Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Quotes Inspired by Cities

I love getting furniture store catalogs in the mail...they are great idea generators, very therapeutic, and inspirational.

Yesterday I was even more wowed by Restoration Hardware's catalog around the theme of "Big Style Small Spaces," not so much because of its great ideas of how to turn small apartments into stylish homes, but because of its compilation of quotes from iconic figures inspired by particular cities around the world.

Barcelona
"This is where it all began...there is where I understood how far I could go." - Pablo Picasso

Los Angeles
"I love Los Angeles. It reinvents itself every two days." - Billy Connolly

New York
"Once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough." - John Steinbeck

Paris
"Though I often looked for one, I finally had to admit that there could be no cure for Paris." - Ernest Hemingway

Milan
"You may have the universe if I may have Italy." - Giuseppe Verdi

Monday, September 10, 2012

More on how US Exports Benefit from NAFTA

I'm not the only one obsessed with the US-Mexico trade numbers, the Washington Post ran a story in their
Sunday, September 9th edition: "Middle-class Mexicans snap up more products ‘Made in USA’."

About 6 million jobs in the United States depend on trade with Mexico (Source: Trade Partnership Worldwide 2008)

US exports to Mexico 2011 FACT highlights from the article and infographic:
  • Texas exports more than 70 percent of the chickens it ships out of Texas to Mexico
  • California exported $9.3 billion in computers and electronics
  • New Jersey exported about $1 billion in pharmaceuticals 
  • Iowa exported $121 million in pork (us Mexicans love "carnitas") 
  • Montana exported $59 million in copper and molybdenum
  • New York exported $500 million in jewelry (I don't think this accounts for the amount of jewelry Mexican tourists purchase on their visits to The Big Apple especially at Tiffany's)
  • Tennessee's biggest export south of the border was transportation equipment, totaling $855 million
  • Michigan exported $3.6 billion in transportation  equipment, mostly for the automobile industry