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How Social Commerce Is Winning By Going After The Entire Shopping Experience, From Browsing To Sale

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BII social commerce funnel

If social commerce is ever going to fulfill its ambitions, it must go after all parts of what is known as the consumer purchase funnel.

The classic funnel might be divided into three main stages: consumers discover new products on Facebook or Pinterest, then form an opinion, and finally move on to the purchase stage. 

Social commerce is all about inspiration and product discovery, but entrepreneurs and retailers are anxious to transform that interest at the "top-of-the-funnel," into sales. 

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we analyzed the most recent data and spoke to leaders in the social commerce space to understand how their companies are adding value at different stages of the retail and e-commerce purchase funnel. To do so they're building social networks around e-commerce platforms, partnering with brands, or otherwise transforming social commerce's strengths in Pinterest-style digital window-shopping into a clear value proposition.

Access The Full Report, Graphics, And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>

Here's how social commerce companies are driving sales: 

In full, the report: 

The report also includes an exclusive collection of eight charts and datasets, and a full-resolution version of our social commerce sales funnel graphic. Subscribers to BI Intelligence also have full access to our ongoing coverage of social commerce, including our May 2013 Social Commerce Report

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The World Trade Center 'Tribute In Light' To Honor Victims Of 9/11

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It's been twelve years since the devastating 9/11 terrorist attacks, and as the sun goes down tonight, the "Tribute in Light" will once again light up the New York City skyline.

Placed next to the World Trade Center site, 88 search lights will turn on to show a seemingly neverending beam into the heavens.

From Mail Online, writing about the event on the 10th anniversary:

Last night the group of 30 electricians, stage hands and technicians pushed on with calibrating the 88 bulbs that will be projected upwards from Ground Zero in memory of those killed in the attacks.

It is one of a host of events in memory of the 2,753 who died on the site of the Twin Towers in 2001.

The lights will cap off a day of somber remembrance, which included a moment of silence at the White House and the Pentagon as well as friends and family members at the 9/11 memorial reading the names of those killed. Yesterday, construction also began of a national memorial in Shanksville, Penn. in memory of those who lost their lives on United Flight 93, according to NBC.

On a clear night, the beams can be seen from more than 60 miles away.

Here's a live stream from NBC News: 

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US Government May Seize NYC Skyscraper Over Alleged Business Links To Iran

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lower manhattan skyline atlantic cup sailing nyc harbor

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the owners of a New York City skyscraper at the center of a long-running dispute violated U.S. laws against doing business with Iran.

The ruling, which is likely to be appealed, could result in the building, 650 Fifth Avenue, being seized by the U.S. government.

The ruling came just days before two parallel trials were to begin in federal court in New York in which the Justice Department and private plaintiffs were seeking to take control of the building.

"I understand the monkey wrench I'm throwing into things," U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest said in a telephone conference with lawyers on Wednesday.

Forrest, granting a request by U.S. prosecutors to decide the case ahead of trial, said there was "no triable issue of fact."

Forrest found that the majority owner of the building, the Alavi Foundation, knew that two minority owners were fronts for Iran's Bank Melli, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and U.S. money laundering laws.

Enacted in 1977, IEEPA empowers the president to deal with threats related to national emergencies. In 1995, President Bill Clinton issued an executive order banning the supply of most services from the United States to Iran.

Lawyers for the Alavi Foundation and the minority owners, Assa Corp and Assa Co Ltd, did not immediately respond to request for comment on Wednesday.

According to the U.S. government's lawsuit, the building was constructed in 1979 by a foundation set up by the Shah of Iran. That foundation was eventually succeeded by the Alavi Foundation after the Iranian revolution. In 1989, Alavi and Bank Melli used the two Assa entities to disguise Bank Melli's involvement, the government said in its lawsuit.

In court documents, Alavi's lawyers have argued that the building has not been controlled by Iran since 1995, when U.S. sanctions took effect.

Private plaintiffs, victims of attacks that they contend were aided by Iran, filed their own lawsuit seeking to seize related assets.

Wednesday's ruling does not include seven properties that are in Alavi's name only, which the private plaintiffs will seek to seize in a non-jury trial, Forrest said.

(Reporting by Bernard Vaughan; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Mark Zuckerberg: 699 Million People Use Facebook Today And Soon We'll Connect The Whole World (FB)

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mark zuckerberg waving at san francisco gay pride parade

About a year ago, Facebook hit a major milestone: 1 billion users. Since then the company is still growing but not by leaps and bounds.

Facebook now sees 1.15 billion monthly users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference on Wednesday.

Way more than half of them log in every day: 699 million daily active users, he said.

Now the company has way bigger goals.

"We're at this interesting point. For a while getting to a billion people was this big rallying cry," Zuckerberg said. "When we started getting closer to that goal, we realized, no one wakes up in the morning saying, 'I want to get 1/7 of the people in the world to do something.'"

While 1 billion users was a "nice round number" and "happens to be bigger than anything else that anyone's built, a billion isn't a magical number," he said.

So Facebook wants to solve a bigger problem like "connecting the next 5 billion people. It's going to be really hard because a lot of them don't have Internet access."

To do that, Zuckerberg dreams of nothing less than "over the next five or ten years, we want to understand everything in the world semantically and kind of map everything out. We want to play a role in helping people create companies and create jobs."

