Archive for the 'Economy' Category
600 Million Without Power in India After 3 Power Grids Fail
July 31st, 2012Via: AP: India’s energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving 620 million people without government-supplied electricity in one of the world’s biggest-ever blackouts. Hundreds of trains stalled across the country and traffic lights went out, causing widespread traffic jams in New Delhi. Electric crematoria stopped operating, […]
Company Finds Facebook Advertising Results in Clickthroughs That Are 80% Bots
July 31st, 2012This is some incredibly timely news for me. I just started running an ad campaign on Facebook for my wife’s business two days ago. Just a tiny test, $5 budget per day. I looked at the Google Analytics data for the site to reconcile what Facebook was charging me vs. what was showing up on […]
Facebook Slaughter: Down Another 15%
July 27th, 2012Via: CNN: Facebook’s stock opened at an all-time low, after its first earnings report failed to ease worries over slowing sales growth and its plan for mobile advertising. Shares of Facebook (FB) tumbled nearly 15% to below $23 on Friday, 40% below the company’s initial offering price from May.
With Nuclear Power Plants Offline, Japan Runs Up Record Trade Deficit Burning Imported Fuels; Export Markets Slumping
July 25th, 2012Via: Washington Post: Japan posted its biggest first-half trade deficit on record, according to government figures released Wednesday, highlighting the economic consequences as this nuclear-averse country imports fossil fuels to meet its energy needs. The Ministry of Finance reported a 2.92 trillion yen (or $37.3 billion) trade deficit, which reflected not only Japan’s surging need […]
Anglo Irish Bank’s Ex-CEO Arrested for Fraud
July 24th, 2012Released on bail of €1,000? Really? Via: USA Today: Fraud detectives arrested the former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank and charged him Tuesday over a conspiracy to hide colossal losses at the bank that brought the nation to the brink of bankruptcy. Officers of the Bureau of Fraud Investigation arrested Sean FitzPatrick, 64, at […]
Research Firm Correlates Spending on Lobbying with Stock Market Performance
July 23rd, 2012Via: Breakout: While this financial connection, in and of itself, is hardly a great revelation, new analysis from Strategas Research Partners shows irrefutable evidence that companies are getting a real bang for their buck on the money they spend trying to influence lawmakers. By tracking the 50 companies that spend the most money — as […]
U.S. Poverty Rate to Hit Highest Level Since 1960s
July 23rd, 2012Via: AP: The ranks of America’s poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net. Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the […]
TEPCO Subcontractor Tried to Underreport Workers’ Radiation Exposure by Covering Dosimeters with Lead
July 23rd, 2012Via: Kyodo: An executive of a Tokyo Electric Power Co. subcontractor forced its nine workers at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to cover their radiation monitoring meters with lead-made plates, the company said Saturday.
JCPenney to Eliminate Check-Out Clerks
July 22nd, 2012Via: CBS: But the store is getting a makeover – specialized boutiques within the store like a denim bar – and more. The CEO of JCPenney is the former retail chief of Apple, and he wants to shake things up to restore the company to profitability. But one of his ideas – replacing clerks with […]
Portugal: Number of Drug Addicts Halved a Decade After Drug Decriminalization
July 20th, 2012Via: Global Post: On July 1, 2001, Portugal decriminalized every imaginable drug, from marijuana, to cocaine, to heroin. Some thought Lisbon would become a drug tourist haven, others predicted usage rates among youths to surge. Eleven years later, it turns out they were both wrong. Over a decade has passed since Portugal changed its philosophy […]
