Uncategorized

Fred Froese / Getty Images

‘Self-Employment Assistance’: How We’re Helping Americans Help Themselves

In June of 2008, Adam Lowry and Michael Richardson found themselves unemployed. The tech startup where they worked in Portland, Vidoop, had just closed its doors, and employees were being offered company laptops in lieu of back wages. Common sense would dictate that these promising young programmers should file for unemployment insurance (UI) and begin their search for new employment—which they did. In a way.

Euro Crisis: Is the Currency (Finally) Doomed?

A man is reflected standing next to a pawn shop near Athens, Greece.

Since the start of Europe’s debt crisis in 2009, there has been a steady drumbeat of predictions that the euro is doomed. The problems were too intractable, the debts too large, the political will too feeble. So far, the doomsayers have been wrong. The leaders of Europe have managed to put a bandage here and [...]

Euro Crisis: Why a Greek Exit Could Be Much Worse than Expected

Angelos Tzortzinis / Bloomberg / Getty Images

More than one kind of damaging domino effect is possible if Greece is forced to abandon the euro

Market Breaks Losing Streak, With China’s Help

(NEW YORK) — Forget Facebook. This is still Apple‘s stock market. Apple — the world’s most valuable company — climbed nearly 6 percent on Monday, helping propel major U.S. stock indexes to gains after a week of losses. The Standard & Poor’s 500, where Apple accounts for 4 percent of the index, enjoyed its best [...]

Trial of Ex-Goldman Sachs Board Member Rajat Gupta Begins

AP / Louis Lanzano

(NEW YORK) — A former Goldman Sachs board member brazenly committed securities fraud by feeding confidential information about the investment bank to a high-flying hedge fund manager, who used it to make a killing on the stock market, a federal prosecutor said Monday at a closely watched insider trading trial.

Chinese Company to Buy Movie Theater Chain AMC

Associated Press

(BEIJING) — A Chinese conglomerate announced Monday it will buy a major U.S. cinema chain, AMC Entertainment Holdings, for $2.6 billion in China’s biggest takeover of an American company to date. Dalian Wanda Group Co.’s purchase reflects the global ambitions of a wave of cash-rich Chinese companies that are using acquisitions to speed their expansion [...]

How to Stop Sleeping with Your Smart Phone

Fuse / Getty Images

In her new book, Sleeping with Your Smartphone, Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow details her years-long research project with The Boston Consulting Group, an attempt to improve the work-life balance at the hard-driving firm with incremental but meaningful changes in attitude and behavior.

Facebook IPO: What You Need To Know Now

David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images

[The article was updated at 12:20 pm on 5/16/12.] Prom night is almost here for Facebook and its suitors. Here’s a program to the biggest high technology initial public offering ever, and what you should know:

European Voters Have Rejected Austerity—So What Happens Next?

Luca Bruno/AP

So voters in France and Greece sent an inescapable signal to the euro zone: No more austerity. In doing so, they showed that the average guy on the street understands economics better than the people in power. Rather than reducing debt and returning the European economy to health, the all-austerity approach to solving the debt [...]

BofA Initiates Home Loan Modification Offers

Chris Keane / Reuters

(LOS ANGELES) — Homeowners with a Bank of America mortgage have good reason to check their mailbox. The lender said Tuesday it has begun mailing out letters to customers who may qualify to have their home loans reduced as part of a multistate settlement over alleged foreclosure abuses.