The 2012 Super Bowl Ads Winner (according to my highly biased opinion) is…..

For the second year in a row, I have to give a HUGE shoutout to the motor city! Featuring Clint Eastwood and a GO AMERICA theme, this a great followup to last years Eminem commercial.

Having been raised in the heartland, these kinds of commercials definitely give me a warm fuzzy! The demographics for this ad are GREAT! Heartland people who have watched their livelyhoods dwindle, men over 40 who love Clint Eastwood, Gen X and older who knew a time when we had manufacturing and everything did not come from China PLUS it is targeting a demographic with money to spend on a car (more about that later).

It is a Buy American, sentimental piece that will sell more cars! Y

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Entrepreneurs need instant capital flows to ensure that their company thrives and does well in meeting the strategic objectives. Business loans are offered for companies to meet their financial needs. Small organizations suffer greatly if they are not adequately funded. Investments make the entire mechanism work and put things in order.

As usual, loans open additional opportunities for small businesses to gain more revenue or at least recover from losses. But then, sometimes, business owners find it difficult to get money. An organization must meet certain basic criteria to get access to loans. Get more…

Smart business owners always look for opportunities to reduce unnecessary costs. Learn what costs to cut – or not to cut.

A police officer of 17 years was fired for repeatedly smoking cigarettes inside the precinct, a violation of a no-smoking policy.

Harold Dunivant, the chief of police in the west Tennessee city of Newbern, fired Sgt. James Bishop last week for repeatedly smoking indoors. Since 2007, the city has prohibited smoking inside all municipal offices and buildings.

Bishop’s termination letter—obtained by the Dyersburg State Gazette—states the no-smoking policy, and reminds Bishop that city employees were informed of the policy in 2007 through a memo. Duni

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NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook will start requiring people to switch to a new profile format known as Timeline, making photos, links and personal musings from the past much easier to find.

Timeline is essentially a scrapbook of your whole life on Facebook. By contrast, Facebook’s traditional profile page is more of a snapshot of you today.

Although some people have already voluntarily switched to Timeline, Facebook hadn’t made that mandatory. Beginning Tuesday, Facebook is telling some users that they have seven days to clean up their profiles before Timeline gets automatically activated. Facebook is rolling out the requirement to others over the next few weeks.

At some point, even those who haven’t logged on to Facebook in a while will be automatically switched.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Negotiations to renew a payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and jobless benefits for millions more kicked off on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with both sides optimistic of an agreement despite last year’s bitter battles over President Barack Obama’s jobs proposals.

The House-Senate talks will focus chiefly on finding ways to finance the $10 billion a month cost of a 2 percentage point cut in Social Security payroll taxes that awards a worker making a typical $50,000 salary a tax cut of about $20 a week. Lawmakers also need to pay for the $45 billion or so cost of renewing jobless benefits for people out of work for more than half a year and the $20 billion a year cost of making sure doctors aren’t hit with massive cuts to their Medicare payments.

Negotiators face a Feb. 2

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New York —

The nation’s largest retail trade group expects a solid 3.4 percent increase in sales this year, below last year’s 4.7 percent increase as job woes weigh on shoppers.

Sales should reach $2.53 trillion in 2012, up from last year’s $2.45 trillion, boosted in part by higher prices across all goods, according to a report being released today from the National Retail Federation.

The 3.4 percent bump would still outpace the 10-year annual average increase of almost 3.1 percent and would also mark a third consecutive year of recovery for consumer spending. Sales slumped 3.5 percent in 2009 with the nation still deep in recession.

However, sales remain well below the more robust figures of 5.5 percent or more that the country would typically see in better economic times.

The retail sales forecast – which excludes sales of autos, gas and restaurants – was shaped by a variety of economic headwinds.

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