That's a lofty goal. But he's serious. Last week Facebook launched an organization called Internet.org, with a mission to bring the Internet to the parts of the world that lack it. He's brought in some big guns to help too, including Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung.

SEE ALSO: Marissa Mayer: 'It's Treason' For Yahoo To Disobey The NSA

SEE ALSO: Here's How Steve Jobs Helped Invent Cloud Computing, According To Marc Benioff

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NASA Is Using Decommissioned Air Force Drones To Study Tropical Storms

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Global Hawk Drone

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA is using of a pair of decommissioned military drones to study how tropical storms develop over the Atlantic Ocean.

The campaign, known as the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel, or HS3, began last year with one Global Hawk unmanned aircraft outfitted with instruments to probe the environment around a developing storm.

With two planes available for the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, scientists are focusing on the interior of storms as well. The project could improve storm prediction and forecast models by shedding light on how tropical cyclones can rapidly intensify.

"The second aircraft will measure eyewall and rainband winds, and precipitation, something we didn't get to do last year," project lead scientist Scott Braun, a meteorologist with the U.S. space agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a NASA interview.

"Just as we did in 2012, the first aircraft will examine the large-scale environment that tropical storms form in and move through, and how that environment affects the inner workings of the storms," he said.

The NASA Global Hawks were built for the U.S. Air Force by Northrop Grumman Corp, part of a fleet used for surveillance missions over Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

Global Hawks, which first flew in 1998, also have supported disaster relief efforts in Haiti and Japan. NASA first used the planes for scientific research in April 2010.

Global Hawks are particularly suited for atmospheric studies since they can reach altitudes greater than 60,000 feet, about twice as high as commercial airplanes, and can stay airborne for up to about 28 hours.

For its hurricane research program, NASA is remotely flying its Global Hawks from the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. Flights began in late August and are scheduled to run through September 23. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30 and typically peaks in early to mid-September.

The next flight from Wallops is scheduled to leave no earlier than Friday, NASA spokesman Keith Koehler said.

The project is expected to run through next year.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Stacey Joyce)

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Florida Pastor Arrested Before He Could Burn 2,998 Qurans On 9/11 Anniversary

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Terry JonesMULBERRY, Fla. (AP) — A Florida pastor has been arrested before he could set fire to almost 3,000 Qurans.

Polk County sheriff's officials say the Rev. Terry Jones and his associate pastor were arrested on unspecified felony charges in the small central Florida town of Mulberry on Wednesday. A news conference is scheduled for later Wednesday to announce specific charges.

Media reports show he was stopped in a pickup truck that was towing a metal trailer filled with Qurans soaked in kerosene. He had said he planned to burn 2,998 Qurans — one for every victim who died in the 9/11 attacks 12 years ago.

Jones is the pastor of a small evangelical Christian church. His congregation burned a Quran in March 2011 and last year he promoted an anti-Muslim film. His actions have sparked violence in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

___

Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush

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Mark Zuckerberg: 'Bill Gates Was My Hero' (MSFT, FB)

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Over the last few years, it's become fashionable to idolize Apple cofounder Steve Jobs and more-or-less dis Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.

But Mark Zuckerberg is having none of that.

"When I was growing up, Bill Gates was my hero," Zuckerberg said on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference on Wednesday.

To which Michael Arrington, on stage interviewing him, responded. "Oh come on! He's like Darth Vader. He not Luke Skywalker. He's the bad guy."

"No he is not," Zuckerberg defended. "Bill Gates ran one of the most mission-driven companies I can think of. Microsoft had a great mission. To put a computer on every desktop and in every home."

He added "There are companies that define themselves by their way of doing things, like the HP Way, and there are companies that define themselves by making a concrete change in the world. Microsoft did that. It was an incredibly inspiring company."

Bill Gates "is one of the greatest visionaries that our industry has ever had," Zuckerberg said.

He's put his money where is mouth is. Facebook sold Microsoft a 1.6 percent stake in 2007, although Gates was no longer running the company at the time.  Zuckerberg was also one of the first 17 billionaires to participate in Bill Gates' Giving Pledge, which is a commitment by the world's wealthiest people to give the majority of their wealth away to philanthropy.

SEE ALSO: Former Apple CEO John Sculley Speaks Out About Ousting Steve Jobs: 'I Blame The Board'

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Japanese Stocks Open Slightly Lower After Bad Economic Number


American Flight Attendant Allegedly Raped In Tel Aviv Hotel

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Two men in Haifa, Israel were indicted Wednesday on charges of rape and sodomy in connection with the alleged assault of an American flight attendant staying in a Tel Aviv hotel, YNet News reports.

The flight attendant met the two men, ages 24 and 26, in a Tel Aviv night club.

From Jeruselum Post:

Tel Aviv police said that a month ago, the woman, who was in Israel in transit for the American airline company she works for, complained to police that she had gone out to a club in Tel Aviv where she met two men who raped her in her hotel room. The woman said she had gone out with friends but at some point remained at the club by herself, at which point she met the two men, with whom she returned to her hotel in Tel Aviv.

At around 2 a.m. she fell ill and was unable to find her friends when the two men offered to drive her back to her hotel. She was allegedly assaulted while in the shower, according to YNet.

