The most produced aircraft ever

Unless you are an aircraft fanatic, you would never guess.

It is the Cessna 172, which is still in production and have been produced since 1956 and currently is manufactured in the USA (country of origin) and also in France.

It is estimated that were produced to date, 43.000 units of this aircraft model.



Source: (Goyer, R, 2012)

Obesity is a serious health problem – Top 10 Countries

Some people say that obesity is a result of wealth and abundance, because usually this problem occurs more often in some of the wealthy countries in the world.

Although the countries affected are usually economic developed, that doesn’t mean that all obese people are wealthy.

Remember that when the family budget is tight, families tend to buy cheaper food, which usually is not so healthy food.

Unfortunately obesity besides the mobility issues also brings along other serious diseases.

If you currently are having any obesity issues, please seek for help before your health deteriorates, and remember, as you can see in TV Shows as "The Biggest Loser", although it is hard, it is possible to recover a healthy life.

Below you will the top 10 countries with obesity issues and the percentage of obese that population:

1 United States  30.6%

2 Mexico  24.2%

3 United Kingdom  23%

4 Slovakia  22.4%

5 Greece  21.9%

6 Australia  21.7%

7 New Zealand  20.9%

8 Hungary  18.8% 

9 Luxembourg  18.4% 

10 Czech Republic  14.8%

...

16 Portugal  12.8% 

 

 

Source: Data from 2003, OECD Health Data 2005. Aggregates compiled by NationMaster.

China vs. USA – Exports Face off

The USA and China are the top economies in the world and China threatens to take the top spot from the US very soon.
So, a great way to check the differences in their economy strategies is take a better look on their exports.
As you can see below by the sales volume, China is more focused in the external market than the USA, which relies more in their internal market.
Although China has more focus than USA in industries that require more human resources as footwear, clothing and furniture, China also invested in industries as electronic equipment and machinery, and that destroys the myth that China is not developed in this type of industries.
The USA only has a clear superiority in their exports on aircraft, spacecraft and pharmaceutical products.

Check out below the top exports of USA and China:

USA Top 10 Exports (2013)
1. Machinery: $213,108,199,000 (13.5% of total exports)
2. Electronic equipment: $165,604,449,000 (10.5%)
3. Mineral fuels including oil: $148,426,743,000 (9.4%)
4. Vehicles excluding trains and streetcars: $133,640,479,000 (8.5%)
5. Aircraft and spacecraft: $115,380,944,000 (7.3%)
6. Optical, technical and medical apparatus: $84,281,276,000 (5.3%)
7. Pearls, precious stones, precious metals and coins: $72,830,232,000 (4.6%)
8. Plastics: $60,836,970,000 (3.9%)
9. Organic chemicals: $46,510,903,000 (2.9%)
10. Pharmaceutical products: $39,742,717,000 (2.5%)

China Top 10 Exports (2013)
1. Electronic equipment: $561,703,550,000 (25.4% of total exports)
2. Machinery: $383,310,504,000 (17.3%)
3. Knit or crochet clothing and accessories: $96,810,372,000 (4.4%)
4. Furniture, lighting, signs and prefabricated buildings: $86,435,683,000 (3.9%)
5. Optical, technical and medical apparatus: $74,689,712,000 (3.4%)
6. Non-knit and non-crochet clothing and accessories: $68,271,919,000 (3.1%)
7. Plastics: $61,775,281,000 (2.8%)
8. Vehicles excluding trains and streetcars: $58,588,779,000 (2.7%)
9. Iron or steel articles: $57,368,576,000 (2.6%)
10. Footwear: $50,766,207,000 (2.3%)

Exports data source:  World’s Top Exports

World’s Top 10 Countries - Tourism Destinations

Following my latest post about the Portuguese tourism, find out below the top 10 countries that received more tourists in 2012.

Source: UNWTO

The World's First Ever TV Ad

It is a very simple ad, but a historical one.

July 1st of 1941 was aired the world's first legal television commercial advertisement, for Bulova watches, before a baseball game between . The 10-second ad displayed a clock superimposed on a map of the U.S.A.

