NPR Topics: Business Story of the Day Podcast: Episodes
The Congressional Budget Office has sharply revised down the outlook for the federal budget deficit. Some temporary factors are being cited for the projected improvement. Keeping the deficit on a downward path may depend on the economy, analysts say.
Ben Bernanke has been Federal Reserve chairman for some of the most tumultuous years in the Fed's 100-year history. His second, four-year term expires in January. Steve Inskeep talks to David Wessel of <em>The Wall Street Journal</em> about who might succeed Bernanke, and what challenges the new Fed ...
Now that YouTube runs advertising on videos of cover songs, musicians like Tyler Ward are working with agencies to negotiate higher shares of that revenue.
The Internet has managed to disrupt many industries, from publishing to music. So why not lending? Google's recent investment in Lending Club has raised the profile of peer-to-peer lending, which gets borrowers and lenders together outside the conventional banking system.
Matthew Burnett wanted his clothing line to be "Made in the USA." But he decided it was too difficult to find information on U.S. manufacturers. So Burnett and his business partners created Maker's Row, a website where people who design things can find people who make things.
When Microsoft introduced Windows 8 last year, the software giant billed the new operating system as one of the most critical releases in its history. The system would bridge the gap between personal computers and the fast-growing mobile world of tablets and smartphones. But this week, the company sent ...
Casino gambling is back to pre-recession levels in the U.S., according to a new report from the gaming industry. One in three Americans went to a casino last year, and those who opened their wallets wagered a total of $37 billion, about 5 percent more than the previous year.
David Greene talks to eBay CEO John Donahoe about the political battle over online sales tax. On Monday, the Senate is expected to vote on a bill that would end the free ride that consumers have enjoyed when shopping online. The Marketplace Fairness Act would require online retailers to collect sales ...
The burden for retirement planning has shifted dramatically, from traditional pensions run by experts to 401(k)s that require decisions by "gravely undereducated investors, Vanguard founder John Bogle says. He says the government should set minimum standards to protect retirement plans.
Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder of Blackstone Group, is launching a $300 million scholarship program in Beijing. He says his goal is to help to improve the understanding of China and ease Western fears about its growing economic power. "There'll be complete freedom of expression [and] discussion," he says.
Studies show that when participation in a retirement plan is automatic, more people save. President Obama has proposed automatic IRAs for some employees, a version of which was adopted in California. But business groups argue that requiring employers to implement them is not the right way to go.
Los Angeles is in the midst of a massive rail construction project. The hope is that one day Angelinos may take the train and walk around the city, rather than depend so fully on theirs cars. But a change on that level means much more than laying down train tracks.
Roughly one in four cellphone towers in the path of Hurricane Sandy went out of service. It was a frustrating and potentially dangerous experience for customers without a landline to fall back on. Now, local officials and communications experts are pushing providers to improve their performance during ...
Never mind the big-budget NASA satellites. A team of young engineers has tricked out a few off-the-shelf cellphones and sent them to space. The smartphones are already above us, sending images and data back to ham radio operators on Earth.
For years Ford was an also-ran in China, but it has ambitious plans to change that. Last year, sales in China were up more than 30 percent, and the Ford Focus was the country's best-selling car.
Corn production was down last year thanks to drought. This year, conditions are too cold and wet for farmers to plant the crop. Without a break in the clouds pretty soon, there may be another shortage of the crop at harvest time.
As Internet users injected themselves into the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings, false rumors began to spread about possible suspects in the attack. One of those falsely accused in social media was a 22-year-old Brown University student who has been missing. The general manager of Reddit ...
The Bullitt Foundation's new Seattle headquarters, billed as the world's "greenest" building, is designed to be entirely self-sustaining. The developers hope it can inspire others to build this way.
After a week of bank earnings announcements, Steve Inskeep talks to David Wessel, economics editor of <em>The Wall Street Journal</em>, about what if anything has fundamentally changed since the crisis. Are banks still too big to fail? Are we still at risk of another bank bailout?
David Greene talks to Scott McCartney, of <em>The Wall Street Journal</em>, about how mergers in the airline industry have caused sharp fare price hikes on several major routes. Prices may keep going up if government regulators approve another merger — this one between American Airlines and U.S. Airways.