Dan Bobkoff
-
Television networks are up in arms. The new company Aereo is charging a monthly fee to provide a high-definition feed of the basic over-the-air channels, and the stations aren't seeing a penny of it. But CEO Chet Kanojia thinks he's figured out a legal loophole.
-
Reverse mortgages are to blame, and the agency has until Sept. 30 to determine whether it needs to tap the treasury. The FHA commissioner said in a statement that if not for the reverse mortgages, the agency would have had a $4 billion surplus at the end of the year.
-
Brooklyn-based Vice Media has gone from a small Canadian magazine to figuring out the holy grail of media: how to capture an international audience of aloof 18- to 24-year-olds. From magazines to the Web to film, Vice's CEO says, "We do it weirder, and we do it younger, and we do it in a different way and in a different voice."
-
A government sugar subsidy program is often criticized for keeping sugar prices too high. But now prices are falling and the government may buy 400,000 tons of sugar to help struggling sugar processors. Critics say the government's involvement in the sugar business should end.
-
The Supreme Court ruled that Americans have the right to resell goods bought and made overseas. This is a win for consumers, but bad news for publishers and other manufacturers who like to price products differently around the world.
-
The jobs report for February came in surprisingly strong this morning. Employers added 236,000 jobs to payrolls and the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.7 percent.
-
The Federal Reserve has released the results of another round of "stress tests" on the nation's biggest banks. Most did well, with 17 out of 18 passing. But some banks were better prepared than others to withstand a sharp downturn.
-
Class-action lawsuits accuse Anheuser-Busch of watering down Budweiser and other beers and then misleading consumers about their alcohol content. The company denies the claims; in tests commissioned by NPR, samples of Budweiser were found to be in line with their advertised alcohol content.
-
Most Americans are earning more money than their parents, according to a new study from Pew's Economic Mobility Project. But that doesn't tell the whole picture: It often takes two incomes to surpass the one salary that was enough for the younger generation's parents.
-
Several big retailers say the return of the full payroll tax is causing consumers to curtail spending, but so far the evidence is mostly anecdotal. Some analysts argue a variety of factors, and not any specific policy, contributed to slower growth in consumer spending in January.