Check out the first ad below:

 

FedEx first day in 1973

Federal Express, currently known as FedEx started their operations in April 17th of 1973.

This company started with 14 planes in Memphis International Airport, and during their first night they delivered only 186 packages throughout 25 cities in the U.S.A.

41 years later, FedEx is currently the world's largest express transportation company and the world's fourth largest in terms of fleet size with more than 600 planes, delivering package to more than 375 destinations worldwide.

Is NFL under a socialist business model?

NFL is a $10 billion-a-year business, with 32 member teams whose players compete on the field, but whose owners cooperate in a socialist business model keeping America's favorite sport very profitable.

Is NFL under a socialist business model?
Under NFL rules, all the teams are required to share 80% of their revenue with each other.

So, even teams that generate more revenue, only keep 20% of that advantage for themselves. The rest 80% revenue which they generate are sent to a shared pool of revenue and then distributed among all other teams.

Also, NFL has a draft model for new players and there are salary caps, to control irrational competition among teams.

Why this creative business model works?
Applying this model allows NFL to create the most competitive league. Every season, all teams have a real shot to win the Super Bowl, even the smaller ones.

That always create a magnetic interest effect over this sport, generating a huge fan base all over the USA, because their favorite local team, always have a shot of winning the trophy.

Therefore, if you successful increase your fan base and keep their interest on, you will raise ticket sales (25% of NFL revenues) and increase TV ratings, then profits go through the roof as NFL profits did.


Note: If you want to know more about this topic I recommend that you check "60 Minutes" interview of NFL CEO Roger Goodell, which inspire this article.

Size matters?

Check these interesting stats about the biggest countries in the world and find out for yourself.

Top countries by land area:
1st – Russia
2nd – Canada
3rd – USA
4th – China
5th - Brazil
…
105th – Portugal

Top countries by population:
1st – China
2nd – India
3rd – USA
4th – Indonesia
5th – Brazil
…
76th – Portugal

Top countries by population density:
1st – Monaco
2nd – Singapore
3rd – Malta
4th – Maldives
5th – Bahrain
…
65th – Portugal

Top countries by GDP per capita in 2012 (IMF):
1st – Qatar
2nd – Luxembourg
3rd – Singapore
4th – Norway
5th – Brunei
…
45th - Portugal

Country Brand Index 2012 - 2013

According to Futurebrand ranking:

 

Portugal was 32nd in this Country Brand Ranking.
 

Dollar to Euro - My Economic Prediction on 22nd Oct 2008

I answered a question in linkedin on the 22nd October 2008, where I predicted that Dollar would loose value to Euro in the near future.

It's time to do the math.
22nd Oct 2008 - 1 Dollar = 0,7786 Euro
26th Nov 2009 - 1 Dollar = 0,6635 Euro
So, Dollar devaluated to Euro 15% in the last 13 months

Click here to see this question on linkedin forum.

So, in 2008, I recommended a "Great Deal" to India, as you can read bellow.

The question was:
Would it be a good strategy for India to borrow trillions(or whatever is available) of dollars?

And my answer was:
It could be a great move if:
- India borrow in Dollars
- Buy immediately another solid currency as “Euros” with those borrowed Dollars
- And by keeping the original debt in Dollars, is expected that Debt will have a value decrease automatically if India previously converted those financial assets to another currency as “Euro”.

Note that although European Central Bank also pumped some millions of Euros to the market, it wasn’t even close of the sum that American Federal Reserve pumped into the market, so it is expected that Dollar depreciate more to the Euro.

To all Americans that read this, Dollar depreciation also could bring good news for you.

Although the goods that America imports are going to be more expensive, your products made in America will look cheaper to the rest of the world, and so is expected a increase in your exports, boosting American Economy.

However there is a great risk that with dollar depreciation, America Demand worldwide will decrease even more and that could affect other economies that are dependant of their exports to the US, creating a “Domino effect” of recession worldwide.

In my opinion, with globalization, fewer countries are exclusively dependant of one country to export their goods, and so, with the actual economic scenario almost all countries will suffer a little with America demand decrease, but only a few countries will suffer a lot, and probably that will not generate a “Domino effect”.