At least one of the suspects told police the sex was consensual, according to JPost.

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Angela Merkel's Main Election Rival Mocked After Photo Of Him 'Flipping The Bird' Comes Out

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Sueddeutsche Zeitung Peer Steinbrueck

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief election rival sparked a storm of derision and online ridicule Thursday by allowing himself to be photographed making the vulgar middle-finger gesture.

The unflattering black-and-white studio portrait of Peer Steinbrueck in suit and tie hit the cover of the weekly magazine supplement of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily's Friday edition.

Long before the magazine was to hit news stands, the image of the 66-year-old flipping the bird while sneering into the lens went viral online, with attacks raining down from politicians and in the Twittersphere ahead of the September 22 vote.

"This gesture is unacceptable for a chancellor candidate," said Economy Minister Philipp Roesler of the Free Democrats, Merkel's junior coalition allies. "Something like that is just not on."

On Twitter under the tag #stinkefinger (middle-finger) one writer said: "Steinbrueck's middle-finger seemed to say: 'Goodbye then, you election wankers.' At least he's getting a totally awesome exit."

Another judged the gesture as "diggin' for street credibility" while a third wrote: "Unbelievable! It's not a fake! I can't imagine a chancellor like that."

A new account, @peersfinger, said: "I can count the chance of victory on the fingers of one hand".

The image of the gaffe-prone Social Democrat candidate was taken for a photo-essay format called "Don't Say Anything Now" in which subjects are asked to respond non-verbally to questions.

The gesture by the self-styled "straight-talk" politician came in response to a question over his campaign missteps, including causing offence in Italy by calling former premier Silvio Berlusconi a "clown".

The question was: "Pannen (mishap) Peer, Problem Peer, Peerlusconi -- you don't have to worry about a shortage of nicknames, do you?"

Steinbrueck Thursday defended himself on Twitter, writing that "straight talk doesn't always require words -- for example when you keep being asked about old-hat stories instead of really important questions".

If Steinbrueck had recently revived his limping campaign with a strong TV debate performance against popular Merkel, the middle-finger picture was likely to spell a serious setback.

It stood in stark contrast to Merkel being portrayed on the cover of Friday's Economist magazine on a pedestal overlooking European landmarks with the headline "One woman to rule them all".

Sueddeutsche itself commented that had Steinbrueck made the offensive gesture in a public place, he would have faced a fine of 600 to 4,000 euros ($800 to $5,300).

It said that, given all the bad press that has haunted his campaign, Steinbrueck's "frustration is understandable".

But the newspaper was in no doubt about the impact of the photo on the chances of the former finance minister, saying "the middle-finger photo, days before the election, is unlikely to help dispell the notion".

The paper also said online that the centre-left candidate's spokesman, ex-journalist Rolf Kleine, had suggested the photo not be published, but that Steinbrueck had overruled him, saying "no, it's OK".

Kleine was quoted as saying the candidate's gesture may have been "a little too spontaneous". He then told news portal Spiegel Online the picture was taken several weeks ago and insisted: "I don't see a problem. Why should there be a problem?"

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung asked, "Risky calculation or just another, perhaps decisive, faux-pas shortly before the election?"

The Social Democrats' state chairman for Schleswig-Holstein, Ralf Stegner -- like some Tweeters -- defended Steinbrueck in view of the media treatment he had received, said news site Focus Online.

Steinbrueck's run for the top job started under a cloud when the standard bearer of working-class Germany had to apologise for earning 1.25 million euros on the lecture circuit.

The perception of a candidate disconnected from the people was fuelled by his complaint that the chancellor's salary is too low, and that he would not drink a bottle of Pinot Grigio wine that cost just five euros.

Merkel, who has had a personal approval lead of 20 to 30 percentage points over her rival, this week said that she "enjoyed (Steinbrueck's) sense of humour".

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Jersey Shore Boardwalk Evacuated After Fire Engulfs Beloved Ice Cream Shop

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Jersey Shore boardwalk ice cream fire

A frozen custard stand on a Jersey Shore boardwalk caught fire on Thursday and soon became completely engulfed in giant flames.

The pier is being evacuated, and explosions have been reported in the building, according to CBS in Philadelaphia.

Strong winds blew the fire from Kohr's Ice Cream in Seaside Park to adjacent buildings, according to The Newark Star-Ledger, and the blaze is also reportedly spreading to the boardwalk.

This shot shows how large the fire has grown:

Hurricane Sandy destroyed most of the boardwalk just last year, The Star-Ledger reported. It was just rebuilt earlier this year.

The cause of the fire is so far unclear. Several people are being treated for smoke inhalation.

The county sheriff is warning visitors to avoid the area, NBC New York reported.

Jersey Shore Hurricane News has a video of the fire:

Here are some photos from the scene:

 

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Here's Why You Love Facebook's News Feed Even If You Think You Hate It

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mark zuckerberg facebookIn the time before news feed, the Web was a strange, quiet, and probably very lonely place. I say “probably” because I can barely remember the way things worked back then. After Facebook launched news feed, nothing on the Web would ever be the same again.

