Week of August 27th, 2012

The political convention season is halfway through, you’re probably already sick of all the posturing and grandstanding. But theatrics aside, there are a whole bunch of personal-finance issues on the table, and they couldn’t have a greater impact on your wallet. Are voters getting the straight dope? On today’s show, we cut through the political rhetoric and look at what’s really at stake on a variety of fronts — health care, Medicare, student loans. We’ll even explore the issue of government playing a role in your eating habits. Sound off and let us know your thoughts on all these issues.

One new report finds that one way to define ourselves as “middle class” is simply having a job. We look at the economic advantages of being a presidential nominee — even if you don’t win. Lego’s choice to start marketing directly to girls was criticized for reinforcing gender stereotypes, but company sales have gone up. Kai Ryssdal checks in with two small businessowners in Louisiana and Missouri to see how they’re faring after Hurricane Isaac. Queena Kim reports on the viral success of “Gangnam Style.” And we hear from an owner of a furniture company about all the empty-chair hoopla surrounding Clint Eastwood’s speech at the RNC.

Marketplace fans sent in nearly 100 ideas for future topics for the Whiteboard explainer video series, earning one lucky viewer a signed copy of Paddy Hirsch's new book, Man vs. Markets

Despite criticism for perpetuating gender stereotypes, the Danish toy maker's first half-year sales were up 24 percent.

A silly video masks a satire on conspicuous consumption and income inequality in Korea.

Missouri cattle rancher Ken Lenox is happy for several inches of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Isaac.

Sal Sunseri, the owner of P&J Oyster company in New Orleans, explains how the oyster business has been affected by hurricane Isaac.

A special podcast that looks at what exactly goes into the numbers of your paycheck.

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The cost of college continues to soar higher and higher. An education expert posits that costs can go down if the public sector pulls out of higher education.

Commentator Andrew Kelly says tax dollars should fund innovation in higher education, not more of the same

David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times answers caller questions on personal finance, along with CBS MoneyWatch.com editor-at-large Jill Schlesinger.

Figuring out where personal responsibility ends and government intervention begins when it comes to eating habits.

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The director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services says there should be financial incentives for healthy food choices, consequences for unhealthy ones.

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A former supporter and architect of the Medicare vouchers program explains why he's now opposed to the program, which Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney supports.

For some candidates and their staff, the nomination is lucrative — even if they don't win.

Undecided voters in Florida and North Carolina share what their greatest concerns are in the upcoming election.

Unlike the US case that covered seven patents, this one covered only one. Apple gets nothing, and the judges ordered it to pay all of Samsung's legal fees, as well.

A furniture maker talks about the empty-chair hoopla surrounding Clint Eastwood's speech at the Republican National Convention.

Reviewing the week's headlines on Wall Street and beyond. This week: Fed chairman Ben Bernanke speaks at a meeting in Wyoming.

A new study says that the most important ticket to the middle class is a secure job.

The big news of the day is Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's much-anticipated speech at Jackson Hole. Also, we fact-check a misleading campaign ad about welfare.

Ben Bernanke delivers a highly anticipated speech at an economic conference in Jackson Hole Wyoming.

We got word from India this morning that the economy there is dragging. It grew at a rate of just 5.5 percent last quarter, which was the slowest pace in three years.

The Republican National Convention has wrapped up in Tampa, Florida, after last night’s big speech by Mitt Romney. And perhaps more than anything else, the week was an attempt by the GOP to shape its own brand and message on its own terms. So how’d they do? For answers, let’s bring in Don Goldberg. He’s […]

The U.K.'s economy is expected to shrink this year. There are calls for the government to spend more money on infrastructure projects — including adding another runway at London's Heathrow Airport.

We spend a third of our lives doing it — or at least, we're supposed to. Eight hours a night — we've been hearing that for years, but come on — who can do that?

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is set to give a big speech at an economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It's a place with a little bit of Fed history.

This weekend Howard University and Morehouse College face off in the Nation's Football Classic. The annual game honors historically black colleges and universities at a time when some are struggling to stay afloat.

As the Republican National Convention wraps up in Tampa, the Democratic National Convention is about to start up in Charlotte. We examine the facts behind an ad attacking changes President Obama supposedly made to the nation’s welfare program. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is set to give a big speech at an economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Will he give any hints about QE3? And we look at historically black colleges in dire financial situations.

Computer security experts are ringing alarms about Java. Nope. Not the coffee. Java the piece of software that you probably have on your computer. Turns out, Java has some pretty major security flaws that hackers can and are exploiting. Plus, we take a look at the future at the IFA trade show, a consumer electronics show in Berlin going on now.

Oracle announces a new patch for its Java software.

The GOP charges that the Obama administration has weakened the work requirement that was a key part of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act.

Banks like some of the financial law's provisions, they'd just prefer the actual regulations be more in their favor.

Was your last barbecue a cooking disaster? Slate's L.V. Anderson discusses the biggest mistakes people make on Labor Day and other grilling holidays.

What happens when fact-checkers have to check fact-checkers? Gallup’s Frank Newport talks about what Americans think about the two presidential candidates. With college becoming more and more expensive, many students are looking for new paths to enter into their chosen career. Another elusive Apple secret is out in the open: their customer service manual. Sears, one of the oldest members of the Standard & Poor’s 500, is getting the boot. Pandora, the online streaming music service, is trying to back new legislation to lower their royalty charges. And Kai Ryssdal talks to culinary historian and author Andrew F. Smith about his new book on tuna.

