Apple Wins JD Power
JD Power released its smartphone and traditional handset customer satisfaction survey. For the seventh year in a row, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) rated in first place. A second part of the research looked at traditional…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
States Where Seniors Cannot Afford to Live
The average older American living independently does not have the means to meet basic standards of living, according to a report published by Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) and the Gerontology Institute at the…
Will Release of Strategic Oil Reserves Matter?
There have been rumors in the media than President Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron may release strategic oil reserves — crude stored by the countries in the event of a supply disruption emergency.…
Airplane Manufacturers Finally Hit by Compensation Claims
CIA World FactbookThe Indian government claims that Boeing (NYSE: BA) owes it $500 million for the late delivery of planes. The aircraft in question is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which was delayed at least five…
Worst Real Estate Markets Show Little Improvement
Flickr, Images of MoneyRealtyTrac released its monthly measures of foreclosure activity. Foreclosure filings dropped 8% from February of last year to 206,900. While the move could be called an improvement, 2.5 million homes likely…
What’s Important in the Financial World (3/15/2012) Better Google Search, Apple $700 Billion Market Cap
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has decided to enter the tablet PC race. It would be very late to the market, and damage to its brand because of a lack of popular smartphones will hurt prospects…
Media Digest (3/15/2012) Reuters, WSJ, FT, Bloomberg
RealtyTrac says foreclosure notices rose last month. (Reuters) The U.S. and UK discuss releasing strategic oil reserves to bring down fuel prices. (Reuters) Volcker says new inflation would be harmful to the economy, even…
Google To Transform Search Methods?
Google may alter and improve, in its opinion, its search engine technology, The Wall Street Journal reports. In part the move will counter improving search engine technology used by Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft. Consumers often are…
A Nokia Tablet PC?
NokiaNokia (NYSE: NOK) will begin an assault on tablet computer industry. Late to the market? Damage to its brand because of a lack of popular smartphones will undermine prospects of strong sales. Nokia may believe it has no choice…
A Look At Fitch Warning On UK
Fitch, the credit rating company put the United Kingdom’s sovereign paper rating on negative watch. That means there are great risks to its AAA rating. It is unclear that the action would undermine borrowing costs. UK debt is still…
Treasury Losing Streak Longest Since 2006
An improving economy and actions by the Fed have caused Treasuries to have their longest losing streak since 2006 Bloomberg reports that Benchmark yields climbed to the highest level since October as a gauge…
Deficit Fight Worries Investors–Gallup
What keeps investors up at night as the NASDAQ moves above 3,000 for the first time since December 2000 and other indices press toward new highs. Fights between the two political parties and the…
American Companies Running Out of Cash
“Cash Burn Rate,” used to value companies with little or no revenues, was a popular term in the dot-com era. The burn rate is the amount of cash that is being used up over…
Yahoo! Shareholder Announces Alternative Board Candidates
Sometimes dissident shareholders threaten proxy fights to get a company to increase its dividend or start a share buyback. Only occasionally do these shareholders seek a de facto takeover of the company. Third Point,…
Goldman Sachs And Caveat Emptor
GS.COMGoldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) was attacked by an executive director who left today. The reason for his departure was that he thinks Goldman is a culture of devils who love money and take advantage of gullible clients. On…
American Cities Where Manufacturing Is Booming
Last Friday, President Obama pointed to the improving labor market as a sign the economy is recovering. According to the jobs report released last week, companies hired more than 200,000 workers for the third…
The Limits of Austerity Continue to Be Tested
Greece will have to cut another 5.5% in GDP of government spending or miss the budget targets it has set for a bailout. This is according to a European Commission report that reporters from Reuters read. In…
Big Pockets of Unemployment Linger
Unemployment is not a national problem. It is a local one. The national rate of joblessness would drop sharply if employment improved even modestly in California, North Carolina, Nevada and Rhode Island, where the…
Will New York Streets Be Flooded Forever?
A new study by Climate Central has a number of maps showing more than 2,000 coastal areas that could be regularly flooded by 2020. The estimates are so exact that the maps can be searched by…
American Air Travel and Carrier Profits
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that 631 million people boarded domestic flights last year. Jet fuel costs were relatively low in 2011. That is no longer true. Americans who cannot afford to travel…