to have eaten a spoonful of it every day.

29. Pam cooking spray is thought to be an acronym for “Product of Arthur Meyerhoff,” who was one of its inventors.

30. Q-Tips were originally called “Baby Gays.”

31. The formula for Silly Putty was originally concocted to provide synthetic rubber to the military.

32. Nutella was popularized during World War II because chocolate supplies were extremely limited due to rationing, and so the brand’s founder used hazelnut paste to make the supply last.

33. Cheerios were originally called Cheerioats.

34. Play-Doh began its life as wallpaper cleaner.

35. The man who invented the Pringles can was cremated and buried in one.

36. Nike shoes were first conceived on a waffle iron.

37. The first Apple logo featured Sir Isaac Newton.

38. The glue on the back of postage stamps (British ones, at least) contains 5.9 calories.

39. Barbie’s real name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

40. Mattel briefly released Growing Up Skipper, a doll that grew breasts when you twisted its arm. The tagline was “She’s two dolls in one for twice as much fun!

41. Pizza Hut perfume is real.

42. Can openers weren’t invented until about 50 years after the invention of canned food, making them incredibly difficult to open in the meantime.

43. All of the letters in the word “typewriter” can be found on the same row on a QWERTY keyboard. (Same with “Alaska.”)

44. Mayonnaise can be used to suffocate head lice.

45. Pez dispensers were originally designed to look like cigarette lighters and marketed to encourage people to quit smoking.

46. Rogaine was originally meant to treat high blood pressure, before people noticed that its side effect was hair growth in men.

47. Starbucks’ Trenta-size cup is larger than the average adult human stomach.

48. And the coffee company is named for a character in Moby-Dick (although it was almost named “Pequod” after the whaling ship in the book).

49. Magnums have the same length and base circumference as regular condoms.

Sourced From Buzzfeed.Com

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EA’s Worst Company In America Reign Comes To An End With Loss To Time Warner Cable

wcia2014header

Video game giant Electronic Arts stepped into the Worst Company In America nonagon of unpleasantness this morning crowned with two Golden Poos and with the confidence that the tournament’s only two-time winner deserves. But in the end, it wasn’t EA that was carried out of the arena in victory — it was Time Warner Cable.

In the narrowest margin of victory since 2011, when BP beat Bank of America for the WCIA by less than one percent, Time Warner Cable upset EA’s attempt at a three-peat by eking out 51.2% of the vote.

Despite its cock-up of the Battlefield 4 and Titanfall releases, EA just didn’t have the all-out support that it had received in the previous two tournaments. And while Time Warner Cable has always merited a spot in the WCIA brackets, the company’s pending merger with former WCIA champ Comcast undoubtedly played into readers’ voting decisions. Judging by the absolute crushing that Comcast brought down on Yahoo in its first round match, there is a lot of hatred out there for the nation’s largest cable/Internet provider, and today’s TWC result confirms that voters are more than happy to spread that hate around.

In theory, there could be a final Death Match showdown between merger partners TWC and Comcast, but there are some big speedbumps in the way. Before we can even start planning that contest, TWC will need to defeat Koch Industries in Round Two.

americanlululemonAMERICAN AIRLINES VS. LULULEMON
It probably not a surprise that the nation’s newly merged, now-largest airline beat out a yoga apparel company with pants that were so see-through that the CEO, and thecompany co-founder, and others had to step down. In fact, WCIA newcomer Lululemon should not be in downward-facing-dog after its loss, as it managed to earn nearly 1/3 of the vote against a much bigger company in an industry people love to hate.

The next round will be a true test of American’s WCIA worth, in a red-white-and-black-and-blue battle with Bank of America.

ticketmasteraetnaTICKETMASTER/LIVE NATION VS. AETNA
Even though we hear lots of hate for health insurance companies and one or two always makes the bracket, they never seem to go very far. The latest healthcare hopeful to go all Glass Joe in the WCIA ring is Aetna, which didn’t really stand a chance against perennial Final Four contender Ticketmaster/Live Nation. After all, not everyone has Aetna, but if you want to see a concert or sporting event, there’s a good chance you’ll be paying the Ticketmaster piper his fee.

Looking ahead to Round Two, Ticketmaster will face off against either newcomer SeaWorld or the acetaminophen-pushers of Johnson & Johnson/McNeil.

For those keeping track at home, with four matches left to go in Round One, here’s how the bracket looks right now:
2014wciabracketdayfour

 

Source theconsumerist.com

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