Get this: Before news feed, which launched seven years ago this month, you could post a picture or some other personal detail somewhere—your Facebook or MySpace or Friendster page, Flickr, Blogger, LiveJournal—and be reasonably sure that it would remain just there, unseen by pretty much everyone you knew.

The only way someone might find it is by checking your page. Sure, some people would do that—but everyone had scores of connections online, so no one was checking each of their friends’ pages. The net effect was solitude. In The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick’s history of Facebook’s early years, Chris Cox, who’s now the company’s vice president of product, recounts the founding idea for news feed: “The Internet could help you answer a million questions, but not the most important one, the one you wake up with every day: How are the people doing that I care about?”

Looking back, it’s clear that news feed is one of the most important, influential innovations in the recent history of the Web. News feed forever altered our relationship to personal data, turning everything we do online into a little message for friends or the world to consume. You might not like this trend—or, at least, you might claim you don’t like this trend. But the stats prove you probably do. News feed is the basis for Facebook’s popularity, the thing that initially set it apart from every other social network, and the reason hundreds of millions of us go back to the site every day.

But news feed is bigger than that. Either directly or indirectly, it’s the inspiration for just about every social-media feature that has come along since. News feed paved the way for Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Flipboard, and Quora—for every site that thrives off of the communities created by lots of people’s individual contributions. News feed changed the media (it’s hard to imagine BuzzFeedwithout it), advertising, politics, and, to the extent that it altered how we all talk to one another, society itself.

Yes, that sounds over-important. But consider this: Thanks to news feed, I learned today that that this one dude I barely knew in high school just had a baby. I know what his half-clothed wife looked like just after labor. I’ve seen his mother-in-law. I’ve seen his infant daughter. Is such forced, daily, crushing intimacy good or bad for the world? None of us can say for sure yet. Either way, though, it’s hugely consequential—because we now know everything about everyone, the way we relate to one another has changed enormously, and permanently.

News feed was born on Sept. 5, 2006. Facebook announced the feature in a short, straightforward blog post that offered no hints of the magnitude of the change coming to the site. At the time, Facebook was still available only to students and others with select email addresses. It had around 10 million active users, meaning it was dwarfed by other social networks, especially MySpace. (Facebook opened itself up to everyone later that September.)

“News Feed … updates a personalized list of news stories throughout the day, so you'll know when Mark adds Britney Spears to his Favorites or when your crush is single again,” Ruchi Sanghvi, then a Facebook product manager, wrote in the announcement. By bringing everyone’s news to you, Facebook’s engineers reasoned, news feed would make Facebook much easier to use. Sanghvi added: “These features are not only different from anything we've had on Facebook before, but they're quite unlike anything you can find on the web.”

She was right. News feed was different—so different that people immediately hated it. News feed sparked the first of many major privacy firestorms for Facebook, the first time people questioned how the information they were posting on the site might be used by others. A few days after it launched, amid a storm of protest, Mark Zuckerberg posted a mea culpa (also the first of many) in which he promised to tweak Facebook’s privacy controls to mitigate some people’s worries. But Facebook didn’t get rid of news feed, because however loudly people protested, the company could see that people loved it.

By turning a series of lonely events into something like a story—by combining all your friends’ actions into a community, or even a conversation, on your home page—news feed gave Facebook a soul. Thanks to news feed, people started finding one another and working together in ways that had never happened on the site before. “Before news feed, you could join groups, but discovering them was not super easy,” Cox explained at a recent Facebook press event. “Within a period of two weeks after the news feed launch we had the first group with over a million people—which means a million people had seen the group and taken an action to join it.” There’s a punch line to this story that’s a testament to our enduring ambivalence about news feed. The first Facebook group that news feed propelled to million-plus membership was a protest against News Feed.

In the years since its launch, Facebook has constantly changed both the appearance and the mechanics behind news feed, and the current version is the product of one of the most complex computational processes you deal with on a regular basis. Facebook has always tried to present only a subset of the stuff people are posting—the posts it thinks you’re most likely to like. In its earliest incarnation, engineers tuned news feed manually, tweaking the frequency of certain kinds of posts—more pictures, fewer news stories—in response to user engagement. Later on, they developed a more formal algorithm, sometimes called EdgeRank, which took into account broad factors about people’s relationships in deciding what showed up on your feed. (For example, EdgeRank might determine that a photo from your mom is more important than a news story from your friend, partly based on information that Facebook’s engineers had hard-coded into the system.)

But EdgeRank wasn’t sophisticated enough. Ideally, everyone’s ranking algorithm should be personalized, and news feed should recognize those preferences and tweak our stories accordingly. “A few years ago, we stopped working on EdgeRank, and started working on a machine-learning approach,” says Serkan Piantino, the engineer who worked on some of news feed’s earliest ranking systems. Now, every time you load up news feed, the new system takes thousands of factors into account to present a feed that is personalized to your tastes. The machine-learned algorithm constantly tweaks itself based on how you interact with it: If you click like on a lot of memes, you’re going to see more of those. For every user, the system has to instantly analyze and rank an average of 1,500 posts every time the site is reloaded.

