Is the 13,000 Dow Jones milestone an indicator of the overall economy, or just a fancy number? Tess Vigeland figures it out with Marketplace's Bob Moon.
This week, Chris Farrell and Tess Vigeland answer listeners' questions on using a health savings account, correcting a tax mistake and avoiding data mining schemes.
If you don't like your money, why not make some of your own? Ethan Lindsey reports on regional currency in Berlin, a colorful alternative to the euro that also gives back to the community.
You hear it all the time: Get your money in index funds. Tess Vigeland gets long-term investing tips from John Bogle, creator of the first indexed mutual fund and founder of the Vanguard Group.
Seeking to improve its image in food processing, China promised to cooperate with the FDA's look into signs of melamine contamination. Scott Tong reports.
Marketplace's resident stockbroker and business analyst David Johnson talks with Kai Ryssdal about this week's strong earnings reports and stock market rises.
An unnamed senator is holding up a bill that would put Senate campaign finance reports on the Internet. Who's standing in the way? Jeremy Hobson reports.
Business Week's Pallavi Gogoi talks with Kai Ryssdal about how the retail giant has altered another market — this time for one of the hottest items in consumer electronics.
Some of us pay for special pampering on our days off — maybe a massage or some other treat. But there are companies trying to de-stress workers right at their desks. Cash Peters reports.
Bolivian President Evo Morales wants to give an area the size of Nebraska to his country's indigenous people. Bolivia has tried land reform before. This time it may happen. Mary Stucky reports.
In a super-competitive job market, students these days can't afford to go without an internship. But some are skipping that step altogether and starting their own business.
There are a lot of ways to ease up on the amount of gas you consume. Some people just prefer to do it by tailgaiting behind an 18-wheeler. Francesca Segre reports on the art of hypermiling.
LA's iconic palm-lined avenues may be fading into the sunset. As palms die of old age and a fatal fungus, the city plans to replace the pricey trees with oaks and sycamores. But that could be a big mistake, reports Stacey Vanek-Smith.
Sony is set to launch its own video-sharing website to rival YouTube, only it's promising to monitor the content to protect against copyright infringement. Great for studios, but what's in it for consumers?
The FDA's still trying to sort out last month's pet food scare. It thinks it's tracked the offending chemical back to China, where the government seems to be genuinely invested in helping. But it won't be easy, Scott Tong tells us.
(…based on a Friday morning theater story out of London …in April.) A European law set to take effect next year bans advertising that aims to deceive consumers, which means promoters will have to stop pulling misleading quotes from bad reviews.
When is a deal not a deal? When stockholders threaten legal action. Barclays Bank and a rival consortium are both looking to buy ABN Amro, and the Dutch bank's shareholders are challenging the board's decision to sell a key asset.
Not only does intelligence have little to do with building wealth, says a new study, in some ways smart people may actually have a couple disadvantages when it comes to playing the money game. Steve Tripoli reports.
A government survey has found that a significant chunk of our nation's intelligence gathering and analysis has been handed over to private contractors, and we're paying them more to do the work. Jeff Tyler looks into it.
A recent consumer sentiment survey found optimsm about the U.S. economy at its lowest point in seven month. And the Commerce Department's bad news about the GDP has already had an effect on Wall Street.
In Bulgaria's booming pop music scene, a young woman is somewhat reluctantly capitalizing on music's economic opportunity. Sandy Tolan reports in the latest of our "Working" series.
Ford reported today a better-than-expected first quarter loss of about $282 million. But Micheline Maynard at the New York Times says there's less to that than meets the eye.
Most foreign energy firms doing business in Venezuela have agreed to sell their oil interests to the government of President Hugo Chavez. But Houston-based ConocoPhillips is holding out. Dan Grech reports.
Congress today sent President Bush a $124 billion emergency funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan — which he's said he'll veto. John Dimsdale reports on what's at stake.
Flight attendants at Northwest Airlines tentatively agreed today to paycuts that should clear the way for the troubled airline to emerge from bankruptcy by June. Alisa Roth reports.
Hundreds of new nuclear plants have been proposed worldwide, including two dozen in the U.S., as a means to dealing with global warming. There's one little problem — who will staff them? Sarah Gardner reports.
Commentator Kim Clark's been looking over some of the financial aid letters colleges send out. She suggests students and their parents read between the lines.
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to replicate a program being used in Mexico that offers cash incentives to poor families who meet certain goals, like keeping their children in school. Alisa Roth reports.
