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Latest Articles: Business
Airlines jack up fares along closed Amtrak corridor
Post Date: 2015-05-15 15:40:24 by Willie Green
5 Comments
Airfares between New York and Washington, DC, have taken off since the fatal Amtrak derailing — with some round-trip flights going for four times the normal amount. With rail service suspended at least until Monday, travelers have been scrambling to grab tickets on the busy, popular route. American Airlines on Friday morning offered the few seats left on round-trip flights for as much as $1,000 leaving Saturday and returning Monday. Prices on US Airways’ website hovered above $770, with many seats sold out even on connecting flights. Fares on Delta Air Lines were more down to earth, with prices of about $530. Travel sites Orbitz and Expedia didn’t offer any amazing ...
Are you a Richard Branson or a Bill Gates? The quiz that reveals YOUR leadership style
Post Date: 2015-05-10 20:44:24 by out damned spot
5 Comments
Sponsored by The Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University Being a leader is about more than telling people what to do. The way you manage your team and interact with those around you affects every aspect of your company – whether you work with three people or three thousand. And one person who knows more about this than most is Jack Welch. As one of the most successful business leaders in the world, Welch has helped countless individuals and companies to grow and develop by honing their management skills. He was also the CEO who saw General Electric's market capitalization soar from $13 billion to over $400 billion during his 21-year tenure at the company. As ...
Robot Suits help Bankers lug piles of Cash
Post Date: 2015-05-09 06:31:21 by Willie Green
1 Comments
A bank employee demonstrates use of a robot suit to help lift heavy packages of cash.-- Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.Robots are starting to turn up in bank branches to greet customers, and now they’re getting ready for service behind the scenes to help older employees lift heavy stacks of cash. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., the core banking unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., said Thursday it has rented eight robotic suits developed by Japanese robotic maker Cyberdyne Inc. to ease the burden on the employees delivering cash. The bank says that would be a first among Japanese financial institutions. “There have been many cases when a physical burden was placed on senior ...
The World’s First Self-Driving Semi-Truck Hits the Road
Post Date: 2015-05-06 10:15:07 by Willie Green
0 Comments
“AU 010.” License plates are rarely an object of attention, but this one’s special—the funky number is the giveaway. That’s why Daimler bigwig Wolfgang Bernhard and Nevada governor Brian Sandoval are sharing a stage, mugging for the phalanx of cameras, together holding the metal rectangle that will, in just a minute, be slapped onto the world’s first officially recognized self-driving truck. The truck in question is the Freightliner Inspiration, a teched-up version of the Daimler 18-wheeler sold around the world. And according to Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz, it will make long-haul road transportation safer, cheaper, and better for the planet. ...
The death of the 40-hour work week
Post Date: 2015-05-06 08:03:16 by Willie Green
7 Comments
When you’re hired for a full-time job, the understanding is that you’ll put in at least a 40-hour workweek. The expectation, especially for salaried employees who don’t qualify for overtime, is that you’ll put in more to ensure your projects get done. Or because the boss needs something at the last minute. Or just because everyone at the office regularly works more than 8 hours a day, and you’re seen as kind of a slacker if you don’t. So how long do full-time U.S. employees really work every week? A Gallup survey last summer found that the average for full-time employees was actually 47 hours, or 46 if you isolate those workers with just one job. Either way, ...
U.S. Permits Ferry Service to Cuba
Post Date: 2015-05-05 21:42:38 by Willie Green
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The U.S. Treasury granted licenses to three American companies to operate ferry services to Cuba for the first time in more than a half century, potentially bringing the former Cold War antagonists closer. The move is part of President Barack Obama’s strategy to normalize relations with Cuba by engaging in direct talks with the government of President Raúl Castro. Reviving a mode of travel between the two countries that was common in the 1950s would ease the people-to-people contact that is a cornerstone of Mr. Obama’s policy of engagement. “It’s an important symbol that re-establishing of relations with Cuba is a legacy project for Obama,” said Robert Muse, ...
