Business

Economy Growing Faster; Permits For New Construction Up, Retail And Car Sales Up

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 12:50

The economy is improving faster than what many realized, with record level increases in sales and construction leading the way in a good sign that the road ahead is paved with more money for most Americans.

February marked the largest increase in new home building permits since October of 2008, home building stores like Home Depot and Lowes have recorded stronger than expected sales figures, automotive manufacturers saw huge increases in sales in the first quarter of 2012 and are selling more cars in the US than at any time during this past recession.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Slams Comcast Over Net Neutrality

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 12:32

Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix has come out slamming Comcast Cable over its net neutrality policy, saying they are violating the rules to force their customers to watch their content.

“Comcast no longer following net neutrality principles. Comcast should apply caps equally, or not at all."

Hastings was referring to Comcast's data cap it places on its customers who watch Netflix, Hulu, or HBO Go, on their Xbox's or other personal devices, but does not apply the cap when customers use Comcast's Xfinity service which has been accused of prompting Comcast content above competitors.

China Allows Yuan To Trade Against Dollar More; Increases Trade Band

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Sat, 04/14/2012 - 11:45

The Chinese government has said it will allow its currency, the yuan, to trade against international currencies like the dollar at a rate of up to 1% up or down, and has increased the trade band it will allow for currency trading.

As China slowly inches towards reaching its goal of the yuan to become an international currency reserve against the US dollar, the government has been slowly allowing its currency to be valued more by market conditions than the artificial rates it once mandated, pegging it to the US Dollar as a fixed amount.

Gas Prices On The Way Down As Summer Approaches; Price Affects More Than Just Driving

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Sat, 04/14/2012 - 10:27

As the busy summer driving season approaches, gas prices are on their way down, making vacations more affordable. Oil speculators have been bailing out, talk of a coordinated release of strategic reserves, refineries coming back online and American military build up in the Persian Gulf to ensure continued oil supplies have all played a part.

Apple Loses German Trial; Ordered To Stop "Push" Email Service

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Fri, 04/13/2012 - 15:02

Apple has lost in a Mannheim, Germany regional court hearing and has been ordered to stop its "push" email service with the court saying Apple violated a Motorola Mobility patent.

Apple informed its customers they could get around this problem by setting there iPhones and iPads to "fetch" mail on a regular timed interval instead. The tech giant also said it will appeal the ruling and believes the court is wrong.

Top 10 Best/Worst Jobs Of 2012

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 09:42

The top 10 best and worst jobs list for 2012 has been released by an agency called CareerCast. The factors considered were pay, dangers on the job, availability of work, pay/salary, stress, physical labor, the number of hours worked in a week, environment along with several other factors.

Scoring the worst job of all was Lumberjack, followed by;
Dairy farmer
Enlisted military soldier
Oil rig worker
Newspaper reporter
Waiter/waitress
Meter reader
Dishwasher
Butcher
Broadcaster

AOL To Sell 800 Patents To Microsoft For $1.06 Billion

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Mon, 04/09/2012 - 10:12

New York

AOL has announced it it selling 800 patents to Microsoft for $1.06 billion, patents include advertising, search, content generation, social networking, mapping, multimedia, and security, plus other "core" technologies. AOL will still have about 300 patents after the sale.

AOL has been limping along as the broadband era surpassed dial-up, something AOL was famously dominate in. Revenue at AOL is just a fraction of what it used to be 10 years ago and the company has been looking for ways to stop the hemorrhaging of money and turn its fortunes around.

JPMorgan Chase To Pay $20 Million Fine Settle Claims it Mishandled Funds From Lehman Brothers

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 13:22

New York City -

An agreement has been reach between JPMorgan Chase and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, CFTC, requiring JPMorgan to pay $20 million over claims that it mishandled Lehman Brothers funds.

The CFTC claimed that JPMorgan Chase used customer funds from Lehman brothers between 2006 to 208 for their own routine business expenses, except that those funds were suppose to be segregated and used only for the specific investments they placed into.

Saudi's Assure Clinton They Will Not Reduce Production If US & Britain Release Some Oil Reserves To Combat High Prices

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Tue, 04/03/2012 - 12:39

Following a meeting in Riyadh with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia said it would not cut its current production rate of oil should the US, Britain and France release some of their own reserves of oil in an effort to combat persistent high oil prices.

Reuters Reports: "Saudi production will unlikely change from the levels we see now, even if the stocks are released because the stocks will not have an impact," another source familiar with the talks said.