India has a much younger population than many developed countries, but this “demographic dividend” is a only a good thing when young people can find work.

Do the Republican and Democratic conventions have an impact on Election Day?

It's election time. Are you looking for a fact-checking website to help you determine what's actually fact and what's fiction? Check out this list.

A training manual for Apple's "Genius Bar" obtained by Gizmodo reveals a real-world orientation: customer service.

To boost profits, the music streaming service is pushing a bill in the House of Representatives that would cut payments to musicians. A coalition representing recording artists plans to fight back with an anti-Pandora PR campaign.

The prestigious corporate club says the big retailer's stock, which has been listed on the S&P since the 1950s, is no longer representative of the index.

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Fact-checking is a growing industry, but does it pay off?

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Author Andrew F. Smith explores how Americans became canned tuna's biggest fans.

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Ad ties candidate to disgraced governor

Citigroup pays up for past deeds. Earlier this week, we learned the SEC is investigating Ally Financial for its own mortgage practices around that time.

The northern California utility Pacific Gas & Electric is hoping to lure a new, younger workforce ahead of the retirement of many of its workers.

The government said this morning that consumer spending grew 0.4 percent last month.

Of all the European markets, Russia is the fastest growing. But why?

Ice is melting faster making it easier to extract oil and gas. But expenses and lower gas prices are proving troublesome for the Russian company.

On the age-old question of how you get kids to eat broccoli, new research from Cornell University finds it's all about branding.

NYC, you are the worst offender. In Wisconsin, on the other hand, kids apparently get by in hand-me-downs, playing with discarded pieces of string.

So far, the Republican National Convention keynote speeches have focused on jobs and the deficit. Something a little more surprising, maybe, has been the emphasis on teachers and schools.

Four years after the financial crisis, it's like the chickens of 2007 and 2008 are finally coming home to roost.

They're calling it a "trade mission," but one can't help wondering what it might have to do with the debt crisis.

Mitt Romney is scheduled to accept the GOP nomination tonight. We travel to Florida's I-4 corridor to take the pulse of voters living in "The Real Economy."

Residents in northwest Louisiana are preparing homes and businesses for possible flooding as the remnants of Isaac make a slow progression northward.

Citigroup pays up for past deeds. Earlier this week, we learned the SEC is investigating Ally Financial for its own mortgage practices around that time. Isaac is back to tropical storm status. Mitt Romney is scheduled to accept the GOP nomination for president tonight. In the meantime, we talk with residents of Florida coastal town New Smyrna Beach to get a sense of “The Real Economy” there.

So just how much privacy can you expect for your Twitter account? That’s the question in an ongoing New York lawsuit involving an Occupy Wall Street activist named Malcolm Harris. He was charged with disorderly conduct. Prosecutors want access to his tweets. This week, Twitter appealed a ruling that it had to hand them over. So where do privacy rights begin and end with social networking sites like Twitter?

The promoted Twitter hashtag is the first paid for by a presidential campaign.

Twitter fights a court ruling to turn over a user's information.

Will the economy we have today elect the next president? If so, what does it look like?

With the end of summer nearing, we look at the economics of the ice cream man. Retailers are catching the marriage bug. After a month long vacation, European politicians are back at work. Kai Ryssdal talks to Myles Porter from the American judo team about what it’s like to be legally blind and compete in this year’s Paralympic Games. Reporter David Gura stops into Port Orange, Fla., where tax problems and plummeting land prices are creating major issues for those who live there. And we learn how the Times Picayune’s role in the community has evolved since Katrina, even among downsizing.

Europe's politicians are back at work after long summer vacations, but the economic woes that beset the continent then are now back in the headlines.

Kids across the country are getting in their last licks from their neighborhood ice cream man. But while they and their parents have chocolate eclairs on their minds, their drivers are making a complicated economic calculus.

How have the changes to New Orleans' newspaper affected its ability to cover Hurricane Isaac? NOLA.com's James O'Byrne discusses the Times-Picayune's digital strategy.

The $14 billion invested in the New Orleans levee system after Hurricane Katrina has begun to pay off in the latest storm, but what lessons have we learned about cost, benefit and risk?

The 2012 Paralympic Games opened in London on Wednesday. American judo athlete Myles Porter tells us what it's like to compete in world's second largest sporting competition.

Private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier and Rice's proposal to buy David’s Bridal for $1.05 billion is a reminder that wedding wear is still a big retail business.

The mayor of Port Orange, Fla., has been a cheerleader for growth, but now has second thoughts.

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The nation's powerful gun lobby has stayed relatively quiet, but is now spending big on ads in Florida, Ohio and Virginia

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Despite, or perhaps because of, the historic drought in the Midwest, farmers are making big profits. Isaac shuts down Louisiana's ports. And all those smartphones come with a cost: more than ever, we're tethered to our jobs.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the Midwest drought, farmers are projected to make serious profits. But individual farmers will experience very different results.

With only a few days left until the fall starts, you can still get in some beach reading. Here are the best books about investing and Wall Street to come out this summer.

As part of our coverage of "The Real Economy" — what matters most to voters this election year — we've invited a guy named Mike Sleaford into the studio to give us his thoughts on the election and the economy.

Hurricane Isaac is battering the Gulf, which means a huge chunk of American oil drilling and refining is off line. There’s talk of America tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Port Fouchon is the industrial heart of the New Orleans coast, about 60 miles south of New Orleans. And it is shut down because of the hurricane.