We have all seen the commercials on TV with the talking gecko promising low insurance rates with a simple phone call or going to a web site. Sounds great doesn’t it and the Geico insurance company probably saves quite a bit of money if it doesn’t have to pay a celebrity to do its commercials, although their current talking gecko is getting quite a bit of notoriety as a cartoon character.
Did you know that Talking Geckos do not even come from Australia? So you may have saved a bunch of money on your car insurance, but Giekos (sp?) cannot even talk and Human to animal translation devices have only been made for Chimpanzees and Dolphins so far? And these are only available in the high-tech laboratories in research and development centers.
Between gecko’s telling us we need insurance and commercials telling us we must have a credit card so we can pay interest to a large company, it is amazing that anyone listens to this nonsense at all. But it is nice to know that getting a credit card you can save money on your car insurances and that it is so easy even a Cave Man can do it. My friend got a credit card for Mr. Katz, yah you guessed it his Calico Cat! Pretty good deal and now I suppose his cat is buying gourmet cat food on time. Of course a talking gecko takes the cake.
The whole thing is getting out of hand, as the other day I was in a pet store and a little girl asked her mom if they could get a talking gecko, I started to laugh until I realized the girl was actually serious and she looked like she was eight years old. I didn’t say anything because she probably still believes in Santa Claus, maybe he will bring her one. The store apparently had none in stock – how dare them!
“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.
Filed under auto insurance price quote by on May 22nd, 2010. Comment. 
This article comments on the changes of the Spanish main Stock Exchange Index, the Ibex 35 over the period from 2000 to 2006.
A main stock index provides information about same basic structure of a country.
The article The IBEX 35 Index From Raw Data to Useful Information shows the distribution of companies amongst the various sectors and these sectors are taken as a starting point for this comparison..
There have been some shifts both in the relative weight of certain companies on both years and a significant number of companies left or merged (fourteen) and nearly an equal number of companies entered (thirteen). The business newspaper “Cincodias” (www.cincodias.es) provided an overview of the companies listen on the Ibex 35 in 2000 and 2006.
At the top of the index, there have been minor changes, although you should remember that the year 2000 was during the last phase of the new-economy trend. The market capitalization of Telefonica was about 10,6 billion euros and represented 28% of the Ibex 35 index. And Terra which is now part of Telefonica represented another 3,4 billion euros (9% of the Index in 2000). The market capitalization of Banco Santander nearly doubled in this period and this bank has now the highest capitalization.
Companies (Stocks) that left the stage (present in 2000 but not in 2006) are:
- Terra (communication sector),
- Amadeus (producer of airline systems),
- Alba (Real estate Promotion),
- Acesa (Road Infrastructure),
- Pryca (Consumer Retail),
- Agbar (Aquas de Barcelona – a water utility company),
- Sol Melia (Hotels),
- Hydro Cantabrico (Water Utility),
- Telepizza (Food),
- Dragados (Construction),
- Continente (Consumer Retail),
- Aceralia (Commodities – Steel),
- Aumar (Road Infrastructure),
- Mapfre (insurance) and
- Vallehermoso (Construction)
From these, the companies Pryca and Continente have merged. Vallehermoso has merged with a company that was (and still is) also in the Ibex 35: Sacyr. Dragados merged with the ACS group, which is still in the index.
Companies that entered the stage (which are only on the list of 2006) are:
- Arcelor (Commodities -Steel),
- Inditex (Textile),
- Abertis (Infrastructure and Communication),
- Banco Sabadell (Finance),
- Metrovacesa (Construction & Real Estate),
- Telefonos Moviles (Communication),
- Sacyr Valle. (Construction -the merger of Sacyr and ValleHermoso),
- Gamesa (Wind energy),
- Cintra (Infrastructure),
- Telecinco (TV, Entertainment),
- Antena3 TV (TV, Entertainment) and
- Iberia (transport).
At the moment, Telefonica is selling TPI (which market capitalization decreased from 8 billion Euros in 2000 to about 3 billion in 2006) in order to finance it recent acquisition of O2, the British telecommunication provider.
For one part, the shift shows a normal development similar to other countries after the new-economy in which the presence of Telecommunication is diminished. Although (water) utility companies left after 2000, new utilities entered and the presence of construction companies is still significant.
© 2006 Hans Bool
Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days. You can apply for a free demo account
Filed under Home Insurance by on May 22nd, 2010. Comment.