Bloomberg
Yoshinoya Holdings Co., Japan's largest chain of beef-bowl restaurants, plans to add a record 100 outlets in its home market next fiscal year as demand for budget meals increases from recession-hit consumers.

The Tokyo-based company aims to increase restaurants in Japan to at least 1,194 by February 2010 and accelerate an expansion in China, adding 60 outlets to the 185 already open there, President Shuji Abe said.

"The market is harsh but conditions for investing and opening new stores are positive," Abe said in an interview broadcast Thursday on Bloomberg Television.'

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How much good news is there on the news these days?

Few.

Bad news clearly receives a lot more attention than the good stuff. But good things do happen all the time and they must be encouraged.

So when something positive has happened to you, when someone has been exceptionally helpful or when something has changed your life positively, why not say Thank You!

Thanks-O-Meter is a site that collects all the nice things people do and experience. The site is public access and no membership is required to express your own gratitude. Stories can be searched for by keywords.

When Will This Recession Finally End?

There's really just one question that matters this new year. When will the recession end?

OK, I lied. There's another question that matters even more. Will the recession ever end?
I have a lot of institutional clients who take very seriously the idea that this recession could be permanent. In their minds, it could turn out to be more like a depression. Even when we pull out of the worst of it, we'll be stuck with year after year of slow growth.
Pretty much no one thinks this recession could possibly already be over. And only a few brave souls dare to consider that it might only take another quarter or so to hit bottom. So it's just a matter of, how bad is it really?
Call me crazy, but I actually think we could all end up being pretty pleasantly surprised. I admit I was one of the last people on earth to agree we were in recession in the first place. So let me make up for that mistake: I'll be the first person to say it's over.
I don't mean to get carried away on wings of optimism here. But there really are some hopeful signs. Some of the same symptoms that, earlier this year, gave us an early warning that recession was lurking are now pointing in a more hopeful direction.

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Though 2008 was wrought with layoffs and economic struggles, the New Year means rejuvenated hope for job seekers.

While several companies continue to make mass layoffs, other companies are shifting their focus to hire aggressively in the beginning of 2009.

"This is a difficult economy, no doubt," says Andrea Hough, vice president of talent acquisition for ServiceMaster, a lawn care and landscape maintenance company. "However, I would caution job seekers to be thoughtful about whom they are going to work for and not act out of desperation. There are some very strong companies with solid ethics in need of employees eager to be a part of a thriving organization."

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For some people, bargain prices and new workplace advantages make the economic downturn a time to profit.

Stephen Lasher reads all the dire economic forecasts declaring this recession the most worrisome since the Great Depression. But life doesn't seem so bad to Lasher. In fact, his horizons have never looked brighter.

Last year, the 33-year-old Columbia Business School grad landed a great job at media company NBC Universal. Now his spending money stretches further than before, thanks to retail store sales. Last month, he closed on his first home: a one-bedroom waterfront condo in a complex with a gym, pool and doorman.

"I am feeling good," Lasher says. "The housing prices were out of control before. . . . Now I was not only able to get a good price, but I was also able to get a mortgage interest rate well below what I thought would have been possible."

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Monday, referred to as Cyber Monday by online retailers, capped off a successful Thanksgiving holiday weekend for the industry, which overall saw spending jump 13 percent.

It's a welcome relief for an industry that was mostly bracing for the worst.

"Consumers are clearly responding positively to retailers' aggressive online discounts," ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement. "With Cyber Monday promotions beginning in earnest over the Thanksgiving weekend, consumers have finally begun to open their wallets, setting off a streak of four consecutive days of extremely strong growth..."

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The markets may be in turmoil. But not all the news is bad.
The editors of Kiplinger's Personal Finance and Kiplinger's Forecasting came up with ten things
going right these days. See if you agree:

