Lest you focus only on stocks analysts expect to double, or the biggest stock bargains, here's a brief recap of some of the more unusual financial news of the past few weeks:
The picture's great, but it only gets The Food Network
Retailers such as Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), Target (NYSE:TGT), and Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) may want to emphasize that their bargains are found inside their stores, not in their parking lots. Outside a California Wal-Mart, a man was caught trying to sell a "brand-new 37-inch Sony flatscreen television" for $100. As it turns out, the "television" was actually an oven door.
Lend him a hand
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) must have a red face. According to The St. Petersburg Times, a Tampa branch manager wouldn't bend a rule requiring a thumbprint identification from a customer -- who had no arms. This is an excellent reminder that sometimes, rules -- and the employees who follow them -- need to be flexible.
A few billion here, a few billion there…
Have you found your trusty calculator sufficient for your needs? Well, if you want to work with America's national debt, you'll likely run into trouble. That's why a guy named Matt Miles has introduced the "Big Red" calculator, which displays 16 digits, and can therefore reflect our not-so-tiny debt of nearly $12 trillion. (At the beginning of September, the national debt stood at $11,792, 918,170,836.)
When sponsors and venues really don't mix
Anyone doing business in foreign countries should be careful about the companies or organizations with whom they partner. In Muslim countries, where alcohol is banned by the tenets of Islam, it's probably best not to conduct a concert tour sponsored by a major spirits distributor. The Black Eyed Peas discovered this firsthand in mostly Muslim Malaysia, where a big chunk of the population was forbidden to attend their show because of their sponsor, Diageo (NYSE:DEO).
Good thing it wasn't a keg
Speaking of alcohol, beer purveyors such as Anheuser-Busch and Molson Coors (NYSE:TAP) might want to offer beer in hip flasks and other flatter containers, if only to better serve patrons' shoplifting needs. Lisa Newsome of Louisiana was allegedly caught waddling out of a store with a 20-pound, 24-can case of beer between her legs.
Now that we've amused you, check out any other article in Fooldom for a dose of the "educate" and "enrich" portions of our motto. Need a place to start? Try the market's cheapest stock.
