P.C. Shannon

I may have turned 31 this year, but according to an article on CNN.com today, I’m actually getting younger:

On a global scale, three out of five consumers believed the 40’s are the new 30’s.

“Our 40’s are being celebrated as the decade where we can be comfortable and confident in both personal and financial terms. The majority of global consumers really believe life starts at 40,” AC Nielsen Europe President and CEO Frank Martell said.

This should come as good news to my wife, who feels like we’re behind the curve since a lot of our friends are homeowners but we’re not. The only problem is that now matter how you view life, a woman’s biological clock keeps time in a absolute sense—past a certain age, risks for some birth defects start to skyrocket and fertility drops off.

The other interesting fact from the article is that 33% of Irish would consider cosmetic surgery to maintain their looks versus only 25% of Americans.

Forbes.com this week has a special section on corporate citizenship. I was particularly interested in the article about corporate philanthropy entitled “Can Corporations Save The World?” Considering the source, I was expecting it to be all about enlightened self-interest and up-with-capitalism, but it actually resonated with a lot of my own thoughts. I’ll avoid going on about the rise of corporate rule and instead focus on something simpler and a bit more relevant to the Forbes article: how corporations are valued.

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Forbes.com recently ran a list of the biggest private companies in the country, and it was with some pride that I saw my favorite local grocer, HEB, come in at number 11, with 2005 revenues of $12.4 billion. Consider that Hollywood’s domestic box office is projected to pass $9 billion this year. Not too shabby.