ACROSS THE BOARD : THE WEEK AHEAD.MONDAY Treasury holds T-bill auction. ALSO TUESDAY: Labor Department The Department of Labor (DOL) administers federal labor laws for the Executive Branch of the federal government. Its mission is "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working releases consumer prices for November. Commerce Department releases business inventories for October. U.S. Department of Agriculture will announce the tobacco-growing quota for next year, relying heavily on the tobacco companies' buying projections. WEDNESDAY: Commerce Department releases housing starts for November. Federal Reserve releases industrial production for November. American Bankers Association The American Bankers Association (ABA) is comprised of banks and other financial institutions. It seeks to promote the strength and profitability of the banking industry by Lobbying federal and state governments, building industry consensus on key issues, and providing products and releases consumer loan delinquencies for third quarter. BIZ BYTES GET THE POINSETTIA poinsettia: see spurge. poinsettia Popular flowering plant (Euphorbia pulcherrima), best-known member of the diverse spurge family. Native to Mexico and Central America, it grows in moist, wet, wooded ravines and on rocky hillsides. : Chances are, the Paul Ecke Ranch Inc. grew the poinsettia that you're buying this month. And you can thank Paul Ecke, who first sold the red-leafed plants more than 75 years ago at roadside stands in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . The Eckes now control about 80 percent of the $222 million market for poinsettias, valued because they capture the colors of Christmas. Which makes current company President Paul Ecke III ``the Bill Gates (person) Bill Gates - William Henry Gates III, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, which he co-founded in 1975 with Paul Allen. In 1994 Gates is a billionaire, worth $9.35b and Microsoft is worth about $27b. of poinsettias,'' according to nursery owner Sam Bridge. Overall poinsettia sales last year rose more than 3 percent, and ``with a stronger economy and consumers feeling good, we expect a stronger rise in sales this year,'' said Ecke, whose Encinitas ranch offers about 30 commercial varieties of poinsettias for sale, but has some 600 different plants blooming in greenhouses. - Bloomberg News SITE OF THE WEEK HOLIDAYS.NET: The Internet has really come into its own this season, with sites geared to the holidays cropping up left and right. Among the best are ones that let you see the Christmas market in Nuremburg, Germany, at www.christkindlesmarkt.de/live/elivecam1.html, or check out New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of City's Rockefeller Center, at www.ftna.com/cents.cgi. An online menorah menorah Multibranched candelabra used by Jews during the festival of Hanukkah. It holds nine candles (or has nine receptacles for oil). Eight of the candles stand for the eight days of Hanukkah—one is lit the first day, two the second, and so on. tells you how many lights to light each day of Hanukkah at torah.org/chanukah.html. Finally, the calendar at the Kwanzaa Information Center (new.melanet.com/apps/calendar/calendar.cgi) includes Kwanzaa-related events across the country. |
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