From laughing to judging in fifty years

For Discovery Channel, Recession Miseries May Have Golden Lining
In early December, the Discovery Channel debuted a new program, Gold Rush: Alaska, which documents the prospecting efforts of Todd Hoffman, an Oregon landing-strip owner. In its three weeks on the air, the show's Ratings have steadily risen, and it's currently the top-rated Primetime series in several key demographics. At the same time, it has also offered an interesting glimpse into the history -- and future -- of gold prospecting in America. It's not hard to see why the show has hit pay dirt...

Go "long on women" for profits, BofA Merrill says
WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:25am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Recession wounds are healing faster for women than for men, so there is money to be made for companies that cater to women, Economists at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said on Tuesday. The Unemployment Rate for women is almost two full percentage points lower than the rate for men, and women dominate fields such as healthcare that are expected to see the biggest job growth in the next eight years. Women also earned the majo...

Unemployment benefits extension in tax-cut deal only goes so far
While Bipartisan tax Legislation signed by President Obama on Friday reinstates Unemployment Benefits for about 1 million it doesn't provide any additional help for those who have exhausted all 99 weeks. The $858 billion measure provides for an extension of federal Unemployment Benefits through the end of 2011 but only for those who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state jobless Insurance or who are working their way through the federal tiers. The White House, Democratic lawmakers and advoca...

Creating jobs
The national Unemployment Rate recently jumped to 9.8 percent; it has remained above 9.5 percent for more than a year. But some states have found ways to improve their jobs outlook, showing a much lower Unemployment Rate than the national average. The two states that recorded the largest drops in their Unemployment Rate are New Hampshire and Alabama, the Labor Department reported Friday in a study on state Unemployment. New Hampshire shows an enviable 5.4 percent unemployment rate, fourth low...

As Hiring Falters, More Workers Become Temporary
Temporary workers are starting to look, well, not so temporary. Despite a surge this year in short-term hiring, many American businesses are still skittish about making those jobs permanent, raising concerns among workers and some labor experts that temporary employees will become a larger, more entrenched part of the work force. This is bad news for the nation’s workers, who are already facing one of the bleakest labor markets in recent history. Temporary employees generally receive few...

US corporations move to create a part-time, contingent workforce
Big employers in the US are increasingly using part-time and temporary workers to hold down labor costs, according to the latest figures from the Labor Department. In a trend that has been accelerated over the last two years, corporations are moving to phase out full time positions and create a Workforce earning far lower wages and fewer, if any, benefits that can be hired and fired at will. In November there were a total of 9.2 million "involuntarily part-time" workers in the US. After adding...

What the Rising Stock Market Doesn't Say About Jobs
If the Stock Market reflected the entire economy, then Americans could cheer the new annual highs in equity prices as a harbinger of good times ahead. But the Stock Market reflects only the outlook for corporate profits, not The Economy as a whole. Thus, the rising stock indexes are cold comfort for the millions of unemployed, temporary and part-time workers and self-employed who have seen their income decline and their prospects dim. To get a clearer picture of the jobs picture in the U.S., l...

32 states borrow billions from feds to cover unemployment benefits...
BY MALIA ZIMMERMAN - Hawaii has applied to be the 32nd state to borrow from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration to pay state Unemployment Benefits. Hawaii will temporarily take up to $30 million this December to cover payments to the state’s 17,000 unemployed workers who lost their jobs within the last 26 weeks. That is the beginning of what will likely be an 18-month borrowing streak, says State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Interim D...

When you're the boss, who gives you reviews?
Asking for feedback when you're the boss is a fraught enterprise, but it's an essential one in today's business world. Here are a few ways to make the process a smooth, helpful one. A chief executive at a fast growing tech start-up recently approached executive coach Dave Kashen with an all-too common problem. The CEO frequently reached out to his executive team for feedback, but whenever he sought their opinions, his subordinates seemed to shut down and withdraw. "It turned out that without ev...

Meredith Whitney on her state budget warnings
Whitney's 600-page report on the state of the states is available only to clients of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group. But if you care to see the market-moving analyst, who is No. 38 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list, on 60 Minutes, here's the segment, "State Budgets: Day of Reckoning" that is sure to add a tad more stress to your Holiday Season. CNNMoney.com Comment Policy: CNNMoney.com encourages you to add a comment to this discussion. You may not post any unlawful, threatening, libelous, ...

Startup takeaways from 2010
2010 was a whirlwind year for the tech industry. It was a whirlwind for me personally as I joined my partners Lee and David in the formation of NextView Ventures. But for everyone, it was a year of amazing excitement and activity. Here are a few things that 2010 will be remembered for. These aren't secrets by any means.  But I do think that there are only a few developments every year that we will look back on and say "wow, that was really important." The rise of the micro VC's (or sup...

Sarah Palin, Kim Kardashian and our poisonous celebrity culture: Shame, fame and the American way
In our time, we do not so much get a blast from the past as we are prodded into reflection by something we cannot ignore. High-profile events take place, blasting us back to a time less clouded with constant lies and distortions than our own. Though I have disdain for Suicide, I was impressed by Mark Madoff, son of Bernie, for hanging himself because it was too painful to carry that name around. He was obviously deeply affected by all those who had suffered at the hands of his father, the high...

Economy grew modestly in July-September quarter
(12-22) 07:28 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Economy grew at a moderate pace last summer, reflecting stronger spending by businesses to replenish stockpiles. More recent barometers suggest the economy is gaining momentum in the final months of the year. Gross domestic product increased at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. That's up from the 2.5 percent pace estimated a month ago. While businesses spent more to build inventories, co...