And engineers keep making the system more complex. Lars Backstrom, the engineering manager for news feed ranking, says that one of his team’s current goals is to get news feed to present information that hasn’t been explicitly shared by your friends. For instance, say you love Ricky Gervais, but none of your friends care for him. They aren’t likely to post anything about his new Netflix show—but given what news feed’s ranking system knows about your interests, it should determine that you might like Willa Paskin’s review of Derek more than you might like, say, another post about your mom’s friend’s visit to the Hamptons. “If something really interesting happens in the world, we should know enough about you to pull that in even if you haven’t explicitly connected to it,” Backstrom says.

He adds that news feed doesn’t really do this yet, “because we aren’t very good at it.” But the fact that Facebook is working on this problem illustrates the scale of its ambitions for news feed. Facebook doesn’t just want to be the front page for your social life; ultimately, it wants to be the one place online you check for everything you care about.

You can question whether this is good for society. One persistent worry about the news feed approach to information is the Filter Bubble critique—the idea that by engaging only with stuff that’s been algorithmically determined to appeal to us, we’re all tunneling into echo chambers of our own preferences. I explored that critique in my own book, though research into the question has since shown that the bubble is, thankfully, more porous than we might fear.

Another critique of news feed is that it has turned us all into narcissists, and worse, that it’s making us depressed about how much better everyone else’s life is. The trouble with that critique is that News Feed is only a reflection of your own interaction with it: If it’s serving up stuff that makes you sad, it’s only because that’s the stuff you’re most engaged with. If it’s true that news feed drives us crazy, we theoretically have the power to fix it. The news feed we have is the news feed we deserve.

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3 Secrets About 401(k) Fees You Probably Didn't Know

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Whispering

Did you hear the story about the Yale law professor who wrote to 6,000 plan sponsors nationwide, alleging that their 401(k) fees are potentially too high and suggesting that they may be in breach of their fiduciary duties?

It's a true story. The professor's communications have roiled the retirement industry, and his threat to publicize his findings next spring is still reverberating among employers offering these workplace plans.

Figuring out 401(k) fees is challenging to plan sponsors -- the employers offering these plans -- as well as workers, even with fee disclosure rules in place. The structure and price of retirement plans vary widely, as do the services provided.

Though participants are basically at the mercy of the employer when it comes to plan expenses and the investments offered, they can control the cost of their own investments to a certain degree. That's key because the bulk of costs to employees comes in the form of investment expenses.

Minimizing the cost of investing could enrich a retirement account to a greater extent than any surplus in return that a skilled mutual fund manager could deliver over the benchmark. Returns are always uncertain while fees are a sure bet. A smart investment plan will take both into account.

Here are three little-known facts about 401(k) fees that participants should know before deciding where to invest their hard-earned money.

1. Your plan's size dictates cost

People who work for very large companies are most likely to pay comparatively little for their retirement plans. Employees of small companies are likely to pay a lot more.

That's because small plans cost a lot more to run. The difference in fees paid by participants in small plans versus large plans can be more than half of a percentage point, as shown in the table below.

Average fees per asset level

Plan asset levelsAverage total plan cost
200920102011
$1 billion-plus0.38%0.36%0.35%
$800 million-$1 billion0.44%0.42%0.42%
$600 million-$800 million0.45%0.49%0.44%
$400 million-$600 million0.50%0.49%0.47%
$200 million-$400 million0.53%0.50%0.50%
$50 million-$200 million0.66%0.64%0.63%
< $50 million0.97%0.93%0.94%

Across all plan sizes, fees have trended downward over the past few years.
Source: BrightScope.

Across all plan sizes, fees have trended downward over the past few years. 
Source: BrightScope.

Why are large plans cheaper to run? "One reason is economies of scale. There are certain fixed costs to running a retirement plan," says Steven Utkus, principal at the Center for Retirement Research at Vanguard. "If a plan has 20,000 participants, those costs are amortized over 20,000 accounts. If a plan has 20 participants, those costs are amortized over 20 accounts."

No one can argue with the benefits of buying in bulk. But there may be another influence for which economics has no easily quantifiable answer: plan sponsors who just fell off the investing turnip truck. The responsibility for the retirement plan often falls to a person who has a full-time job that doesn't involve retirement plans.

"Small plans may not be as knowledgeable as large plans," says Utkus. "Large plans typically have full-time or more experienced staff that oversees their retirement plans. As a result, the large-plan sponsor may be more knowledgeable about the impact of costs on retirement outcomes, and so they focus more on lowering costs than smaller companies."

That focus on fees means that employees at a giant corporation can, after 35 years of work, amass more than $100,000 over their counterparts at mom-and-pop shops, everything else being equal.

How different fee structures impact your investment

The chart above shows the impact of fees on retirement accounts. Fees represent the average cost of different-size plans: 0.49 percent, or 49 basis points, for a plan with assets of $100 million-plus; 0.87 percent, or 87 basis points, for a plan with assets of $10 million to $100 million; 1.41 percent, or 141 basis points, for plans with less than $10 million in assets. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point. The three participants in this hypothetical scenario all began their careers at age 25 earning $30,000 and deferred 7 percent of their salary into their 401(k) plan over 35 years. Each received a 3 percent match from their employers, and each earned 3 percent raises each year throughout their careers. Their investments generated returns of 8 percent, minus their plan's cost.

