Articles

  • The Taxman Cometh


    Posted Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 11:08am

    from SlateTo many Americans, paying taxes is, well, a hassle. And the jumbled market of online tax-prep services doesn't help. So this year, Slate's Tom Bartlett set out to score some of the more popular services in order to clear through some of the muck and show us the easiest and most effective tax-prep service:

  • Twitter Follows Facebook’s Lead


    Posted Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 10:28am

    When Facebook introduced Facebook Connect—an extension of the site which allowed users to carry their identities beyond Facebook—in late 2008, people were practically drooling. It was called “revolutionary” and a slam-dunk success.

    TAP Tagline: 

    Twitter Follows Facebook’s Lead

    • Caitlin McDevitt is an editorial assistant at The Big Money.

  • Runaway Toyotas: Blame the Old, the Short, and Immigrants


    Posted Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 9:45am

    I recently started using Tweetdeck to manage my hot hot hot Twitter action and have discovered that Twitter has become incredibly useful as a sort of advance-guard note-taking system for blog posts, which can obviously be more discursive. For example, last week, I retweeted a tweet from Karl Brauer, of Edmunds.com, linking to a Washington Examiner Op-Ed from March 11 that referenced an LA Times report that dug in to the NHTSA investigation of Toyota unintended-acceleration cases.

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    • Matthew DeBord has written about the auto industry for the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Huffington Post. Follow him on Twitter.

  • Discussing The Big Short, Michael Lewis’ Magnum Opus About the End of Wall Street


    Posted Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 9:23am

    I hope none of you shorted Michael Lewis. The man has had an astonishing 18-month stretch. Daddy and mommy bloggers alike smiled upon his family memoir Home Game.

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    A TBM Book Club Discusses Michael Lewis' New Book

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  • Stream Room March 16, 2010: Netflix Makes the Right Call


    Posted Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 9:15am

    Finally, a Netflix streaming app on a cell phone. The Stream Room has a singular focus today, partly because there isn’t much news, and partly because it’s due for a rant. Yesterday Netflix (NFLX) and Microsoft (MSFT) announced that Neflix will soon make its Watch Instantly service available on Windows Phone 7 sets.

    TAP Tagline: 

    Could Netflix's Phone App Goad Hulu Into Developing Its Own?

  • First Bailout Fraud Unlikely To Be the Last


    Posted Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 1:49am

    Investigations into bailed-out companies are underway, and the first charges go to a former bank president, reports the Washington Post. Charles Antonucci Sr. claimed he invested his own $6.5 million to improve the Park Avenue Bank when it was really the bank’s money.

    TAP Tagline: 

    Banker Deceives TARP for $11.3 million

    • Laura Mortkowitz is an intern at The Big Money.

  • Now Playing in Hulu Theaters Nationwide


    Posted Monday, March 15, 2010 - 5:55pm

    We know that Hulu has disrupted the way we watch TV. But it’s done far less to change the way we watch movies. That’s because right now the movies on Hulu are incredibly obscure. But that doesn’t mean they have to be. Every week Hulucination will keep track of how many movies are on Hulu and how many reviews they have on Netflix (NFLX).

  • Posted Monday, March 15, 2010 - 4:27pm

    Google (GOOG) is not a company known for making big mistakes, but not too long ago, it stumbled into the worst strategic blunder in its history. It’s not the acquisition of YouTube, which cost the company $1.6 billion, plus whatever it will take to settle Viacom’s (VIA.B) $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit. It’s not Google Buzz, which violated the privacy of untold thousands of Gmail users and prompted a class-action lawsuit.

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    • Chris Thompson is a writer living in Brooklyn.

  • Developing Countries Love Tang, Hate Mac And Cheese


    Posted Monday, March 15, 2010 - 3:33pm

    If Kraft (KFT), Sara Lee (SLE), and other makers of packaged foods hope to grow, they must inject their brands into developing nations. "But packaged-food firms face a special challenge," writes the Chicago Tribune's Mike Hughlett. "Food, more than most products, is an expression of culture."

    • Dan Mitchell has written for the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Wired.

  • How Much Does the West Matter to China?


    Posted Monday, March 15, 2010 - 3:27pm

    That's the question the Wall Street Journal asks in its latest update on Google's (GOOG) fight with the Chinese government. And it has a few numbers to support its conclusion: not much.

    Amazon's (AMZN) piece of the Chinese market: 8 percent.

    Expedia's (EXPE) piece: 10 percent.

    • Chris Thompson is a writer living in Brooklyn.