Latest Updates
Vanishing Workforce Weighs on Growth
After disappointing jobs report.
How long is one supposed to wait before filing a missing persons report? More than a decade old, the trend of Americans disappearing from the workforce increased dramatically during the recession, and last Friday’s jobs report rekindled fears that the forces behind the increase are becoming more intractable. The Labor Department reported that the U.S. labor force shrank by 500,000 people in March, with a participation rate of 63.3 percent—the lowest since May 1979.
Treasury’s Lew to Europe
Will argue for more growth policies.
Let’s hope this isn’t a repeat of Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference. In his first trip to Europe as Treasury secretary, Jacob Lew will try to persuade European finance ministers to focus more on growth and less on austerity. Europe’s problems have not gotten better, with the sovereign debt crisis still roiling, unemployment rates rising, and the euro-zone economy shrinking.
JCPenney and Macy’s Back in Court
Over Martha Stewart contract.
Who knew former jailbirds were so popular? Macy’s and JCPenney have failed to solve their dispute over Martha Stewart home goods in mediation and will now head back to court. The outcome of the trial is particularly important for JCPenney and CEO Ron Johnson, as bringing in Martha Stewart is a big part of its turnaround plan involving boutique stores within the JCPenney store.
Bringing Back the Twinkie
Justin Sullivan/Getty
The family-owned company that revived Pabst Blue Ribbon has been given the go-ahead to purchase Hostess out of bankruptcy. The new owners share their plans to bring the Twinkie—and profitability—back to life.
It’s hard to imagine Twinkies, Sno-Balls, and other Hostess products dying. After all, preservatives have given them a shelf life that rivals that of fine wine. But last fall it seemed as if the spongy, sickly-sweet confections would disappear from the face of the earth. In November, as management and labor feuded over how to reduce the liabilities of Interstate Bakeries, the bankrupt parent company of Hostess, the company announced it would cease operations and consider liquidating.
America’s Real Urban Revival
Alan Schein/Corbis
While urbanists and developers tout the oldest and priciest American cities, they ignore or deplore the real growth that’s happening in more spread-out urban newbies, writes demographer Joel Kotkin.
America’s urban landscape is changing, but in ways not always predicted or much admired by our media, planners, and pundits. The real trend-setters of the future—judged by both population and job growth—are not in the oft-praised great “legacy” cities like New York, Chicago, or San Francisco, but a crop of newer, more sprawling urban regions primarily located in the Sun Belt and, surprisingly, the resurgent Great Plains.While Gotham and the Windy City have experienced modest growth and significant net domestic out-migration, burgeoning if often disdained urban regions such as Houston, Dallas-Ft.
Who Is Michael Arrington?
Araya Diaz/Getty
Abuse allegations against the TechCrunch founder have rocked the tech sphere. But just who is the tech mogul, and what does the unfolding scandal say about the secretive nature of Silicon Valley?
TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington is in the midst of a spectacular fall from grace. After the tech mogul was accused of sexual assault and physical abuse by an ex-girlfriend on Facebook last week, two former confidants of Arrington’s have emerged to voice their belief in the harassment and abuse claims, along with an HR director from a former company where Arrington worked. Arrington himself didn't immediately comment, but on Sunday he took to his blog, writing, "All of the allegations against me are completely untrue, and I've hired a law firm to represent me in the legal actions against the offending parties.
Business Longreads
Getty; AP
From the Bitcoin bubble to Tony Blair’s global business empire, the Daily Beast brings you the best longreads in business and finance for the week of April 5.
The Bitcoin Bubble and the Future of Currency Felix Salmon, Medium What makes Bitcoin work, such as it does, is its anonymity and advanced security. This also makes it an ideal target for hackers. As Washington’s top risk seeker, Richard Berner crunches numbers to see around dark corners in the economy Jim Tankersley, Washington Post When Dodd-Frank set up the Office of Financial Research to give regulators a heads-up on financial instability, they turned to one of the most prescient Wall Street economists.
Giving Back at Walmart
Roz Brewer leads the retail giant’s Sam’s Club division, and she has used her perch to help clear a path for future women leaders. She shared her secrets at the Women in the World Summit.
