Ranking 48th in population when compared to the rest of the states, Montana has plenty of room to accommodate tourists and visitors, as well as plenty of natural wonders to show, including Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park. Tourism, agriculture, and mining are Montana’s primary source of income. Some interesting facts about Montana:1. The mining industry contribution to the state economy in 2005 was $2.3 billion.2. It ranks number 6 in coal production in the United States.3. Montana currently requires that public utilities companies obtain 5% of its energy from renewable sources, with a goal of 15% by the year 2015.4. Wind power is of major importance to the state, Montana potential wind power generation ranks it number 5 nationwide.5. Montana’s main crop is wheat. 6. Montana is rich in gas, oil, and coal.7. Montana’s gross ...

Recently, a good buddy of mine introduced me to a callback service which he has been using for a while.
I took the “plunge” and downgraded my mobile phone service plan with MobileOne (M1) and picked up one of the callback cards at a mom-and-pop shop. The voice quality is actually not bad, to my surprise. But my main objective is the savings that accompanies the change:-
As you can see, the savings of 58.8% is significant. Not only that, the unused talk-time on the callback card can be “rolled over” for 6 months (i.e 424 minutes of talk-time must be consumed within next 6 months, which is not an issue). …

Good CEOs versus Bad CEOsStockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Ken Fisher, head of the $30 billion Fisher Asset Management, a very long time Forbes columnist, and author of the books Super Stocks, The Wall Street Waltz, 100 Minds That Made the Market, and The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't. He is also coming out with a new book in the Fall, The Ten Roads to Riches: The Way the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!), published by Wiley.If you missed Part 1 of the interview, you can see it here, and if you missed Part 2, you can ...

Debt Laden Stocks versus Debt Free StocksStockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Ken Fisher, head of the $30 billion Fisher Asset Management, a very long time Forbes columnist, and author of the books Super Stocks, The Wall Street Waltz, 100 Minds That Made the Market, and The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't. He is also coming out with a new book in the Fall, The Ten Roads to Riches: The Way the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!), published by Wiley.If you missed Part 1 of the interview, you can see it here, and if you missed Part 2, ...

According to the American Trucking Associations:

The American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 0.3 percent in July, marking the first month-to-month drop since April. The seasonally adjusted tonnage index equaled 116.2 (2000 = 100) in July, while the not seasonally adjusted index fell 0.1 percent to 119.7.

What is today the state of South Dakota was actually acquired by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 for $15 million. Jefferson’s investment has definitely paid huge dividends. Some interesting facts about South Dakota follow:1. There is no corporate income tax.2. There is no personal income tax.3. South Dakota has a population of about 800,000.4. The state gross product in 2007 was $34,000 million.5. Forbes Magazine ranked Sioux Falls as the Best Small Place to do business in 2008.6. The South Dakota housing market is among the most affordable in the country.7. Mt. Rushmore National Memorial is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the state.8. 10% of Dakota’s gross product is produced by the manufacturing industry. 9. Tourism generates over $1 billion in revenues each year.10. Black ...

Utah’s arid land is not very suitable for agriculture, but it is rich in minerals, making it very profitable for the mining industry. Strategically located, Utah’s economy is one of the strongest in the nation. Some interesting facts about Utah are:1. Utah has recently cut personal income taxes by $400 million. Beginning January 1, 2008, Utah applies a fixed tax rate of 5% to all taxpayers.2. They have incentives for corporations to relocate to Utah, and may award eligible companies up to $500,000.3. The mining industry in the state focuses primarily on copper, gold, molybdenum, and magnesium.4. The aerospace industry, together with the military industry, are very important to Utah’s economy.5. There are 7 universities and colleges in the Utah offering programs geared toward the aerospace industry.6. Electric energy in Utah is among ...

Econoday has an article out today showing the relationships between the durable goods accounts: shipments, new orders, backlog and inventory. They note that there are now some signs of order cancellations, which demonstrates that the apparent strength shown by strong new orders in recent months was somewhat illusory.

A major risk for the outlook is that aerospace backlogs are making up an unusually high proportion of total backlogs, now at 43 percent vs. 35 percent only four years ago before recovery in the airline sector began to feed a rush of Boeing and Airbus orders. But the airline sector is, as are many other sectors, now slowing, putting pressure on the finances of airlines and raising questions over their commitment to prior orders. To close, the graph below tracks year-on-year percentage changes between unfilled orders for aircraft (black) and total unfilled orders (red). –Mark Pender, Econoday senior financial writer

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This is a reprint of my 25 August 2008 RealMoney column.

Owens & Minor (OMI) is the nation’s leading distributor of medical and surgical supplies to the acute-care market. It’s also a health care supply-chain management company and a national direct-to-consumer supplier of testing and monitoring supplies for diabetics.

Most of its revenue is derived from fees based on a percentage of the value of products distributed, but 32% of its revenue is contracted on the basis of the company’s costs. Its primary competitor in medical/surgical distribution is Cardinal Health (CAH) . In the direct-to-consumer diabetes supply business, its largest competitor is Liberty Medical, a subsidiary of MedcoHealth Solutions (MHS) .

Owens & Minor has been establishing a track record of earnings surprises, beating analysts’ estimates in each of the last three quarters. Analysts are beginning to reward the company with higher full-year 2008 and 2009 estimates, which now stand at

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