Articles

  • Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 2:07pm
    Photo illustration by Holly Allen based on photos from Getty Creative Images and

    Since retailers make most, if not all, of their profits in the slim window between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s no surprise that they’re eyeing the calendar this year with more trepidation than usual. While first-time unemployment claims dropped by 20,000 in the last week of October and home sales rose by 10.1 percent last month, prospects are still gloomy for much of the economy.

    TAP Tagline: 

    What You’re Going To Get for Christmas and Why.

    • Martha C. White is a freelance writer in New York.
    Photo illustration by Holly Allen based on photos from Getty Creative Images and Shutterstock.
  • Looking Through Tyson's Entrails


    Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 12:51pm

    Robert Kenner's film Food Inc. has been widely praised for its in-depth reporting. But might that reporting have been even stronger if Kenner and company had pored over the financial filings of the companies he scrutinized?

    • Dan Mitchell has written for The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The MInneapolis Star-Tribune and Wired.
  • GM’s Saab Deal Falls Through


    Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 12:27pm

    It’s bailout capitalism day! We all know about how GM balked at selling Opel. We also know that autoland tycoon Roger Penske backed out of a deal to buy Saturn, leading to the storied division’s demise. Now word comes that a Swedish supercar maker, Koenigsegg, isn’t going to buy Saab.

    • Matthew DeBord has written about the auto industry for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, and Car Design News.
  • The Opel Plan: It’s All About Jobs


    Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 12:05pm

    Specifically, it’s about where General Motors—which earlier this month shocked just about everyone when it decided to hang on to Opel, its main European division, rather than sell—will oust thousands of workers. The focus of the jettisoned deal with Canadian parts supplier Magna and Sbrebank, a Russian bank, was to preserve German jobs. For security, the government of Angela Merkel was willing to put up almost $7 billion in financing.

    • Matthew DeBord has written about the auto industry for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, and Car Design News.
  • Breast Practices


    Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 10:53am

    from SlateThe Senate is proposing a "botax" on plastic surgery in its health care bill. Slate's Christopher Beam tells us why they shouldn't:

    • Christopher Beam is a Slate political reporter.
  • Who's Afraid of the E-Book?

    Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 8:40am
    Kindle

    One of the key questions confronting the future of digital reading is where to find the best source of material for the new devices. Since Amazon (AMZN) broke through with the Kindle, the assumption has been that books would drive the development of software for this new hardware.

    TAP Tagline: 

    Why Publishers Are Wary of E-Books.

    • Marion Maneker is a regular contributor to The Big Money.
  • Amazon and Wal-Mart Don’t Want To Share the Web


    Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 1:19am

    A front-page story in today's New York Times details the swelling rivalry between Amazon (AMZN) and Wal-Mart (WMT). This may seem odd because, in reality, the retailers are fundamentally different. Wal-Mart is rooted in its big-box retail stores, and Amazon operates only online. But that hasn’t stopped them from engaging in a heated competition for overlapping customers.

    TAP Tagline: 

    The rivalry between Amazon and Wal-Mart is heating up.

    • Caitlin McDevitt is an editorial assistant at The Big Money.
  • What We’ll Actually Lose on GM


    Posted Monday, November 23, 2009 - 10:58pm

    Earlier today, I took exception with Edward Niedermeyer’s NYT op-ed, in which he argued that General Motors will never be able to fully pay back the U.S. taxpayer, an apparently unforgivable offense. Paying the taxpayer back never really seemed why GM got bailed out and then shepherded through a full-court-press bankruptcy, but what if GM could pay back a decent portion of what it was given?

    • Matthew DeBord has written about the auto industry for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, and Car Design News.
  • No MPGs for EVs


    Posted Monday, November 23, 2009 - 6:07pm

    Jeremy Anwyl, the CEO of Edmunds.com, a consumer auto site that also offers industry analysis, has suggested that the EPA revise how it measures fuel-efficiency for cars and trucks. With new electric vehicles coming to market, he argues that rather than develop complex formulas for translating EV MPGs into gas equivalents, the agency should “start over”:

    • Matthew DeBord has written about the auto industry for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, and Car Design News.
  • Posted Monday, November 23, 2009 - 4:04pm

    Google (GOOG) proceeded this past week with the second announcement of its Chrome OS. The first one took place on July 7, 2009, and with the ship date a year away, we can look forward to still more launch events: a beta launch event, a couple more for applications, and partnership agreements before the Big One, in time for the 2010 holidays shopping season.

    • Jean-Louis Gassée is a former Apple executive and a regular contributor to the Monday Note blog, where this article originally appeared.