General Motors, after prematurely announcing the news back in July (before it actually had a deal with eBay), is really truly going to start selling cars via eBay on Tuesday. You can tell it’s for real this time because the press release announcing the program is available on the eBay website (pdf!) as well as the GM one. And there’s …
How to Really Stretch a Dollar: The 15 Meals for $15 Challenge
Business may be booming at McDonald’s during the recession, but this is not about the dollar menu. Not remotely.
“Compassionate Downsizing”: You’re Fired! Want a Hug?
Apparently, there are good ways and bad ways to fire people. From the company’s perspective, layoffs go well if no one sues. From the employee’s perspective, there are really just bad ways and worse ways to handle layoffs. But if you are laid off, don’t simply accept whatever papers are pushed in front of you to sign. Even though you …
The Shark Tank stays intact
The TV critic is on vacation. Plus, Shark Tank is about business and stuff. So I watched the first episode of Mark Burnett’s latest reality offering Sunday night. As did Curious Capitalist Jr., who was supposed to go to bed but kept watching because he was riveted. Hmmm, a 10-year-old (who thinks economics and business are boring) …
Weekend video: Broad Daylight
Last week’s issue of TIME contained a brief endorsement of a Belgian hit song—singer-songwriter Milow’s acoustic cover of 50 Cent’s “Ayo Technology.” (It really is pretty good.) Which seems reason enough to restart this blog’s Low Countries Music Marathon with this Belgian hit of a few years …
A book-related interlude
I’ve had my final say in my CBS Moneywatch “blog war” with Eric Falkenstein over efficient markets. It really hasn’t been much of a war: We both agree that financial markets go nuts sometimes. He’s just a lot more distrustful of government than I am.
Oh, and some Krugman guy has written a review of my book for this Sunday’s New York …
Massive job losses in pretty colors
Here they finally are. The monthly charts!
Major League Cheapskates: In Baseball, Spending Less Can Be Smarter
You pay more, you get a better ball club, right? Not necessarily. See this year’s Florida Marlins, a team whose record compares quite favorably to clubs paying much, much higher salaries. Some stats have also come to light indicating that paying top dollar for pitching staffs can be a waste of money.
The very circular nature of AIG’s profits
So AIG made a $1.82 billion profit in the second-quarter—its first venture out of the red since 2007. Hmmm, it’ll only take 47 more quarters like that for the company to repay the $87.6 billion in direct aid it’s gotten from the federal government.
I’m no insurance industry analyst, but a brief look at the financials the company …
Bottled Up
For the social-entrepreneur CEO of Belu, pursuing a purpose might be easier if he pursues a profit too
It’s a Deal: $1 Bus Rides on Megabus
Low-cost bus service Megabus is selling 50,000 seats for $1 each (plus a nominal service fee) on departures from September 14 and November 19. To try to get the $1 seats, you must plug in the promotional code HOTDEAL. More info here.
Do we want to keep women around or not?
The FT reports on new research showing that female directors damage corporate profits. Sexy headline. I dug up the study itself to try to resolve the fact that other research has shown the exact opposite (as the piece in the FT points out). Here are the main conclusions of the research, by Renee Adams of the University of Queensland and …