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Porsche to produce plug-in sports car

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:45:09 EDT

Porsche announced Wednesday that it will produce its 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid sports car, which was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in April. The car boasts a 500-horsepower V8 engine and is expected to be among the most expensive Porsches ever produced.

California workers stiffed again

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:27:18 EDT

California's state workers just can't catch a break.

Exxon Mobil profit surges 85%

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:59:27 EDT

Exxon Mobil Corp. reported quarterly earnings Thursday that easily beat analysts' expectations as oil and gas prices rebounded.

Jobless claims slide in latest week

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:51:38 EDT

The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance fell last week, the government said Thursday.

Investing in the world's best balance sheets

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:57:04 EDT

At the G20 summit in Toronto last month, the leaders of world's largest economies embraced a brave new theme: Halting the alarming, potentially ruinous growth in already mountainous sovereign debt.

Money makeover: Married couple, separate finances

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:23:20 EDT

Michelle Spranger and Scott Zuckerberg have been husband and wife for eight years, but they've yet to marry their finances.

Why a top Facebook app maker vanished

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:05:11 EDT

Facebook said Wednesday it has deleted all applications created by Pencake, wiping out widgets used by an estimated 45 million Facebook members.

Hidden signs of life in the economy

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:46:54 EDT

If the economy is a three-legged stool, people could take comfort in the fact that even though two of those legs (the government and consumers) are wobbly, the third (businesses) is still holding steady.

Pain, but no gain: local governments face budget doom

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:23:49 EDT

State and local governments are facing a vicious cycle thanks to our financial crisis. Since home prices haven't really recovered, tax revenues are down. Since tax revenues are down, governments are cutting jobs, which means cutting services to homeowners. That means governments are spending less money in their communities, and employing less people, perpetuating the decline in property values that caused tax revenues to decrease in the first place.

Foreclosures climb in 75% of metro areas

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:32:39 EDT

Foreclosure filings climbed in 75% of the nation's metro areas during the first half of 2010, according to a report issued Thursday.

Behind the war between Obama and big business

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:22:48 EDT

Corporate chiefs may seem hardboiled, but they can be sensitive, too. Take the ruckus they've been raising over what they perceive to be rough treatment from the Obama White House.

A retirement portfolio of global proportions

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:18:08 EDT

Question: What is the difference between a total world index fund and a total international index fund? How you see such funds as part of a retirement portfolio? --Dave, Apple Valley, Minnesota

Stocks set for early gains

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:54:16 EDT

U.S. stocks were set to rise Thursday, as investors attempted to shake off worries about slowing economic growth and looked to corporate earnings.

RIM stock rises 4% on new phone speculation

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:22:53 EDT

Research in Motion shares jumped 4% Wednesday on speculation that the BlackBerry maker will unveil a new smartphone next week.

Desperately seeking math and science majors

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:11:18 EDT

Applied Materials had to fly in 100 interviewers just to screen all the job applicants for its new Solar Technology Center in Xi'an, China, last year. The company wanted to fill 260 high-tech jobs. It got 26,000 resumes. A fraction of those applicants were invited to interview. The final selectees, board member Andy Karsner tells me, "were top-of-their-class, English-speaking engineers. They're the best of the best." Now some of the most advanced research in this high-value, fast-growing field is being done in China -- instead of in the U.S. with American engineers. Why should we care? Because it's graduation season, when we see how starkly the direction of the American educational system differs from the way that faster-growing economies are headed. Those Chinese solar researchers are the cream of an engineering crop that included an estimated 10,000 Ph.D. graduates last year. This spring the U.S. will graduate about 8,000 Ph.D. engineers, an estimated two-thirds of whom are not U.S. citizens. About 150,000 students who majored in engineering, computer science, information technology, and math will collect bachelor's degrees. The Chinese government claims that in recent years the number in China has been well north of 500,000 and rising fast; even if overstated, as some believe, the real number is much larger than America's, and the quality of those graduates is improving.

Fed report: Recovery steady, but modest

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:47:36 EDT

The economy showed continued signs of modest improvement in recent months, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in its latest snapshot of regional economic conditions.

Toyota recalls 400,000 cars over steering issues

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:20:09 EDT

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it was recalling more than 400,000 older-model vehicles sold in the United States, citing potential steering-related problems in both.

Florida bets on Feinberg

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:44:41 EDT

Business owners in Florida believe Kenneth Feinberg will manage the $20 billion oil spill claims fund fairly and efficiently, but because of the complicated nature of their claims, they're anxious about how much they'll get paid.

Oil prices drift lower

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:00:19 EDT

Oil drifted lower Wednesday, continuing a slide from an 11-week high above $79 a barrel reached last week, as a drop in consumer sentiment and an unexpected build in inventories weighed on prices.

Investing in the world's best balance sheets

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:00:19 EDT

At the G20 summit in Toronto last month, the leaders of world's largest economies embraced a brave new theme: Halting the alarming, potentially ruinous growth in already mountainous sovereign debt.