The difference in fees becomes stark over time. Compounding will eventually cause your savings to grow exponentially, but fees erode the number of dollars that are available to double and triple. Saving more and minimizing investment fees as much as possible are the best ways to keep fees from eating away at your nest egg.

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This Quote Shows How Hypocritical Putin Was In Criticizing American Exceptionalism

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Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent and much talked about New York Times op-ed contained a closing critique of American Exceptionalism:

And I would rather disagree with a case [Obama] made on American Exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

Putin contends that encouraging a nationalistic sense of superiority is harmful to the rest of the world. No one nation is exceptional; we're all born equal. 

And then there's this — a quote from Putin at a rally in Moscow in February, first unearthed today by Dan Amira with New York Magazine:

“We will never allow anyone to interfere in our internal affairs. We will not allow someone to impose their will on us, because we have our own will! It has helped us to conquer! We are a victorious people! It is in our genes, in our genetic code!"

SEE ALSO: Meet The PR Firm That Helped Vladimir Putin Troll The Entire Country

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Financial Advisors Need To Ask Their High-Net-Worth Clients About Their Deadbeat Relatives

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counting money

FA Insights is a daily newsletter from Business Insider that delivers the top news and commentary for financial advisors.

Why It's Important For Advisors To Know About The Relatives Of Clients (The Wall Street Journal)

It's becoming increasingly important for advisors to consider the relatives of their high-net-worth clients during the financial planning process, writes Jean-Luc Bourdon California-based BrightPath Wealth Planning in a new WSJ column. This is because these clients often want to help struggling family members. 

"Many clients assume that their relatives aren't relevant to the conversations they have with their advisers, but I tell all of my clients that it's critical I know about their extended families. We can have the most secure financial plan for a client, but if they have close relatives in precarious financial situations, it can weaken their own financial outlook."

The Most Compelling Argument To Own Cash (Advisor Perspectives)

"The best time for an investor to own cash is when it pays next to nothing. ," writes Francois Sicart of Tocqueville Asset Management. "This may sound counterintuitive, and it is the opposite of what most investors do when cash pays nothing: They scramble to find better-paying alternatives, even if it means taking on more risk. But the contrarian aspect of this rule has always appealed to me, and my own experience has generally vindicated it."

"Personal biases aside, the most compelling argument to owning cash when interest rates are close to zero is simply that, from that point, they basically have nowhere to go but up. And when they do, sometimes with a lag but sooner or later, lower prices for stocks and bonds will result."

This May Be The Beginning Of A Big Swing From Bonds To Stocks (Dr. Ed's Blog)

Retail investors could be flooding out of bonds and into stocks. In fact, over the past 13 weeks bond funds have witnessed cash outflows of $438 billion at an annual rate, while equity funds have seen inflows of $92 billion at an annual rate, according to the Investment Company Institute. "I wouldn’t describe that as a 'Great Rotation' just yet, but it could be the start of a big swing by retail investors into equities," writes Dr. Ed Yardeni.

FINRA To Consider Revised Broker Compensation Rules (FINRA)

During its September 19 meeting, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) will consider a revised proposal that would require brokers to disclose their compensation when they switch firms. The proposal was initially slated to be considered in a July meeting, but was postponed. At the time, Simon Roy, president of Jemstep told Business Insider that this had wirehouse support because "the proposed legislation is expected to reduce poaching of productive brokers from their ranks which could reduce broker compensation costs and increase firm profitability."

The Gold Bounce Is Over (Societe Generale)

Gold prices are falling again and Societe Generale's analysts who have been bearish on gold have said the "gold bounce is over." They make a few bearish arguments. 1. A military strike on Syria looks a lot less likely. And gold prices have peaked early during Middle East crises. 2. The weakness in the rupee and other such "Forex rate trends have turned bearish for gold price." 3. The physical demand for gold in Asia is weakening while supply from ETF selling is making its way to Asia. 4. Selling of gold ETFs will probably pick up as "Syria is no longer a bullish factor and US Fed tapering is likely to start at the September meeting."

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NASA's Latest Rocket Launch Looks Breathtaking From A Distance

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The launch of NASA's latest spacecraft may have been overshadowed by a photo-hogging frog (whose current health is unknown), but at least we know the mission is doing well right now.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) has started its journey to the moon, according to NASA. Once in lunar orbit, the spacecraft will send back information about the moon's surface and atmosphere.

Here's a beautiful photo from the launch, taken on Sept. 6. at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia.

LADEE Launch

SEE ALSO: Someone Has Come Up With The Best Happy Ending For The Frog That Photobombed A Rocket Launch

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Why Clint Dempsey Should Never Be Allowed To Take Penalty Kicks

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clint dempsey

Imagine for a second that Eddie Johnson did not soar above the Mexico defense in the 49th minute on Tuesday night in Columbus, Ohio, and that he did not put the United States ahead of El Tri with his powerful header.

And pretend, if you will, that Mix Diskerud did not make a deft, space-creating move followed by a beautiful cross to set up Landon Donovan for the second American goal of the night in the 78th minute.

In other words, envision a scenario where Clint Dempsey’s stoppage-time penalty kick meant something more than just a dagger-twist into the heart of the Mexican soccer federation.

As you may recall, he missed. Badly. Take another look.