America's trailer parks: the residents may be poor but the owners are getting rich
Post Date: 2015-05-03 14:27:29 by Willie Green
11 Comments
It’s an unusual but potentially lucrative investment: billionaire Warren Buffett is heavily invested, and his and others’ success is prompting ordinary people to attend Mobile Home University, a ‘boot camp’ in trailer park ownership The number one rule is stated twice, once in the classroom and once on the bus: “Don’t make fun of the residents.” Welcome to Mobile Home University, a three-day, $2,000 “boot camp” that teaches people from across the US how to make a fortune by buying up trailer parks. Trailer parks are big and profitable business – particularly after hundreds of thousands of Americans who lost their homes in the financial ...
Wells Fargo Is Baltimore’s Real Looter
Post Date: 2015-05-03 09:11:11 by Willie Green
9 Comments
Wall Street created the nightmare economic context of the unrest in Baltimore. You don’t need to have watched The Wire, one of the greatest dramas in American television history, to know that Baltimore has some rough neighborhoods. But things got a lot worse when the subprime mortgage crisis blew up in 2008. The wealth destroyed by some of the biggest banks foisting predatory loans on unsuspecting, unprotected consumers was staggering, and triggered the Great Recession. Baltimore was hit particularly hard, and around the Baltimore area, the black community was specifically and intentionally targeted for these predatory loans. The resulting implosion dialed the black community’s ...
Comcast sued a city trying to build high-speed internet — then offered its own version
Post Date: 2015-05-02 09:55:28 by Willie Green
2 Comments
Competition wins again The small city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, has played a large role in the movement to expand high-speed internet around the US. It wanted to build its own municipal fiber network, but was sued by incumbents like Comcast. After winning in court, Chattanooga built its own high-speed offering, but was prevented from expanding this offering to neighboring areas by state laws. Earlier this year, the FCC voted to overturn those restrictions. And today Comcast has come crawling back, announcing it will begin offering its own 2-gigabit service in Chattanooga. "I think we would have welcomed the incumbents to come into town and to have done some of this ...
As contributions fall, House GOP rebels blame party leaders
Post Date: 2015-04-25 12:35:46 by Willie Green
1 Comments
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he began his first re-election run in early 2013, tea party Rep. Thomas Massie had no trouble raising money from business interests. Then came 2015. The Kentucky Republican voted against returning John Boehner, R-Ohio, to the speaker's job and opposed an effort by GOP leaders to avoid a standoff with President Barack Obama over immigration that threatened to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. In the first three months of 2013, Massie reported $46,000 rolling in from tobacco, trucking, health care and other industries. During the first quarter of 2015, Massie has collected just $1,000 from political action committees, which funnel contributions ...
The American Dream is a myth, says Nobel-prize winner [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2015-04-24 10:32:47 by Willie Green
41 Comments
It has become increasingly difficult for Americans to climb the economic ladder, says Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize winning economist. The U.S. has one of the highest levels of income inequality among its peers and is among the worst in offering equal opportunities for advancement, said Stiglitz, who spoke Tuesday in New York City. Whether an American gets ahead is also more dependent on the income and education of their parents, he said. "The American Dream is a myth," said Stiglitz. A left-leaning authority on income inequality who teaches at Columbia University, Stiglitz is on a publicity tour for his new book, The Great Divide, which is a compilation of his articles on ...
The Threat of Gravity Payments [The Great Bloviator himself, Rush Limbaugh, ruptured a vessel railing] [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2015-04-24 02:42:13 by A Pole
44 Comments
I won't pretend that I understand what the digital company Gravity Payments actually does (in fact, I don't understand what most digital companies do) but I want to congratulate CEO Dan Price for providing us all with a useful economics lesson. You've undoubtedly heard that Price recently decided to cut his own salary in order to help finance a radical experiment in employee pay: everyone who works for Gravity Payments, based in Seattle, will now make $70,000/year. He delivered the news to all 120 Gravity employees on April 13. Actually, the economics lesson didn't come from Mr. Price directly. Rather, it has come from the angry, near hysterical reactions that have greeted ...
