Automotive Ownership Map

Right now is a really bad time to try to keep track of which auto company owns which brands since they are all consolidating, selling & canceling their various brands. Till the time comes that there is a GM-Ford brand (and I would not be surprised to see that in the next decade) a tree of all the various brand branches is a nice thing to have.

source: Jalopnik

Map of US Home Mortgages That Have Been Renegotiated

There have been many maps, graphs, grids & breakdowns of the housing crash of recent years and the following mad dash to cover losses, limit foreclosures & convert to fixed rate mortgages. This is one that looks at it from the point of view of mortgages that have been renegotiated.

Calling the map the “Map of Misery” it reports that the CA, NV & AZ area is showing the largest grouping of “misery” with FL, WA and the Quad State area of DC, NY, NJ & MD as a close second.

source: Business Week

Breakdown of Big 10 Media Companies

This is based on 2001 data so is in effect woefully out of date but is interesting in it simple visual breakdown of the companies that rule all media. Shuffle as they will with percentages and ownership levels of various companies there is a low chance that the major players will move much so it is a good jumping off point for further research.

source: The Nation

Economy is Soft but Porn Industry is Flaccid

Till now, porn has been a recession-proof business. As many business watchmen will tell you Porn is often a bell weather industry and right now Porn is on the decline.

The numbers are:

DVD porn is down between 10% and 30%, depending on which genre you scrutinize.

Joy King, executive vice president of Wicked Pictures, says the smallest drop is in “couples-friendly porn” Women account for roughly half of this audience.

“Gonzo” is having some of the biggest loss.

Online Porn which has long held some of the largest viewers but smallest per capita revenue is also on decline.

source: Peter Bart

Price of Oil per Barrel since 1940

Crude Oil prices have been in the news lately and have most recently hit a symbolic high of $114 a barrel. These prices are still lower if you account for inflation compared to during the Iraq/Iran war of 1980. Also the United States still enjoys a import price over the rest of the world of around $5-$7. Still though we are on track to overtake the old record of 1980 by the end of 2Q at the latest if everything stays the same.

Here is a graph posted by the New York Times that breaks down the price of oil adjusted for inflation since 1940.

Also the New York Times gives a audio primer on the actions of American oil consumption and price for the last 70 years.

Breakdown of Parent Co. Subsidiaries in Organic Food

Organic food subsidiaries and the parent companies that own them broken down into a visual graph. Listing the most popular organic food brand names and ordering them by market share.

Prefer Coke over Pepsi? Well then do you prefer Odwalla (Coke) over Naked (Pepsi)?

Or did you know that trough strategic alliance Heinz has the most organic food brand names.
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