If the score wasn't already 2-0, would we be joking about it now? Would MLSsoccer.com be asking its audience if Dempsey missed the penalty on purpose? Would cheeky American enthusiasts be praising Dempsey for honoring the Dos a Cero history at Crew Stadium?

Or would we instead be asking a very different question, namely: Why in the world is Clint Dempsey taking penalty kicks for the United States national team?

Landon Donovan has made 28 of 33 penalties in Major League Soccer, and he is 5 for 5 in high-pressure MLS playoff situations. I looked for Donovan's PK record with the U.S. national team, but could not find anything. I have seen him score plenty, however. You probably have too.

History tells us that Donovan is one of the best penalty takers in U.S. history.

YouTube shows us that Dempsey is not even particularly good.

You just saw Dempsey's miss against Mexico. He didn’t even put the ball on frame. It was brutal. Dempsey didn't look happy afterward, and neither did Jurgen Klinsmann.

Four nights earlier, Dempsey claimed the penalty for his own against Costa Rica in the 43rd minute, when the U.S. was trailing 2-0. He stepped up. He swung his right foot at the ball from 12 yards out. And he hit it straight at Ticos goalkeeper Keylor Navas. Fortunately for Deuce, the ball caromed into the back of the net for a goal, but there is no disputing that it was a poor penalty.

I don't have Dempsey's career penalty kick statistics on hand—if you do, please share them in the Comments below—but iffy PKs are less the exception than the rule. Last season at Tottenham Dempsey took this penalty against Norwich City. Low. Hard. Far too close to the keeper.

Danny Murphy was Fulham's designated penalty taker during the bulk of Dempsey’s time with the club. But after Murphy left the Cottagers, Dempsey got his shot(s). And he didn't exactly cover himself in glory. Here’s Dempsey’s PK against Chelsea on February 14, 2011. It's too close to Peter Cech, who saves easily.

Here’s another one against Charlton Athletic from January 2012 FA Cup match. This one goes in, yes, but look at the placement. Straight at the keeper, who dives out of the way of the ball. It’s hardly what I would call a surgical strike.

Dempsey is perfectly capable of beautiful penalty kicks as well, as he showed in the friendly against Belgium earlier this year. In this one, Simon Mignolet guessed right and still couldn't stop the well-placed shot.

But it seems to me that there are too few strikes like this one, and too many that either sneak in or are saved.

It’s entirely possible that Dempsey is the best penalty taker on the planet during training. Maybe he has never once missed when the cameras are off and the crowd isn't there and he’s facing down Tim Howard or Brad Guzan or Marcus Hahnemann.

Don’t know.

Don’t care.

Dempsey's PKs are, more often than not, sketchy affairs.

Donovan, on the other hand, is a sniper from 12 yards out.

I'm not a huge fan of Donovan's little pre-penalty ritual, where he squats down like Yadier Molina and....does something. But if it results in PKs like this one...

...or this one...

 

...I don't care what he does before, during, or after.

Clint Dempsey has the armband, and he deserves it. He is a tremendous soccer player, and one of my all-time favorites. I love Dempsey's drive, ambition, audacity, snarl, technique, and demeanor. He's No. 2 in our ASN 100, and that ranking is warranted.

I just don't think he should ever take another penalty kick for the United States men's soccer team as long as Donovan is around.

More from ASN:

Jurgen Klinsmann arrived at the perfect time >

FIFA ranks USA 13th in the world >

Who will make the USA World Cup team >

20 U.S. players who will make a big impact soon >

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HOUSE OF THE DAY: The $70 Million 'Mr. Las Vegas' Ranch Comes With An Airport, Defunct Zoo, And 8 Homes

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Wayne Newton $70 Million Ranch Las Vegas

"Casa de Shenandoah," the Las Vegas home owned by singer Wayne Newton  aka Mr. Las Vegas  for more than 45 years, is being sold for a whopping $70 million.

Listed on real estate website Redfin, the 36-acre property has over eight separate homes, a huge garage, 37 stables, a tennis court, and even its own jumbo jet and terminal.

Even crazier, it once had a functioning zoo with Arabian horses, sloths, penguins, lemurs, and more than 100 birds.

Newton and his family lived at the ranch from the 1960s to 2010, when it was purchased by CSD LLC for $19.5 million to help the Newtons out of bankruptcy, according to the Associated Press. Originally, there were plans to turn the main home into a Wayne Newton-themed theme park with a gift shop and dinner theater.

But that dream fell through after an ugly legal battle between the Newtons and CSD. Developers claimed Newton would not move out of the mansion or hand over paraphernalia for the museum, while Newton claimed his family had nowhere to relocate and was unhappy with how the property was being looked after.

Newton finally settled this summer for an undisclosed sum and left. The animals have since been sold to wildlife centers, according to Redfin, and now a Las Vegas judge has greenlit Casa de Shenandoah's sale, though it still remains to be seen whether or not anyone will pay the exorbitant $70 million price tag.

The main house at Casa de Shenandoah is a two-story structure with three bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, and more than 9,000 square feet.



There's also a nice swimming pool in the backyard.



The entire property spans 36 acres, and has eight separate homes.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The More Educated You Are, The More You Prefer Diet Soda

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In a new study on the "composition, consumption and consequences" of sugar, Credit Suisse flags an interesting chart measuring Diet Coke consumption vs. education.

