This quickly dispels the two biggest myths of winter driving: that all wheel drive or SUVs are a cure all, and that relatively new all-season tires are adequate for frequent winter driving.

FORBES: Make Winter Driving Fun And Safe: The Bridgestone Winter Driving School

Instead, it orchestrated what may be the most unlikely brand resurrection in marketing history by leveraging its powerful dealer network, rolling out splashy new tires and repositioning the brand slightly down-market.

FORBES: Flats Fixed

The extraordinarily good performance of the US economy in recent years has owed much to new technology, as Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan never tires of repeating - and to public confidence in that technology - hence the astonishing multiples at which many of the new tech companies still trade.

BBC: Oil: New rules of the trading game