Hybrid autos only hold a tiny fraction of Canada's vehicle market but they are gaining momentum. Sales of the gasoline-electric powered autos jumped more than six-fold from 2003 to about 2,300 units last year and industry watchers predict business could double or triple again this year. The observers said yesterday the only factors that could stymie major growth in hybrid vehicles is a decline in the overall auto market, falling gas prices or not enough supply to meet demand.
Overall economic growth was more consistent in 2004 than 2003, rising at what many economists considered an "above-trend" level. When the final figures are in for the full year, 2004 will probably have an increase in Gross Domestic Product of about 4.4 percent. That is about a full percentage point above what many consider to be the underlying growth potential for the economy
For years Madison Avenue's leading thinkers have pondered the same fundamental question: How much of their advertising actually works? In what is likely the grandest post-buy analysis of all time, the Advertising Research Foundation this week will release findings of a review of more than a dozen of the most sophisticated cross-media case studies ever conducted. Its conclusion: About $50 billion in U.S. ad spending is "wasted." That figure equates to about 18.8 percent of the $266 billion in U.S. ad spending estimated by Universal McCann for 2004, but the precise number isn't as important as the fact that the ad industry now claims to have identified some of its biggest and most obvious areas of waste.