The chart, broken down by region, shows that areas of the U.S. with more bachelor's degrees consume higher levels of Diet Coke as a share of the general Coca-Cola intake.

We're not sure you can quite say that smarter people drink Diet Coke, but it's a start.

diet coke vs. education

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Harvard MBA Students: 'We’re Unapologetic Feminists — And We Love This Place'

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Harvard Business School

To the RCs: It will be ok.

You may have seen an article in the NY Times about gender relations at HBS (or maybe you saw it on Facebook. Or maybe it was emailed to you by everyone you know.) We saw it too, many, many times, and wanted to reassure you if you’re freaking out. We freaked out too, and while we won’t argue with anyone else’s experience of this place, we didn’t recognize the HBS that the article described. We hope you read Youngme Moon’s letter – it was pretty great, and far more articulate than we are likely to be.

While never explicitly stated, the NY Times article implied that this is an uncomfortable and unpleasant place to be a woman. We can’t speak for everyone, but we disagree. We’re unapologetic feminists, and we love this place.

Like all career focused women (and people), we struggle to balance work/school with our personal lives. Is that harder here? There are more professional and academic opportunities at HBS than anywhere we’ve ever been in our lives. But the shared, sometimes overwhelming experience of HBS also creates the opportunity to develop deep, meaningful connections. Those relationships have been sustaining to both our personal and professional lives.

HBS provides a place where people from all walks of life can cross paths. This community is more diverse than any other in which you’re likely to participate. Students come from all over the world; some have money and some don’t; some will go into the upper echelons of finance, while others are headed to non-profit careers. Don’t be intimidated by anyone’s experience – take it as an opportunity to learn from them and to figure out what you bring to the table.  We all deserve to be here – and by the end of the first year, you’ll be able to throw out equations with the best of them.

Having such a diverse community is sometimes challenging – preconceived notions are exposed and deconstructed, sometimes there are tough conversations. Is it paternalistic and heavy handed that the administration makes us have them? Maybe. It can feel a little forced sometimes.  But as we reflect on it, we’re willing to trade a few hours of awkward discussion in order to have inclusive, dynamic sections we live in now.  And it’s also good training for the future – it’s important to practice having hard, honest conversations.

HBS has gender issues – but it’s living on the bleeding edge of trying to solve them

Gender inequality exists. It exists everywhere, and that includes HBS. However, HBS is like the best, most inclusive workplace you can find.The structural societal issues are still at play, and there are going to be some bumps, but these issues are out in the open. And for that we’d also like to thank our male classmates; classmates who have engaged in the conversations about work-life balance, listened respectfully to our points of view, and added their own.

As for the inequality, let’s start with grades. As the NY Times notes, the ‘intractable’ grade problem has been ‘tracted’, so to speak. The number of female Baker scholars is now representative of the proportion of women on campus.   The faculty and the administration get kudos for using new technology to even the playing field. Equally, female students have earned their place here and have earned the honors they have achieved.  To suggest otherwise is patronizing and frankly, offensive.

And that faculty? Between the two of us, we had eight female professors in our first year.  Some of them were new, some of them were seasoned. The same is true of our male professors. Teaching the case method is incredibly challenging, and we can’t speak to what it feels like to be in front of 90 MBA students for the first time. But HBS institutions, such as our awesome Ed Reps, gave us a structured way to help them learn and police our own classroom behavior.

We wish that there were more female case protagonists and more female professors.  We love the ones who are here, and we would love some more. Nitin, we’ll be making a new version of that graph for our 5–year reunion before we cut any checks.

What’s our experience been?

People often work obsessively hard here – they also play hard.  But both of those things are optional. Becky went to one weeknight party (The District party was awesome) last year. Alana was social chair of her section and went out, let’s say, more. We both have lots of friends, our grades turned out fine, we both landed great internships in our respective industries of choice. You do need to make decisions about how you allocate your time, but you aren’t facing a stark choice between dating and success.

We also haven’t heard anyone refer to their ‘social capital’. Hopefully you don’t start doing this.  That would be really annoying.

It’s easy to laugh at the section norms discussions – and we all like to collectively groan when we’re heading into them – but they’ve served us well as we head into our second year.  Our sections have become healthy communities: not by accident, but because of our classmates’ efforts to be honest about their values and their vision for what this place could be, and their decision to live by those values.

The administration is flexible and open to discussion. Email Rawi with concerns, and he’ll get back to you – but don’t blame us when you’re then chairing a committee to fix the problem.  (Rawi, you can thank us later for the shout-out).

What can you do?

Leadership matters. If you want to shape the culture, take ownership of it. Plan your retreat, run for L&V Rep, invite people over to talk about their backgrounds or their beliefs.

Assume good intentions – give people the benefit of the doubt. Twenty seconds of class airtime can be just long enough to lodge your foot deeply down your throat. Be willing to call people out when you’re offended, but know that they’re probably coming from a good place. Forgiveness is a major virtue.

Be honest about who you are, be curious about other people and be adaptable. Change is good for the soul.  And didn’t we all come here to be transformed?

Becky and Alana are ECs at Harvard Business School. For more information about this or other articles, email us at general@harbus.org.

Originally published at harbus.org

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