Feel Like Having A Nasty Surprise From Uncle Sam?
France's much anticipated 2005 vintage is arriving in wine stores, and critics are grasping for superlatives. Influential reviewer Robert Parker writes of the 2005 Bordeaux, "This is the greatest vintage produced during my 30-year career." Allen Meadows, the critic known as Burghound, says of Burgundy wines, "2005 is quite simply the best top-to-bottom vintage that I have ever seen, period, full stop." And it's not just one or two regions that are exciting wine lovers. The 2005 vintage is also excellent in the Rhône, Italy, Spain, Germany, California, Washington, Southern Australia, Argentina and Chile.The combination of critical acclaim, soaring demand and the weak dollar has driven prices for wines from France's big three regions- Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhône- to new records. First-growth 2005 Bordeaux are selling for $1,200 and up- per bottle. One bottle of 2005 Domaine Romanée-Conti from Burgandy recently sold at auction for $14,000. Reasonable prices for Russian oligarchs, hedge fund billionaires and oil sheiks- but what about the rest of us?!
The Princess Penna, Inc (PPI) wine panel convened to find out. We met to answer three pressing questions: Does the 2005 vintage live up to the extraordinary hype? Is it so terrific that even lesser wines are good buys? And which region produced the best wines and the best values?
The clutter of our financial lives is the last thing we need in an economy like this. Here are 12 paths to fiscal inner peace.Americans are racking up some major financial achievements- but probably not the kind you'd celebrate with at ticker tape parade.
Each of us now spends about 22 hours a year sorting out bills, account statements and other paperwork, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That might not sound like much, but it's more time than we spend Shopping or getting out to the movies with our girlfriends. For reasons that nobody can quite fathom, the typical household has accounts at four different financial institutions. And last year we paid a record $16.3 billion in credit card late fees- (small wonder), since the average household is now trying to keep track of 14 credit cards, according to the research firmCardTrak.com. Come to think of it, if we shredded all those bills and statements, we could have a ticker tape parade after all!
Who'll make a killing on the electric car? They're back and better than ever. Really! Here's who will profit.
Pity America's car sellers. They must think back 15 years to recall a worse six-month stretch than the first half of 2008. Sales fell twice as fast in June as in September 2001. Blame falling house prices or layoffs, but mostly, blame $4-a-gallon gasoline. Thirsty pickups and sport-utility vehicles are backed up at the lots, their $5,000-cash-back offers ignored. Compact sippers are selling well enough, so long as they can be found. Toyota has a six-month waiting list for its hybrid Prius, which uses part-time battery power to burn less gasoline. In polls, four out of five consumers say they'll consider buying a hybrid next.
I find that remarkable because today's hybrids aren't all that impressive. The Environmental Protection Agency calls the Prius the most efficient car sold in America. It travels 45 miles or so on a gallon of gas. As teens, my parents said they both owned matching 1980 Volkswagon Rabbit that did about five miles better than that on a gallon of diesel, with no battery assistance. Thomas Edison owned several cars that ran on batteries alone. His Bailey Electric Phaeton could manage 100 miles of clean, quiet driving on a single charge. In fairness to the Prius, the Bailey morseyed along at just 20 miles per hour. But then, it was made in 1909, a half century before America had interstate highways.