Archive for January 31st, 2012

The Buffett Rule … a few facts might help.

January 31, 2012

At the risk of stifling the tax rate hysteria with facts, the Congressional Research Service did a great study on the “Buffett Rule”.

One of the key charts – with a couple of Homa Files accentuators – says that

  • “Millionaires & billionaires” tax rate is – on average – 11 points higher than folks making under $100k.
  • About 1 in 4 millionaires & billionaires (less than 100,000 tax payers) – those with the lowest effect tax rates – pay a lower rate than about 10% of the more than 100 million folks making under $100,000
  • Applying the SOTU Buffett Rule – minimum 30% for folks making more than $1 million – would jack up taxes for about 1/2 of millionarires and billionaires.

Is jacking the rate on about 200,000 taxpayers really going to get us out of this fiscal mess we’re in?

I’m betting the under.

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Supplementary data:

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Coke bails after taking the Nestea plunge …

January 31, 2012

TakeAway: American consumer preferences are shifting away from cola to healthier options.  So, Coca-Cola is  bailing from its partnership with Nestle.  Coca-Cola will no longer market Nestea-branded products.  Instead, it will focus on marketing its own RTD tea beverages …

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Excerpted from brandchannel.com, “Tea Party Ends for Coca-Cola and Nestea”

Coca-Cola and Nestle are no longer taking the Nestea Plunge together in America. The two multinationals are dissolving their Beverage Partners Worldwide group, which producesand markets Nestea-branded products, in the United States, so they can each market their own beverages.

Thanks to America’s sudden fascination with healthy living, cola sales are going down, so Coke is looking to diversify its offerings in the tea-and-juice department.

Forbes sees the two companies redirecting the partnership’s efforts on Canada and Europe, along with plans to “enter into a license agreement with Nestle in Taiwan and Hong Kong.”

This likely means that Coca-Cola will put more energy into its own ready-to-drink tea products such as Gold Peak iced teas, CSP notes. “The company recently also purchased organic tea maker Honest Tea and will soon launch Fuze teas, a fusion of tea and juice flavors, to replace Nestea,” CSP notes.

Vending Times points out that PepsiCo, Coca-Cola’s archrival, “dominates the category with its Lipton RTD teas under a joint venture with Unilever NV.”

Edit by KJM

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