Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Republicans consider the gold standard, Hertz to buy Dollar Thrifty

Ryan Faughnder Aug 27, 2012
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Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Republicans consider the gold standard, Hertz to buy Dollar Thrifty

Ryan Faughnder Aug 27, 2012
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Here are our stories for the day.

The finance ministers of Germany and France are meeting today in Berlin, which is likely to spell the end of a quiet August for the European debt crisis.

We’re getting to the very end of the earnings season here, but Tiffany and Co. says times have been tough for high-end jewelry. The company has lowered its profit outlook for the year.

Also news this morning that Best Buy and its estranged founder have reached a deal for him to get a look at the company’s books. Richard Schulze wants to buy up enough shares to take back control over the company.

The rental car company Hertz said this morning it is buying Dollar Thrifty for $2.3 billion. It’s just the latest consolidation in an industry that has seen choice and competition dwindle in
recent years.

Samsung’s share price took a dive in South Korea today.

On Friday a jury in Silicon Valley ruled Samsung’s smartphones violate Apple patents for a number of hardware and software elements: the app icons you see on your screen, the way you scroll, the way almost all apps have trained us to pinch and widen our fingers to zoom in on something.

Here’s a type of insurance our little business program hasn’t reported on much: hole-in-one insurance.

Golf tournaments often hand out huge prizes for holes-in-one, but they don’t keep that kind of cash just sitting around. They take out an insurance policy in case it happens.

The Seattle Times reports a man has been arrested there for running a phony hole-in-one insurance scheme. When some lucky duffer hit an ace, this guy and his promised insurance payout were allegedly nowhere to be found.

Will the courts give him a mulligan on this one? Seems unlikely.

One that looks eerily familiar — because it has the storm heading straight for New Orleans.

But this time, after billions of dollars and years of preparation, New Orleans might just be ready.

Once the Republican national convention gets into full swing, one of the items on the agenda will be whether the U.S. should return to the gold standard. Marketplace’s Krissy Clark has a brief history of our on-again-off-again relationship with gold.

Tonight the new 3D Spiderman film is coming out in China. As Marketplace’s Rob Schmitz reports from Shanghai, the popularity of 3D in China is great news for Hollywood.

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