3M's business model and diverse portfolio have driven outstanding financial results for many years, and in the last two years we have returned almost $6.4 billion in cash to shareholders through the combination of dividends and share repurchases. |
After long admiring 3M for its unique culture of innovation, decades of success, wealth of technology and outstanding people, I look forward to being part of the team that will make real the tremendous potential of 3M in 2006 and beyond. |
An improvement in the outlook for the services sector, a stronger housing market and expectations of a reasonable Christmas for retailers should be enough to keep the Bank of England on hold (in January). |
But Kinky Friedman comes across as No. 1 on my belief list. |
Certainly a rate cut looks out of the question any time soon. |
Energy bills are going up, people are worried about their pensions and the labor market is loosening. All of those are reasons why the consumer may not be as strong going forward. |
February might prove a more contentious decision, especially in light of possible downward revisions to the Bank's inflation and growth forecasts. |
Following last week's fully anticipated decision to keep rates on hold, the February inflation report meeting might prove more contentious, depending on how the next two weeks of data turn out. |
How all of these factors will impact on the western economies only time will tell, but suffice to say that the UK will face some important challenges from Asia over the years to come. |
I think these minutes are fully consistent with them having to wait until next year. |
I'm surprised they haven't talked about a rate cut at all, |
I've teamed with Judy Meister of Santa Anna, who is the Coleman County coordinator. We're trying to get people to sign the petition. |
If it's sustained it'll have a noticeable impact on consumer prices. |
If you look at the underlying numbers you'll see that underlying trade has improved. It looks like exports have improved quite a bit. |
Increased foreign competition in domestic and overseas markets, alongside the strength of sterling over recent years has seemingly had a significant impact on UK manufacturers, with Asia in particular becoming a more important source of imports. |