GM, Ford, And Others Want to Make Working on Your Own Car Illegal
Post Date: 2015-04-23 14:27:14 by Willie Green
26 Comments
One of the inherent rights of owning a vehicle is the ability to get on one’s backside — a wrench in one hand and a grease rag in the other, and just tinker to your little heart’s desire. Since the vehicle was invented, it’s been an important facet within the community of gearheads. General Motors — the same company responsible for 87 deaths related to faulty ignition switches, FYI — wants to take that right away from you citing safety and security issues. Along with a few other big names.It’s called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). It’s been around since 2000 and started as anti-Internet piracy legislation. But automakers want to use ...
Robin Hood: Why Ayn Rand Got It Wrong
Post Date: 2015-04-20 13:11:52 by Hondo68
3 Comments
For sixty years I have been captivated by the heroic stories of Robin Hood. The Adventures of Robin Hood was my favorite movie as a kid, Errol Flynn my favorite actor. Adventures of Robin Hood, by Eleanor Graham Vance, was my favorite book as a kindergartener. I still have it in my library. Over the past several days I have once again been reliving my corrupted youth by watching on DVD the 143 episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene. Above is Outlaw Money, one of my favorites with many themes LRC enthusiasts will relish. The television series was produced in England by Sapphire Films. Sapphire Films was founded by producer Hannah Weinstein allegedly with funds ...
Closure Of Private Prison Forces Texas County To Plug Financial Gap
Post Date: 2015-04-20 08:31:12 by Willie Green
3 Comments
The Willacy County Correctional Center is empty now. The tall security fences and dome-like housing units set out on the coastal prairie have no one inside them. One morning late last month, the prisoners rioted. They set fires and tore the place up. Guards put down the uprising in about five hours. But the destruction was so severe that the sprawling detention compound has been shut down. All 2,800 inmates were transferred. Willacy County is now facing the question — what does it do now that its biggest moneymaker is out of business? "Worst scenario, we'll lose about $2.3 million annually, which is about 23 percent of our income," says Beto Guerra, Willacy County ...
Walmart closing stores all over the place for "up to six months", citing "plumbing issues"? What's the deal?
Post Date: 2015-04-14 08:10:25 by Willie Green
15 Comments
Click for Google News search showing Walmart closings. Click for reddit discussion of WalMart's motives.
Poster Comment:WalMart illegally using "plumbing issues" as an excuse to close stores and get rid of employees due to poor sales?
Selective outrage? Top companies rip Indiana, reap profits in brutal nations
Post Date: 2015-04-05 16:17:03 by nativist nationalist
4 Comments
Big-name American companies blasting Indiana over a law they say promotes discrimination based on sexual orientation check their social consciences at the border when it comes to doing business in nations where gay people face persecution and even death for their orientation, say critics. Companies including Apple, The Gap and Levi’s - all of which do business in nations with abysmal human rights records - were among the harshest critics of the Hoosier State’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which advocates say defends religious freedom and is similar to a federal law and regulations on the books in more than a dozen states. Other companies have even taken the unusual step of ...
Warren Buffett's mobile home empire preys on the poor [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2015-04-04 16:38:01 by Willie Green
51 Comments
Billionaire profits at every step, from building to selling to high cost lending Editor's note: This is a joint investigation of The Center for Public Integrity and The Seattle Times. Denise Pitts walked into the pawn shop not far from where she bought her mobile home in Knoxville, Tennessee, and offered up her wedding rings for $100. Her marriage wasn’t over, but her husband was battling cancer and, Pitts said, her mortgage company told her the only way to keep a roof over his head would be to sell everything else. Across the country in Ephrata, Washington, Kirk and Patricia Ackley sat down to close on a new mobile home, only to learn that the annual interest on their loan ...
Indiana law inspires 'non-bigoted' sausage stand to raise cash
Post Date: 2015-04-04 07:57:07 by Willie Green
1 Comments
A Roosevelt Road business is capitalizing on the political firestorm surrounding Indiana's religious freedom law by seeking to raise money in the name of gay rights.Big Guys Sausage Stand, at 7021 Roosevelt Road in Berwyn, created a GoFundMe page Friday, April 3 titled, "Non Bigoted Restaurant Wants Cash."Within two hours, the fundraiser had 142 shares on social media and had raised $50."At Big Guys Sausage Stand we use a lot of ingredients to make great homemade sandwiches, but one ingredient we never use is hate," the GoFundMe page says. "And if any LGBT couples want Big Guys Sausage to cater their Big Gay Wedding, please give us a call."Big Guys owner ...