Visitors to sites such as iTunes and AOL can listen and watch as they dowload files — and ASCAP sued, saying artists should get royalties both for the music and the performance as it downloads.
A nonpartisan report released today challenges the Bush administration's national defense funding priorities. It suggests we could improve homeland security and save about $56 billion taxpayer dollars. Jeff Tyler has more.
The NFL's 2007 draft takes place this weekend, an occasion that will draw more viewers to ESPN than any sporting event other than Monday Night Football. David Carter tells us what that means for sponsors.
It's the agency charged with making sure American workplaces are safe, but this morning the Senate will look at allegations that OSHA's been falling down on the job. Steve Henn reports.
As CO2 sequestration technology gains momentum, so too does the groundswell of support to embrace coal as an energy source. We have it in spades, so Congress is circling back for a closer look, reports Jeremy Hobson.
Twenty-one years ago today, the world witnessed the worst nuclear accident in history at Chernobyl. But that was literally a lifetime ago for students about to graduate, and they're eager to work in the industry, Sarah Gardner reports.
A new report reveals that reactions to our increasingly global trade run the gamut, but most people around the world agree that someone needs to be looking out for the environment in all this. Sarah Gardner has more.
United Steelworkers are forming an unusual partnership with corporate giants like U.S. Steel and Alcoa to fight overseas competition, in part by marketing blue-collar jobs to a tech-savvy generation.
CEO Klaus Kleinfeld was actually cleared of involvement in the scandal surrounding German electronics giant Siemens, but he's announced that he'll step down anyway. Stephen Beard reports.
JP Morgan Chase has said it would be a big part of the post-9/11 recovery of Manhattan's Ground Zero by building a 50-story tower nearby. But now it wants more from the city before it'll commit. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.
For years, a stock symbol of one to three letters suggested the company was listed on the New York or American Stock Exchange. Nasdaq-listed companies used four or five letters. But that may change. Amy Scott reports.
A new survey finds nearly all physicians report some type of relationship with the pharmaceutical industry — everything from getting free food to "professional services." Bob Moon reports.
The Dow Jones Industrials ended today at an all-time high: 13,089.89. Most other indexes are up, too. So is the economy on the upswing, or is this just a bunch of numbers? Alisa Roth reports.
Fed Chief Ben Bernanke visited a Washington, D.C., high school today as part of a campaign to teach financial literacy. Commentator Ben Stein finds the choice of messenger on the subject . . . interesting.
The FDA is looking into whether melamine, a chemical usually found in plastics, might have found its way into the human food chain. Kai Ryssdal talked with market researcher Harry Balzer about how concerned we should be.
The 18 presidential candidates have raised a total of $130 million in the first quarter of this year — four times more than at the same point in the last campaign. And, John Dimsdale reports, more of it's in small amounts.
Yet again several public officials in Washington are embroiled in scandal. Yet again they've managed to hang onto their jobs. But dealing with controversy is a lot less complicated in corporate America, points out Robert Reich.
The Dutch bank had agreed to a $91 billion buyout by Britain's Barclays, but now ABM shareholders are saying, whoa not so fast. There could be more money to be made from a rival bidder. Significantly more, Stephen Beard reports.
Today a liberal research group has released a strategy to cut poverty in half within a decade. It involves, among other things, finally raising the minimum wage. Nancy Marshall Genzer has details.
A new report from the International Labour Organization has found that more than 10 percent of Africans are unemployed, as much as double that for those under 25. And that's creating social problems as well as economic ones, Alisa Roth reports.
The world's largest Internet retailer, Amazon.com is preparing to take on iTunes with the launch of its own music download store. But it's not likely to take a big bite of Apple's share anytime soon, reports Lisa Napoli.
Gone are the days of endless red tape. India's government has been streamlining bureaucracy and creating tax-free zones to entice investors. It's working — and how, Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.
Most Western companies have pulled out of Sudan to honor a U.S. trade embargo aimed at resolving the situation in Darfur, but not all. And profits are growing for those who've risked public backlash and remained, reports Gretchen Wilson.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson traveled to Mexico today to meet with officials about reducing poverty by making more capital available to small businesses. Dan Grech reports.
China announced today its plan to address climate change. Good thing, too, because that Beijing air is nasty. Scott Tong reports on one pollution solution that may sound bizarre.
Toyota bumped GM off its perch last quarter as the world's biggest car maker. And all signs are that Toyota's going to be number one for a while. Jeff Tyler reports.
