By Mark Gimein
Posted Friday, October 16, 2009 - 9:55am
Citigroup (C) last week got rid of its $100 million man, Andrew Hall, selling his Phibro commodities trading group to Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and so sidestepping the headache of explaining how a taxpayer-supported company can pay one trader well over 2,000 times an average family's income.
Cowboy hat by Ealdgyth/Wikipedia.
Google Beats Expectations Again
Posted Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 3:57pm
Once again, everyone's favorite search engine saw Wall Street's bet and raised it, beating analysts' expectations when it announced its third-quarter numbers today. Wall Street figured Google (GOOG) would post revenue of $4.23 billion; instead, Bloomberg reports, the company hit $4.38 billion. The most impressive number came from its net income, which rose to $1.64 billion, an astonishing 27 percent gain over this time last year.
What's Google Got Against Nuns?
Posted Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 3:42pm
While the world waits for this afternoon's third-quarter earnings report, we thought we'd share news of Google's (GOOG) latest sworn enemy: the brides of Christ themselves.
Pepsi's Bumbling Response to Sexist iPhone App
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 1:42pm
The embarrassment PepsiCo (PEP) faced this week when it was forced to apologize for a sexist iPhone application aimed at young dopes showed what big companies have to deal with as the worlds of media and advertising become more fragmented.
What marketing executive, after all, either desires or has the time to monitor what's happening 100 levels down, where things like iPhone apps are being developed by (as I imagine them) 22-year-old guys in ballcaps?
App It Up—I’ll Take It
Posted Thursday, October 15, 2009 - 1:08pm
The astonishing thing about the transformation of print into digital distribution is not that it has taken so long to finally happen but that, once begun, it is evolving so rapidly. A year ago, digital readers were barely taken seriously. Today everyone from authors to readers assumes we will see a massive step forward in technology in the next few months.
By Mark Gimein
Posted Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - 8:49pm
Whenever economists' talk turns to the long-term health of the world economy, it's not long before the discussion gets to “What about China?” In the last year, the financial crisis has been, understandably, the main entree in the buffet of economic news. But as we've all learned by now, big macroeconomic changes usually build for a long time before they whack us over the head. And of the biggest and most important shifts to watch now is one that you may very well have missed: the fall of the dollar and the slow but steady rise of China's yuan renminbi.
Photo of Flag of People's Republic of China by Stockbyte/Getty Images.
No GM for Dow 10,000
Posted Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - 4:48pm
The Dow crossed 10,000 again today, but for the first time since 1925, there was no carmaker included as a component of the DJIA. General Motors (MTLQQ) began its long run in 1925, but was replaced this year, when it went into bankruptcy. In fact, there’s now only one major U.S. automaker with a stock listing, Ford (F).
Google Voice Expands Amid Fed Inquiry
Posted Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - 3:42pm
Google (GOOG) is moving full speed ahead on its remarkable Google Voice service, strongly suggesting that its users invite their friends and family to give the feature a whirl. If you use Google Voice, soon a friendly note will pop into your account, offering a quick and easy way to nag your friends into setting up accounts of their own.
Posted Tuesday, October 13, 2009 - 2:00pm
For all the discussions of “green shoots” in housing or consumer spending over the last few months, too little attention has been paid to a classic American economic advantage: innovation. If cash flow is the blood of the global economy and spending and investment are its main artery veins, then innovation is the heart that does the pumping. Over the long term, innovation is what drives cost reduction, higher employment, spending, health care, investment, and ultimately, better living standards. Many business owners see it as their No. 1 priority.
Photo of glowing lightbulb by Fabiano Panizzi/Shutterstock Images.
Vilsack Booed For Support of GMOs
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Tuesday, October 13, 2009 - 12:24pm
In a rude display of what happens when zero-sum political religion is injected into national policy debates, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was booed this morning when he told a crowd in Iowa that he supports both small, local, organic farms and conventional agriculture, including the careful development of genetically modified crops.
