Stocks held relatively well in the face of a tumultuous start to the year, with Egypt, Libya and the general MENA crisis sending oil prices through the roof, the Japanese earthquake-tsunami duo disrupting global supply chains, and European sovereign debt woes back in center stage.

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With that merry thought, an ambitious SCI overexpanded in the 1990s, buying individual funeral homes and small chains willy-nilly, saddling itself with debt.

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