May 3, 2006

Marketplace PM for May 3, 2006

Stories You Might Like The economics of kidnapping U.K. budget watchdog meets with PM Public transit can help with climate change — if there’s buy-in Italy’s government close to collapse as PM resigns Fleece power vests are big business The costs of living in an oil-based economy

Segments From this episode

A creative prostitution solution

by Marketplace Staff

May 3, 2006

John Laurenson reports on how Germany is offering an interesting career change for its prostitutes — and how the country is dealing with an expected demand for prostitution during the upcoming World Cup.

MasterCard IPO

by Tess Vigeland

May 3, 2006

MasterCard today set an estimated price for its IPO, expecting to raise almost $3 billion. That would make it the largest stock offering in US history. So what will MasterCard do with all that cash? Tess Vigeland reports.

MasterCard sticker from a storefront door

David McNew (c) Getty Images

Three rolls of forever stamps please

by Ashley Milne-Tyte

May 3, 2006

The US Postal Service wants to raise the price of first-class stamps to 42 cents. But this time you might be able to hedge the rising cost of postage by purchasing "forever stamps." Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.

Unlikely allies in immigration fight

by Jeff Tyler

May 3, 2006

The Minutemen vigilante group thinks it has found an ally in its anti-immigration campaign — the African-American community. Jeff Tyler looks at how this odd couple of politics is fighting back.

Congress still dancing around gas prices

by John Dimsdale

May 3, 2006

The scramble to do something about gas prices continues on Capitol Hill but critics claim Congress is only tinkering at the edges of the real problems. John Dimsdale does a little history on gas price legislation — and fear of price gouging.

Lobby reform losing teeth by the day

by Scott Tong

May 3, 2006

The House of Representatives is considering lobbying reforms today, but compared to what some critics are calling for, the House bill seems rather...lenient. Scott Tong tells us what was left out of the legislation.

Commentary

Lawyers, lobbyists wage search engine wars

by Marketplace Staff

May 3, 2006

Microsoft is trying to get ahead in the search engine business by leaving Google out of its new browser. Commentator Robert Reich says Google's fighting back, but not necessarily fighting fair.