That’s the value (including debt) of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s deal to purchase Precision Castparts Corp., announced Monday. It will be the largest acquisition overseen by Warren Buffet, Berkshire chairman and CEO. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the move highlights how the company has lately drawn much of its earnings from buying other companies as opposed to investment.
It has been that long since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The Marketplace Morning Report team headed down south to check in on how the city has been recovering. What they found was a host of small business owners who prided themselves on reopening and serving the community as quickly as they could following the flood.
That’s how long a crop of red lettuce has been growing aboard the International Space Station. Grown using an LED light system, the vegetable will soon become the first space-harvested food to be eaten by astronauts. As Quartz writes, half the lettuce will be cleaned with citric-acid-based sanitizing wipes, while the other half will be brought back to earth for study.
That’s how much condos account for in all multifamily building in the first quarter of 2015, the lowest its been in the 41 years the Commerce Department has tracked this specific corner of the housing market. But it’s not just condos that are lacking in supply. The housing market, while on the rise for the past couple of years, has been largely influenced by a growing demand amidst a lack of supply. That means home prices that are outpacing the income of buyers.
That’s how much a family in a state with a 7 percent sales tax could save with a sales-tax holiday for back-to-school purchases. Analysts are predicting modest back-to-school sales, as there are not many must-have gadgets for the fall. In fact, the average family is expected to spend 5 percent less this year than last on school supplies.
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