You know about the old stand-bys of market indexes: the Dow Jones Industrials, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq Composite. . . . But here's a brand new one: the UBS Global Warming Index. Sarah Gardner reports.
Airlines are now charging passengers for amenities that used to be standard. Everything from food to pillows. Commentator Beth Teitell says it's time for the traveling public to fight back.
Congress' attempt to fix corporate misbehavior is now blamed for driving business out of U.S. markets. But Benn Steil of the Council on Foreign Relations tells Kai Ryssdal that's not entirely true.
Office colleagues wind up buying each other presents for all sorts of occasions. But sometimes there's just not much joy in it. Alex Goldmark looked into gift-giving on the job.
From peanut butter to bagged spinach to pet food, it hasn't exactly been the best year for the nation's food supply. That's led to calls for greater regulation, and Congress is poised to take action.
Software maker Turbine is hoping to lure online gamers away from World of Warcraft and into Middle Earth to play its game out today based on Tolkien's popular "Lord of the Rings."
Or is it? If you've ever wondered whether you got suckered into working for less than the guy in the next cubicle, commentator Joel Stein has a website for you. And it might come in handy when you negotiate your next salary.
A man in Britain was convicted yesterday of stealing hundreds of boat parts from his employer, sneaking them out one-by-one in his toolbox to build his own luxury liner.
Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins is opening up shop in China. The Chinese government is offering tax incentives in an effort to bulk up the nation's scrawny technology sector, so the timing could be right.
The U.S. ranks 15th among 30 industrialized nations in high-speed Internet access, and a free market may be the speed bump. In places like Iceland and Singapore, governments are taking the initiative.
Virgin Airlines has announced it's working with Boeing and GE to get a jet powered by biofuels into the air next year. If all goes well, they could be flying commercially inside five years.
The Supreme Court ruled last month that the EPA does have the power to regulate greenhouse gases, but the agency has yet to take action and that's got some folks in Washington ready for a showdown.
The giant pharmaceutical company, maker of the Crestor cholesterol drug, will pay $15.5 billion for MedImmune. Analysts say it's a good move, but the price may be too high. Helen Palmer reports.
Russia is still adapting to market economy changes Boris Yeltsin introduced. The former Soviet leader died today at 76. Professor Rajan Menon talked with Kai Ryssdal about Yeltsin's legacy.
Dutch bank ABN Amro has agreed to be bought by Barclay's. As part of the deal, it will sell its Chicago-based LaSalle Bank to Bank of America. Sam Eaton reports.
Lexus unveiled its new flagship luxury sedan today. Its six-figure sticker price may not be for everybody, but its equipment might — someday. Brett Neely reports.
A report by Social Security and Medicare trustees today triggered a funding warning — so President Bush will have to propose Medicare cuts to Congress next year. Jeremy Hobson reports.
You write us letters. We read them. Kai Ryssdal goes through some of your most recent comments on the student loan scandal, free trade, and the cost of flowers.
Some physicians are returning to old-fashioned, solo practices that allow them to spend more time with patients. Pat Loeb spent time with one doctor who's made the switch.
Bolivia's government has lost control of its populace. Demonstrators from rivaling provinces have forced work stoppages and taken to the streets in an ongoing battle over who gets what share of the nation's oil and gas revenue.
Today's annual report on the fiscal health of the Medicare system is expected to put forth a prognosis so bleak it will trigger the program's first-ever funding warning. And even that probably won't make a difference.
It's been a long time since federal prosecutors have lost a high-profile corporate fraud case. Newsweek's Allan Sloan says it's because government lawyers have finally learned to explain the situation in plain English.
A new study finds the disparity between what men and women earn in the workplace begins right out of college, and only gets worse as the years go by. New legislation could help close the gap.
Environmentally-conscious travelers will soon have the opportunity to put their money where their mouths are. Delta is going to offer passengers an option to pay a $5 to $11 surcharge per ticket to offset carbon emissions.
AstraZeneca, which has been struggling to get new drugs to market, is looking to get into the biological medicines game. So it's going to pay $15.6 billion for MedImmune to make it happen.
Concrete sidewalks have a bad habit of cracking and they're expensive to replace. So some cities are starting to replace them with a better, more sustainable alternative: recycled rubber.
Almost. It's not a done deal yet, but Britain's Barclays is set to purchase Dutch bank ABN Amro for more than $90 billion. They've all but shut out rival bidders in what's to be the world's biggest bank buyout ever.
