Settlement Reached With Banks On Relief For Some Homeowners
“After negotiating through the night,” NPR’s Yuki Noguchi reports, states attorneys general, federal officials and five major banks have agreed on a plan that will provide about $26 billion in mortgage relief and aid to homeowners who got crushed when the housing bubble burst. The Justice Department, NPR’s Carrie Johnson tells us, just announced that [...]
What Do The Dow’s Daily Swings Mean? Not Much.
Turn on the news on any given day, and you’re likely to hear about the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It is the most frequently checked, and cited, proxy of U.S. economic health. But a lot of people–maybe most–don’t even know what it is. It’s just the stock prices of 30 big companies, summed up and [...]
For Election News, Voters Still Turn To Old Media
The twists and turns of the Republican presidential campaign have been practically made for — and watched on — live television. And despite predictions of new media tools like Twitter and Facebook dominating election coverage, Americans are continuing to rely on an old standby: cable TV. After coming in second in the Nevada caucuses, Newt [...]
Facebook: Lots Of Friends, But Stock Offering Has Risks
When a company files to go public it has to lay out in black and white the biggest risks that face the firm. What could kill it? What could undermine its business? Wipe out all its investors’ money? Executives are required to reveal this by law. It makes great reading, so I’ve been flipping through [...]
Chinese Labor Practices Sour Apple Consumers
It’s hard for those who have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod to describe what the device is worth to them, but it may be harder to measure the human cost of manufacturing Apple products. In the past few weeks, reports have surfaced about poor working conditions in Chinese factories that manufacture Apple products. FoxConn Technology, [...]
Amid Debt Crisis, A Trail Of Broken ‘Promises’
Financial writer Philip Coggan traces the current global financial crisis to the 1970s, when the U.S. went off the gold standard. “Up till then, every form of money had some link to precious metal: gold or silver,” Coggan, author of a new book, Paper Promises: Debt, Money and the New World Order, tells Morning Edition [...]
Citibank Receives OK To Issue Credit Cards In China
Citgroup announced today that China had approved its plans to issue credit cards in the country. That will make it the first U.S.-based bank to be able to issue credit cards under its own brand. Citigroup said it plans to issue its first cards this year. The AP reports: “Banks and card processing networks have [...]
California’s Stevia Growers Bet On Fast Track To Sweetener Success
It’s stevia time! At least that’s what food industry newsletters are saying. Regulatory barriers that once blocked many uses of this all-natural sweetener have fallen. The European Union approved the use of stevia in food late last year. In the U.S., the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave stevia a green light in 2008. Sales [...]
Stopping The ‘Brain Drain’ Of The U.S. Economy
Yale University student Marina Keegan received an email last May from Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, offering her $100 if she said why she didn’t apply for a summer internship. Keegan, an English major, decided to take Bridgewater up on its offer. “It was only sort of once I was inside [...]
Who Killed Lard?
Ron Silver, the owner of Bubby’s restaurant in Brooklyn, recently put a word on his menu you don’t often see anymore: lard. The white, creamy, processed fat from a pig. And he didn’t use the word just once. For a one-night-only “Lard Exoneration Dinner”, Silver served up lard fried potatoes. And root vegetables, baked in [...]
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