Time has published a list of 2008’s best inventions — click here to read it. Here are a couple of inventions with Chicago connections:
- 12. MacroMarkets — MacroMarkets was instrumental in starting housing futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the Chicago connection). Now MacroMarkets is working on exchange-traded funds that allow regular investors to bet on housing futures.
- 23. The Branded Candidate — This invention is actually about a trademark and a brand. Chicago’s own President-elect Obama created a marketing sensation with his branding this year. Here is how Time describes it:
Barack Obama hat: $15. Barack Obama special-edition Beyoncé T shirt: $60. Devising a system to make and sell your own swag and garner millions in profits, not to mention the phone numbers and addresses of hundreds of thousands of potential volunteers? Priceless.
Hat tip to Dennis Crouch who identified Time’s list at Patently-O.