One of the phone calls that mattered the most to Rosalind Brewer on the day she was named CEO of Sam’s Clubs in February 2012 came from another CEO—Ursula Burns of Xerox. Burns, a member of the extremely small sorority of African-American female leaders of large organizations, reached out to congratulate Brewer on her new position.“That really brought me back to center and reminded me that you have to give back and recognize the successes of other women,” Brewer said Friday at Newsweek and The Daily Beast’s fourth annual Women in the World Summit, where she was interviewed by Pat Mitchell, the president and CEO of the Paley Center for Media.
Bloomberg’s Twitter Circus
David Brabyn/Corbis
The $20,000-a-year subscription service will now offer Wall Street access to important Twitter users—and all their tweets about puppies, food, twerking, and Justin Bieber.
For just $20,000 a year—though most estimates put it even higher—Wall Street bankers and traders can purchase access to the Bloomberg Terminal. At the bargain price, the 300,000+ subscribers receive access to a service that collates data services tracking market movements and trades and, now, tweets about puppies, twerking, steaks, butts, and babies. Also, some financial news.Bloomberg announced Friday that Twitter will now be incorporated into the terminal service, giving subscribers—most of whom have social media blocked on their office computers—access to 140-character insights from a curated list of “several thousand” news outlets, writers, professional traders, and also Donald Trump.
Wanted: Girls Who Code
Roxxe/Marc Bryan-Brown
Riding the tailwinds of the “lean in” movement, Chelsea Clinton and a panel of female tech entrepreneurs urged the Women in the World audience to encourage more girls to study computer science—and take over Silicon Valley.
While the publication of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s recent tome, Lean In, has focused the national discussion on the diminished roles of women in big business, there still remains a major gender problem over in Silicon Valley.According to a study by Catalyst Census, 14.3 percent of executive officers among Fortune 500 companies are women. And yet the number of women in senior-management positions in technology companies has remained relatively unchanged over the past decade, staying at between just 3 and 5 percent, claims a separate study by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.
Stories We Like
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International Business Times
Nawaz Sharif, The Lion (Or Tiger?) Of Pakistan
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Rolling Stone
Top 10 Banned Music Videos
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Huffington Post Tech
New Google Maps is Coming and It Looks Awesome
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Ask Men
10 Most Common Fashion Mistakes Guys Make
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International Business Times
HSBC, Europe’s Largest Bank, Will Lay Off 5.5% Of Its Global Workforce
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Huffington Post Politics
'Nightmare' Rocks Tea Party Groups
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International Business Times
‘Best Jobs In The World’ Finalists Announced As Interest In Australia Peaks
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Mental Floss
5 Crazy Examples of Fear in Advertising
Colbert Rips 'Spreadsheet Error' in Austerity Supporting Harvard Study
After a University of Massachusetts student found significant errors in a study beloved by budget cutters world over by Harvard economists Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, Stephen Colbert does what he does best -- leaves them in the dust.
Writers We Like
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James D. Hamilton and Menzie Chinn
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Mark Thoma – Economist’s View
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Barry Ritholtz – The Big Picture
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Tyler Cowen/Alex Tabarrok – Marginal Revolution
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Greg Mankiw
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Peter Boone, Simon Johnson, and James Kwak
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Brad De Long
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Nouriel Roubini
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Calculated Risk
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Dealbreaker
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Eddy Elfenbein — Crossing Wall Street
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Zero Hedge
Business
Daniel Gross
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Big Fat Green Government
Tree huggers and deficit hawks rejoice: The federal government is buying up to 10,000... More
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Our Swiftly Melting Deficit
Just when everyone wrote us off as the next Greece, we started shrinking our deficit,... More
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American Apparel’s Dov Charney on the Bangladesh Tragedy
Paying a living wage comes at a cost, but it can help the bottom line, says Charney, who... More
Asymmetrical Information
Megan McArdle
Those Generic Drugs May Not Have Been What You Thought They Were
Years of abuses at Ranbaxy raise worries about the FDA's oversight of the generics market
Latest from The Daily Beast
The Week’s Best Reads
The Daily Beast picks the best journalism from around the web this week. By David Sessions.



