NPR Topics: Business Story of the Day Podcast: Episodes
A bad labor market isn't usually considered a good time to unionize. But in Las Vegas, where unemployment runs around 14 percent, workers at Station Casinos are organizing. They say they were driven to it by a sense of "we're next" after watching too many co-workers get laid off. The company says workers ...
This holiday weekend, the hottest movie ticket is expected to be for <em>Sex And The City 2.</em> Many women have paid for special party packages that celebrate the movie's opening.
Cubs fans always swear a brighter day is on the horizon. This season, the man who embodies that hope doesn't swing a bat or wear a glove. Tom Ricketts and his siblings bought the Cubs last fall -- becoming the first family to run the team in nearly 30 years.
The Danish toy company LEGO sailed through the recession. The company that makes those brightly colored snap-together plastic bricks, announced its profits last year jumped more than 60 percent. LEGO's success is all the more remarkable when you consider that just a few years ago, the toy company was ...
As the beginning of the summer travel season draws near, something strange is happening at the gas pump. Ordinarily, gasoline prices go up this time of year and stay up for the summer. This, however, is no ordinary year. The economic crisis in Europe and other factors are driving down the cost of crude oil.
The reputations of the major credit rating agencies were seriously damaged in the subprime mortgage crisis. Jules Kroll is starting a new firm that promises to scrutinize underlying assets more closely. And he's looking to to be backed by pension funds and other investors instead of the financial firms ...
The SEC is proposing new rules following the May sixth "Flash Crash" in the stock market. Trade in some stocks may now be paused if the price moves more than 10 percent in a five-minute period.
A Bank of England policymaker says the efforts by European countries to rein in ballooning government debt levels will slow growth in the Euro-zone. But Adam Posen says it will not likely have a big effect on U.S. growth in the coming year. The crisis poses the biggest threat to the euro currency since ...
U.S. corporations face a growing threat from countries where governments control big multinational corporations and use them for political gain, author Ian Bremmer says. In China, for example, U.S. firms compete against government-backed domestic auto and aircraft manufacturers.
Apple's decision to end its online streaming music service will reverberate across many music websites, including those of several leading publications, blogs, venues and artists. So what will the online community do without the songs?
Renee Montagne talks about cloud computing with Wilson Rothman, a writer for the popular tech blog Gizmodo.com. Cloud computing is a general term for things that involve delivering hosted services over the Internet.
The country's largest single employer -- the federal government -- is overhauling its hiring process. The move follows years of warnings that the best candidates for federal jobs were being put off by a system notorious for red tape. President Obama has ordered agencies to update a process that is literally ...
New York University economist Nouriel Roubini talks to Renee Montagne about his new book <em><em>Crisis Econom</em>ics.</em> Roubini, who's known as Dr. Doom, became famous for predicting the financial crisis. He says while the U.S. economy is recovering, it will be anemic for a year or two.
The Kit Kats you find in American stores offer layers of chocolate and crisp wafers. But in Japan, Kit Kats go far beyond chocolate, with flavors like ginger ale, soy sauce, creme brulee and banana. We asked a Tokyo-based reporter why that is -- and asked NPR staff members to sample some of the flavors.
On this day in 1954, an epic battle ended in Vietnam. The French defeat at Dien Bien Phu was a game changer, ending French colonial rule in Southeast Asia and the setting the stage for U.S. involvement there. The French were overmatched by the Vietnamese and sabotaged by their own high command.
Warren Buffett is one of the richest people in the world, but he has left his kids a <em>really</em> skimpy inheritance. Son Peter Buffett says he's OK with that. In his new memoir, <em>Life Is What You Make It</em>, Peter says his parents' love and support "didn't come in the form of a check."
The automaker has been offering zero percent financing and other incentives to get customers back into showrooms this spring after much bad press this past winter over its accelerator pedal recalls. Sales for April jumped 24 percent compared with a year ago.
Despite signs the job market is improving, new research suggests that few people who have been out of work for more than six months are finding jobs. A Rutgers University study finds that only one in five of the long-term unemployed have landed new jobs, and many of them are accepting lower pay and fewer benefits.
As the "buy local" movement gains in popularity, the food distribution industry is facing an overhaul. Large food distributors are unwilling to swallow the extra cost and complexity of delivering local products. And smaller farms often lack the resources to make efficient large-scale deliveries.
By the time homebuyer tax credits expire at midnight Friday, the government will have given up more than $35 billion. The tax credits were part of the stimulus package, and Congress extended the incentives as the recession wore on. Some economists say most of the subsidized home sales would have happened ...