Population slowdown = unemployment slowdown?
Late last year, Goldman Sachs said in a note that "it will probably take at least 100,000 jobs per month just to hold the Unemployment Rate constant." This was largely based on demographic data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and since has become a favorite talking point of pundits like George Will (particularly when monthly jobs reports come in south of 100k). What we learned today, however, is that U.S. Population Growth is slowing. New Census figures show a 9.7% growth rate, co...

Economy Grew Modestly In Third Quarter
The economy grew at a moderate pace last summer, reflecting stronger spending by businesses to replenish stockpiles. More recent barometers suggest The Economy is gaining momentum in the final months of the year. Gross domestic product increased at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. That's up from the 2.5 percent pace estimated a month ago. While businesses spent more to build inventories, consumers ended up spending a bit less. M...

Venturing Into Pakistan
by Conor Friedersdorf David Boaz passes along that chart, and remarks upon it: Now it’s true that when Candidate Barack Obama vowed, “I will bring this war to an end in 2009,” he was talking about Iraq. In July 2008 he suggested that he would send two more brigades — about 8000 Troops — to Afghanistan. He has far exceeded that, and we can only wonder whether the voters who responded to his antiwar message anticipated that he would increase the number of Troops in Afghanistan

Emerging role for Jordanians in al-Qaida
A prominent Jordanian-Palestinian Militant recently killed in Afghanistan was a medical school dropout, who joined al-Qaida after his heart was broken in an failed love affair, his friends and a Counterterrorism official said Wednesday. Haitham Mohammed al-Khayat, 26, better known in Extremist circles as Abu Kandahar al-Zarqawi, was an administrator of the online Jihadi forum, Al Hesbah, according to Islamist Militant websites. The sites announced that he was killed by U.S. forces Friday. He was...

Dean Baker takes a look at the stimulus that isn't there
In the Guardian, Dean Baker warns that the US business press is engaging in some irrational exuberance over the Obama/GOP tax deal, seeing it as a massive stimulus that will make for a strong recovery next year. There seems to be little doubt that Obama sees it that way, too. Or at least he seems to be confidently talking that way--though Baker doesn't talk about him specifically. What he does talk about is that the vast majority of the tax deal merely continues existing law, and such doesn't ...

WIRE: Obama's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year...
No matter that the Recession was officially over. That sweeping Health Care changes at last had been enacted. That combat operations in Iraq ended. That General Motors was making money and hiring again. That banks paid back most of the billions they'd borrowed from the government. "This is what change looks like," Obama said proudly, after the Health Care law passed. But. The Economic Recovery was too slow. The oil gushed for too long. The Health Care law was too complicated. The Unemployment ra...

Recording the Police
Recording the Police I've written a lot on the "War on Photography," where normal people are harassed as potential Terrorists for taking pictures of things in public. This article is different; it's about recording the police: Allison's predicament is an extreme example of a growing and disturbing trend. As citizens increase their scrutiny of Law Enforcement officials through technologies such as cell phones, miniature cameras, and devices that wirelessly connect to video-sharing sites such a...

Michigan residents call Florida cops about ex-educator facing molestation charges
James Charles-Wright Roberts, 63, who taught in Wayne County schools from 1987 until 2004, is charged with 150 counts of sexual battery and 150 counts of showing Pornography to two girls younger than 12, according to Florida authorities. Detective Cpl. Melanie Griswold of the Melbourne Beach Police Department in Florida said her department received a couple of calls from Michigan residents making additional allegations against Roberts. Those people wer...

Ex-Black Panther wants to keep "Walmart plantation" out of Brooklyn
The state of New York will lose two Congressional Seats because of decennial reapportionment. With public officials like New York City councilman Charles Barron, a former Black Panther, serving the public, it's easy to see why people are leaving the Empire State. Walmart, the nation's largest Private Employer, hasn't even committed to building a store in a new Brooklyn shopping center, but that hasn't stopped Barron from using emotionally-charged words like "plantation." Several local lawmakers...

Japan forecasts GDP growth to slow in 2011
The pace of Japan's Economic Growth will halve in fiscal 2011 from this year as a stimulus-driven shopping rush eases and exports fall on a strong yen and softer demand, the government said Wednesday. In its outlook report, the Cabinet Office also said consumer prices will stop falling but will not rise, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Naoto Kan's stated goal of ending Deflation in the year. Recent year-on-year falls in the Consumer Price Index will halt in the middle of next year, the Cabinet ...

Tension as Italian students protest education law
By Massimiliano Di Giorgio ROME | Wed Dec 22, 2010 10:56am EST ROME (Reuters) - Thousands of Italian Students marched in Protest against a new university reform law on Wednesday as police blocked off large parts of central Rome to stop a repeat of violent clashes at a similar march a week ago. Last week's demonstration saw cars torched, shop windows smashed and dozens injured in street battles between Protesters and Riot Police after the initially peaceful march descended into some of the wor...

Breaking news: Philadelphia cures cancer, brokers lasting peace deal in the Middle East
I know, I know...just kidding with that headline. As you probably know, those things didn't happen this week. But why wouldn't Philadelphia be in a giddy state of euphoria and self-congratulation? The things that really did happen were pretty incredible -- an electronics manufacturer setting up shop in the American Street corridor and creating 650 good paying Manufacturing jobs in that Working Class neighborhood, a new bio-tech startup near the Penn campus had a hugely successful IPO, and then...