1.Oil Loses Its Swagger: With the U.S. and global economy hurting, oil prices have dropped more
than 50% in just three months, from $147 a barrel in July to the $65-70 range. .
2. A Tipping Point for the Auto Industry: After years of talk and false starts, finally, all the major
carmakers are furiously developing hybrid and alternative-fuel vehicles that could lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Meanwhile, desperate dealers are offering unheard-of incentives on new, gas-fired models.
3. Interest Rates Are Low and Headed Lower: The prime rate is at 4.5%, which is driving down
interest rates on home-equity lines of credit and some consumer loans.
4. Homes Are More Affordable: Real estate, which was overpriced during the housing bubble, has
returned to earth. That's especially good news for first-time home buyers who were priced out of the
market.
5. Bank Savings Have Never Been Safer: The $700-billion federal rescue plan more than doubles
the amount of federal deposit insurance on individual bank accounts, to $250,000 from $100,000. Uncle Sam is also now providing providing unlimited FDIC insurance on non-interest-bearing accounts, covering virtually all of the nation's small businesses.
6. Stocks Are on Sale, and Many Bonds Offer Terrific Yields: For example, shares of AT&T
(symbol T) sell for about eight times estimated 2009 earnings and yield 6%. Networking giant Cisco
Systems (CSCO) sells for only ten times earnings estimates for its July 2009 fiscal year. Johnson &
Johnson (JNJ), as steady an Eddie as you'll find, sells for just 13 times '09 forecasts.
7. The Miracle of Technological Innovation Continues: Been to Best Buy, Sam's or Costco
lately? For $799, you can now buy a 42-inch, high-definition flat-panel TV that will knock your socks off. Throw in another $200, and you can get a surround-sound system to truly transform your den into a home theater.
8. Prosperity Reigns in the Heartland: The fall harvest is shaping up as one of the best ever,
despite the destructive weather and floods in the Mississippi River corridor since last spring. Exports of U.S. farm products will increase more than 40% by value this year. And recent years of high profits have allowed farmers to pay down debt so low that it accounts for a measly 9% of their assets providing all the credit they'll need for 2009 operations.
9. A New Tone and Direction in Washington: As we are starting to see, the election of a new
chief executive should provide at least 100 days of galvanizing certainty for markets, and a new direction and sense of purpose for the country.
10. Shoppers Can Expect Great Gift Buys This Holiday Season: Retailers depend on robust
end-of-year sales to turn a profit, but for 2008, the National Federation of Retailers forecasts
holiday spending will increase only 2.2% from last year. That won't beat inflation, butt's good
news for bargain hunters.

Why all those Great Depression analogies are wrong.

By Daniel GrossPosted Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008, at 7:35 AM ET
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1.  Forget the myth that happiness is elusive and unattainable, and that it’s something that either happens or it doesn’t.  Being happy is a choice.
2.  Expand your understanding of health to include happiness.  Here’s a quote from Deepak Chopra, one of the world’s foremost experts on the mind-body connection:

“Health is not just the absence of disease.  It’s an inner joyfulness that should be ours all the time - a state of positive well-being.”

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A friend of Know News sent me an email with the following message and video;

You’ve probably seen this short film, it’s just a few minutes long.  I’m not sending this because it’s cute or makes people feel good.  I think it’s a critical bit of advice and especially relevant at this time.  Take the time.

Enjoy life regardless of the circumstances
Lindon

What a great message!

What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Biochemist turned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard says we can train our minds in habits of well-being, to generate a true sense of serenity and fulfillment.

I ran across a story by a reporter at CNET who had originally written about tech layoffs. A few days later, he posted an interactive spreadsheet called the "spreadsheet of sunshine". This spreadsheet is a user compiled list of all the tech companies that are hiring and it is updated daily. This is the type of news that we love to come across at Know News and it certainly tells a different story than the typical doom and gloom of the news.

The article and the spreadsheet can be found here, enjoy!

As this week dawned, I could almost hear a collective sigh of relief. We may have come to the brink, but we didn't fall over it. At least not yet.

After an active two weeks in the stock market, I'm taking a break and taking time to a look at a part of the market I abandoned years ago: municipal bonds. My attention was captured last week when I heard the voice of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch on the radio pitching New York City municipal bonds, triple-tax-free for New York City residents like myself.

Evidently even a pitchman like Mayor Koch couldn't overcome the prevailing risk aversion, for I later heard the offering had to be postponed due to market conditions. Still, the offered yield was a remarkable 5.75%. That's the equivalent to an over 10% return for New York City residents in the top bracket.

If so much other news wasn't pushing it out of the headlines, the crisis in the municipal-bond market would be making the front pages. As investors have fled nearly every packaged or derivative product, there has been turmoil in the tax-exempt market. There were fears earlier this month that California might need a federal bailout because it couldn't market its bonds; they proved unfounded when the state's issue actually was oversubscribed. Still, the very thought that a state like California might be in trouble spooked many investors. And there seems little doubt that state and municipal budgets will come under pressure, given the economic upheavals and the likely fall in revenues.

Despite these fears, the current upheaval largely has been a liquidity crisis, not a credit-quality crisis. There have been no recent defaults, but municipal bonds, just like mortgages, have been packaged into all kinds of products much like collateralized debt obligations and mortgage backed securities. The crisis in tax-exempt auction rate preferreds was the tip of the iceberg.

The upshot is that yields in the tax-exempt markets have soared well above rates for Treasurys of similar duration. This is very rare, since municipal-bond yields are tax exempt and, as a result, almost always yield less than comparable Treasurys or taxable bonds.

