It's Discount Week! 🎁 Pick up new Marketplace gear at a discount when you donate today! Get My Gear!
Mid-day Update

MID-DAY UPDATE: Americans still concerned with the economy, NBA lockout starts

Katharine Crnko Jul 1, 2011

Here are today’s top headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report and from around the web.

The Treasury Department today confirmed August 2 as the D- Day — D as in default.

U.S. markets zinging because factories produced more than expected in June, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

Although stocks in China slipped after news that Chinese production in June grew at the slowest pace in more than two years.

A Consumer Confidence report today says Americans are still wary about the economy in the coming months.

And all business is on hold when it comes to the NBA. The lockout has started after players and owners were unable to reach a new deal on salaries and revenue sharing.

To Santa Monica, California where the notorious mobster James Whitey Bulger was recently arrested after years on the run. Apparently the $1,100 a month rent-controlled apartment he was living in by the beach has become a hot property. One realtor compared the influx of queries about the apartment to the calls that came in about OJ Simpson’s house. One caveat though. The $800,000 in cash authorities found stashed in the walls has likely been removed.

Local officials in one Chinese town wanted to show, that they were working diligently to inspect a new highway. They even published a photo on the city’s website showing officials on the job and on the highway. Except it wasn’t a real photograph. The city instead used a picture of the three high-ranking officials digitally-altered to look like they were standing on the road. But someone didn’t do a very good job. Some folks are calling it the worst Photoshop job in Internet history. And people are Photoshopping those three guys on all kinds of pictures even on the moon! See that picture, and even one we did at Marketplace.org.

You can read the rest of today’s stories from the Marketplace Morning Report here.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.