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THOMSON PULSE
HEALTHCARE * FINANCE
* SCIENCE * LAW
* TAX |
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July '07 |
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A Monthly Resource from The Thomson Corporation
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HEALTHCARE
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Lifestyle and Obesity: Why We Aren’t What We Say We Eat |
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Despite the cold facts — 66.3 percent of American adults are overweight
or obese — a new survey from Thomson Healthcare found that 82 percent of
Americans characterized their eating habits as either “very healthy” or
“somewhat healthy.”
To make sense of this disparity between the perception of good health
and the reality of our expanding waistlines, Thomson Healthcare examined
survey responses on the topics of lifestyle and eating habits. The
analysis found the following:
- 73.2 percent of obese survey respondents characterized their
eating habits as “very healthy” or “somewhat healthy;” they were joined
by 85.7 percent of overweight survey respondents and 61.6 percent of
morbidly obese survey respondents.
- Just 4.2 percent of all Americans and 13.5 percent of morbidly obese
Americans characterized their eating habits as “not at all healthy."
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| Expert Available |
David Schutt, M.D., associate medical
director,
Thomson Healthcare, is available to discuss the study’s
findings.
Attribution:
Thomson Healthcare
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FINANCIAL
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| Capital Spending Dips; Breaks 9 Quarter Double-Digit Growth Streak |
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Capital spending, the money corporations pay to upgrade their physical
assets, such as buildings and machinery, has been on a double-digit
growth streak across the S&P 500 for the last 9 consecutive quarters.
Until now. Official with the first quarter of 2007, the double-digit
growth has come to an end, growing at a rate of 7.3% year-over-year.
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First Quarter 2007 |
% Change |
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Consumer Discretionary |
-18.2% |
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Consumer Staples |
8.8% |
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Energy |
1.3% |
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Financials |
14.8% |
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Healthcare |
10.6% |
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Industrials |
31.7% |
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Information Technology |
14.9% |
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Materials |
2.0% |
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Telecommunications Services |
18.5% |
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Utilities |
23.2% |
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Total S&P 500 |
7.3% |
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| Expert Available |
Thomson Financial’s managing director of
global research, Mike Thompson, is available to discuss the
findings in greater detail.
Attribution:
Thomson Financial
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SCIENCE
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U.S. and China Gain on Japan in Global Innovation Metrics |
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“Innovate or die” has become a mantra for business leaders who know that
today’s iPhone is destined to become tomorrow’s
DynaTAC. But how much of
the innovation talk is lip service, and how much is grounded in real
patent activity and technological innovation?
In a series of two analytic research reports, Thomson Scientific has
tracked global patent output and technology innovations from the G8
countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United
Kingdom and the United States) plus China and South Korea between 1997
and 2006. According to the data, innovation has been much more than a
buzz word in recent years, particularly in the U.S. and China, where
patent activity has spiked dramatically. Following are some of the
report’s key findings:
- Global patent activity has grown by 72% over the past decade
with a 34% increase in “unique inventions” or brand new inventions.
- Since 1997, the U.S. and China have shown
the most impressive growth with 145% and 470% increases respectively,
encroaching on Japan’s still-leading position.
- Inventions relating to semiconductors,
telecommunications and computing experienced huge growth rates of 75%,
86% and 172% respectively since 1997.
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| Expert Available |
Stephen Trotter, senior patent analyst for
Thomson Scientific, is available to discuss these trends.
Attribution:
Thomson Scientific |
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TAX & ACCOUNTING
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Staying One Step Ahead of the Tax Man… In this Life and Beyond |
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Thanks to some shrewd political wordsmithing, just about everyone in
the country has heard of the “death tax,” which holds that the property
of a deceased person can be taxed upon its transfer to beneficiaries.
What many of us do not know is that there are a host of other
estate-related taxes that can be avoided with some smart planning during
life.
Thomson Tax & Accounting has dissected the tax code, pulling out some
of the most important, yet little-known steps individuals can take to
minimize the tax hit to their estates:
- Income that was due to a person but wasn’t paid before his or her
death will be taxed to the estate, but it is possible to eliminate the
income tax bite by making a charitable donation in the deceased person’s
name.
- Health savings accounts, Archer medical savings accounts or Medicare
advantage medical savings accounts are taxed unless a spouse is named as
the beneficiary.
- Deductions for unused net operating losses and capital losses expire if
not used on the individual’s final tax return – they cannot be used on
the estate’s income tax return.
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| Expert Available |
Thomson Tax & Accounting senior tax
analyst William Massey
is available to discuss these findings, as well as respond to
requests for research examining other aspects of the tax code.
Attribution:
Thomson Tax & Accounting |
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