So last week I ventured into the market for municipal bonds for the first time in years, a task that proved daunting. Though municipal bonds typically are available through any full-service or discount broker, I'm told many firms have slashed their inventory during the liquidity crisis.

The volatility in the market also seems to have driven up spreads between the bid and asked prices to unusual levels. I was able to get a New York City general obligation bond yielding 5.5%. Municipalbonds.com offers a comprehensive list of available bonds by state. I glanced at the offerings in California, Illinois and Massachusetts , all of which had bonds with yields in the 5% to 6% range, and a few even higher. Since nearly every bond is different, it's important to read the fine print. Beware of yields that seem too good to be true (at least one bond was reported to be yielding over 50%).

Buying an individual bond is a way to take advantage of the recent turmoil. In some cases, investors can buy newly issued bonds directly from their state or municipality. Another possibility is to buy one of the many tax-free municipal bond funds, some of them tailored for specific states and cities. Most have had terrible years, given the credit crisis, but Pimco's High Yield Municipal Bond fund currently yields 5.83%. These funds offer immediate diversification and professional management. But because their holdings are replenished constantly, they don't have fixed maturities and aren't likely to benefit as much from the recent dislocations in the market. With an individual bond, you can always hold it to maturity.

Like all investments, buying a municipal bond is a vote of confidence in the future. As former Mayor Koch reminded me, it's also a way of contributing to your communities. Especially in these difficult markets, our public institutions need you.

James B. Stewart, a columnist for SmartMoney magazine and SmartMoney.com, writes weekly about his personal investing strategy. Unlike Dow Jones reporters, he may have positions in the stocks he writes about. For his past columns, see: www.smartmoney.com/commonsense.

Take a look at this video......



After watching this you may start wonder what else you are missing.

Enjoy

Your career is not a boat. Neither is your business. A boat with even a small leak is going to sink. You, on the other hand, don't need to be perfect to succeed. Imagine that you have a 4 x 4 grid to fill with assets. If it's a business, it might be location, reputation, staff, offerings that are in high demand and a sector that's robust... if you're doing it for yourself, it might include your resume, your network, your skill set, etc.

Know the whole story

If you have never been to Ted.com than you are missing some amazing lectures. This lecture is by Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness. He challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.

Pessimism: Its Mistaken Perspective

I've heard there are people with such sunny dispositions that they never
give way to sadness. The rumor is that they always make lemonade from
their lemons. And the boast is that they can always win at cards - no
matter the hand they get dealt. They always come out of tough times on
the winning side, always cure their own illnesses with positive
thinking, and are always loved by all who know them. Maybe there are
such people. I doubt it.

Don't get me wrong! There is certainly value to looking for silver
linings over getting lost in the dense fog of a dark cloud. In fact, if
I had to choose between being a naive optimist and marching to the beat
of the pessimist's drum, I would hope to be confused with Forrest Gump
over Eeyore.

There is lots of pessimism in the air these days. There's pessimism over
the Middle East and the economy. There is Eeyore-like melancholy over
the state of world and national leadership. You name it. Somebody is
there to tell us why things are worse than they've ever been - and
destined soon to get worse still.

Maybe the pessimist lives under the delusion of Golden Age Syndrome. For
most of my life, I have had to endure the lament of older people wishing
for "the good old days" and "things as they used to be." I've always
been skeptical of those people and have been inclined to suspect they
have selective memory.

Now that I have lived a while, I'm trying to keep from using those
phrases myself. Economics, politics, human relationships, religion - I
seriously doubt there has ever been a time when all these things were
just right.

Professor Walter Jackson Bate quotes a dejected Egyptian scribe who
lived more than 2,000 years before Christ. The scribe commented on the
limitations of language and wrote dejectedly of the fact that there were
no fresh, new ways of saying things. On his view, "men of old" had
created all the phrases that were possible for human language and had
exhausted them by his time. Therefore all human expression had grown
stale. Language was bankrupt.

As Professor Bate points out, this pessimistic requiem was sung over
civilization before any of what we now take to be the world's greatest
works of literature had been composed. Maybe the scribe was premature!

If all the pessimists across time had been correct in speaking of their
generation going to the dogs, exhausting every creative option, or being
abandoned by God, you and I would not be here to reflect on it.

Without either being naive or embracing Gump-ism, there is more value in
facing the coming week with a positive, forward-looking spirit than
wallowing in sadness over our loss of a perfection that never was.

Rubel Shelly

Rubel Shelly is a Preacher and Professor of Religion and Philosophy
located in Rochester Hills, Michigan. In addition to church and academic
responsibilities, he has worked actively with such community projects as
Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, From Nashville With Love,
Metro (Nashville) Public Schools, Faith Family Medical Clinic, and
Operation Andrew Ministries. To learn more about Rubel please go to:
www.RubelShelly.com