Hot new liberal theory: Memories Pizza orchestrated this fiasco because they wanted the online donations
Post Date: 2015-04-03 17:41:35 by Tooconservative
33 Comments
Best Trutherism ever. Nothing else comes close. It adds up. ABC57 reporter Alyssa Marino walks through the door of the pizzeria during a Category Five news-storm over RFRA and asks, “Anyone here got a problem with catering gay weddings?” The pizzeria employees slink away, knowing what a “yes” would mean for their careers. But not Memories CEO Crystal O’Connor. As usual, she’s one step ahead of the game. Instantly she recognizes that if she says yes to Marino, the left will go apesh*t, flooding her business with crank calls, death threats, and nasty online reviews. The business will close temporarily. And then enraged conservatives will rally to her side, ...
‘Wealth creators’ are robbing our most productive people
Post Date: 2015-04-01 18:58:58 by Willie Green
0 Comments
Lives are being trashed by klepto-remuneration: theft through excess rewards to rapacious bosses There is an inverse relationship between utility and reward. The most lucrative, prestigious jobs tend to cause the greatest harm. The most useful workers tend to be paid least and treated worst. I was reminded of this while listening last week to a care worker describing her job. Carole’s company gives her a rota of, er, three half-hour visits an hour. It takes no account of the time required to travel between jobs, and doesn’t pay her for it either, which means she makes less than the minimum wage. During the few minutes she spends with a client, she may have to get them out of ...
Walmart Asks Arkansas Governor To Veto Religion Freedom Bill
Post Date: 2015-03-31 20:27:39 by out damned spot
2 Comments
March 31 (Reuters) - The chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Tuesday asked the governor of Arkansas to veto a religious freedom measure, saying the bill approved by lawmakers earlier in the day undermines "the spirit of inclusion" in the state. Doug McMillon, the chief executive officer for the company based in Arkansas, in a tweet requested that Governor Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, veto the legislation.
Ford's new car will force you to obey the speed limit
Post Date: 2015-03-24 17:23:44 by cranky
8 Comments
Much as we'd like to emulate our NASCAR heroes, breaking the speed limit often comes at a price. Ford is hoping to prevent accidents and speeding tickets by introducing cars that can see what the speed limit is and preventing heavy-footed motorists from driving any faster. Ford's Intelligent Speed Limiter tech will first appear on the new Ford S-Max that's launching in Europe that could just change the way that we drive. A camera mounted on the windshield scans the road signs on the sides of the highway and, when the vehicle enters a 20mph zone, the system reduces the top speed to match. Rather than controlling the speed with automatic braking, the car limits its own velocity ...
Maker of Louisville Slugger bats selling brand to Wilson
Post Date: 2015-03-23 18:29:32 by cranky
6 Comments
A Wilson baseball glove and a Louisville slugger bat sit on the field prior to a spring training baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants on Monday, March 23, 2015, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Hillerich & Bradsby Co., the company that made bats for a who's who of baseball greats, including Babe Ruth and Ted Williams, announced a deal Monday to sell its Louisville Slugger brand to rival Wilson Sporting Goods Co. for $70 million. Over a century of family ownership of Louisville Slugger bats is going ... going ... nearly gone. The company that makes the iconic bats gripped by generations of ballplayers — from Babe Ruth to David Wright — announced a ...
IBM to share technology with China in strategy shift: CEO
Post Date: 2015-03-23 10:32:33 by Willie Green
6 Comments
(Reuters) - IBM Corp will share technology with Chinese firms and will actively help build China's industry, CEO Virginia Rometty said in Beijing as she set out a strategy for one of the foreign firms hardest hit by China's shifting technology policies. IBM must help China build its IT industry rather than viewing the country solely as a sales destination or manufacturing base, Rometty said at the China Development Forum, an annual Chinese government-sponsored conference bringing together business executives and China's ruling elite."If you're a country, as China is, of 1.3 billion people you would want an IT industry as well," the chief executive said on Monday. ...
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