Fed chairman Ben Bernanke made it official this morning: He thinks it would be a good idea for Congress to approve some sort of fiscal stimulus package to aid the ailing U.S. economy this year. And for a guy who tries really hard to avoid taking the sort of political stands that his predecessor Alan Greenspan did, Bernanke made it …
Execs only *think* they’re helping working parents
A press release from staffing company OfficeTeam crows that
Raising a family while working can be a challenge for most parents, but it seems many businesses are lending a helping hand. According to a survey, more than three in five (62 percent) companies have made policy changes to better accommodate working parents.
Oh, really. How do …
Brian Lehrer puts on a great TV show
I was on Brian Lehrer’s talk show on cuny.tv (as in the City University of New York) last night, discussing the economy and the presidential race with Vikas Bajaj of the NYT. Sorry for not giving advance notice, but I sort of figured that it’s only available on cable TV in NYC, and most Curious Capitalist readers (or at least most …
Nothin’ virtual about working from home
In my trolling for work-at-home job boards (see post below), I noticed a lot of references to so-called virtual workers. This term bugs me. So I hereby am lodging an objection.
Today I am working from home. I suppose if you are just learning to use the Google and the World Wide Interweb, you might insist on calling me a virtual worker. …
Why 2008 isn’t 1971 (the first ever Curious Capitalist list!)
About.com economics guru (and fully signed-in Curious Capitalist commenter) Mike Moffatt looks at today’s CPI data (4.1% annual inflation in 2007!) and muses:
The more I look at oil prices, gold prices, inflation and the economy, the more I believe we are starting to re-live the early 1970s. I just hope the fashions don’t come back as
…
The emerging-markets decade
A couple weeks ago I ran a list of the ten hottest global stocks of 2007 (India! India! India!). Now here, courtesy of Joe Quinlan at Bank of America (no link, sorry), are the world’s ten best-performing stock indices (in dollar terms) since the beginning of the decade (century, millennium, whatever):
1. Ukraine PFTS Index
2. Russia RTS …
Chuck Schumer’s three principles for fiscal stimulus
This is from his opening statement (pdf!) at the hearing his Joint Economic Committee held this morning. And maybe I’m just getting soft in my middle age, but I think Senator Chuck is starting to sound more and more like the soul of centrist wisdom:
We must enact a stimulus package that is timely, targeted, and temporary. Economists
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Headache alert: upgraded (read newly buggy) WiP
Folks, we here at Time.com are “upgrading” to a new version of our blogging tool. It’s proving monstrously buggy, particularly in the comments arena. Our blog hero Malik is working out the kinks, so this is me begging you to grit your teeth and plug in the info needed to create an account so we can all keep benefiting from your wise and …
My hunt for work-at-home job boards—and pie
Whenever I post about telecommuting or working from home, I hear a bunch of smack from those of you who’d like to do just that. So I should point you to a short Q&A in The Wall Street Journal in Sue Shellenbarger’s column on how to find just such a job. The questioner asks:
Question: I saw your story on how more employers are hiring
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The dawn of a new comments regime
The Curious Capitalist has just been upgraded to a new version of Movable Type that requires commenters to sign in. This is not because any of you have been naughty or anything (yeah, there were a few bad words in the great FairTax debate, but that was understandable). It’s because the old version of Movable Type was no longer much good …
Bill’s last day
Okay, you’ve probably seen this already (I just came across it on the Fake Steve Ballmer blog). But it’s never too late to share a viral video, right? Even a high-gloss, star-studded viral video manufactured by one of the world’s richest corporations:
Female soldiers face sexual terror on the job
WANTED: Women warriors to fight questionable wars in lawless foreign lands. Pay: bad. Conditions: worse. Risk of injury or fatality: high. Probability of sexual assault, possibly by fellow service member: one in three.
In an honest world, that’s how military recruitment ads might run of late. Here’s what I read buried in Bob Herbert’s …