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30 Jun 2011 18:05

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Politics: Report: Geithner may resign following debt limit deal

  • Timothy Geithner’s last rodeo? It’s reported that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner may walk away from his post once a deal is reached to raise the U.S. debt limit. Geithner has served in that position since 2009. (Photo by Moritz Hager, courtesy World Economics Forum) source

27 Apr 2011 17:38

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Politics: Bernanke takes dim view of Congress’ budget deal

  • The cuts that have been made so far don’t seem to us to have very significant consequences for short-term economic activity… so far I’ve not seen any fiscal changes that have really changed our near-term outlook.
  • Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke • Speaking at his press conference today, when asked by a reporter about the package of budget cuts congressional Democrats and Republicans agreed upon. Bernanke’s dim view of the package is very easy to understand, as the size of the cuts were incredibly overstated; taking the long-term value of the package (this year’s savings reportedly only amount to $353 million or so) as $38.5 billion, you’re still talking about chump change as far as the total deficit, estimated over $1.5 trillion, is concerned. Bernanke also said Standard & Poor’s downgrading America’s outlook rating isn’t surprising, because everyone knows the U.S. is on shaky fiscal ground, but that he hopes it will spur more action.  source

16 Jun 2010 12:28

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Biz, U.S.: BP’s throwing lots of money aside for oil disaster claims

  • $20
    billion
    the amount BP plans to put in an independent escrow account
  • $1
    billion
    the amount the company has spent on the oil spill so far source

18 Apr 2010 21:15

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Biz: Charles Schumer twist airlines’ arms on carry-on bag charges

  • 5 major air carriers won’t follow
    Spirit Airlines’ ill-advised lead source

28 Mar 2010 10:40

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Biz: Volvo cars: Once Swedish, then American, now going Chinese

  • $1.8 billion sale of Volvo cars from Ford to China’s Geely source

24 Mar 2010 22:16

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U.S., World: Russia and the U.S. decide it’s a good idea to give nukes a break

  • 90% of all nuclear weapons are owned by the U.S. or Russia
  • eight months of ongoing negotiations between the countries
  • yes they finally came to a deal to stash away their nuclear weapons source

07 Mar 2010 02:25

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07 Mar 2010 02:18

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Culture: Disney and Cablevision: Two babies cause ABC to go black in NYC

  • Just before the Oscars, too! For people who want to watch WABC in New York City, get out your analog-to-digital converter. After years of arguing between one of the world’s biggest content companies and a company that just turned a well-regarded regional paper into a loss leader, ABC/Disney and Cablevison have hit an impasse. The loser? The viewers. Here’s a recap of the whining on both sides:
  • In one corner: Disney “Cablevision has once again betrayed its subscribers by losing ABC7, the most popular station in the tri-state area. This follows two years of negotiations, during which we worked diligently, up to the final moments, to reach an agreement. Cablevision pocketed almost $8 billion last year, and now customers aren’t getting what they pay for…again.”
  • In the other: Cablevision “It is now painfully clear to millions of New York area households that Disney CEO Bob Iger will hold his own ABC viewers hostage in order to extract $40 million in new fees from Cablevision. We call on Bob Iger to immediately return ABC to Cablevision customers while we continue to work to reach a fair agreement.” source

22 Feb 2010 21:20

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Biz: Vudu: Walmart decides it, too, wants a spot in your living room

  • It bought set-top-box maker Vudu today. Walmart isn’t exactly known as a living room fixture other than the fact that you can buy all the crap for your living room at a Walmart. Well, until now. With the purchase of Vudu, it now has a way of distributing entertainment directly to the consumer outside of the loss-leader format it relies on to sell DVDs. “The real winner here is the customer,” said Walmart vice chairman Eduardo Castro-Wright. Suuure. source

10 Feb 2010 22:09

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Biz: Rejoice! The AP’s long absence on Google News has ended

  • 7 weeks without the Associated Press on Google; nobody noticed source