Bankers rig exchange rates.

And the reasons clients continue to trust big banks are? Bloomberg News reports that some of the biggest banks globally have been manipulating benchmark foreign-exchange rates to profit from moves they subsequently make for clients. The $4.7 trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market (FX market) is one of the least regulated. The rigging of these rates affects the value of trillions of dollars in funds, including pensions and savings accounts.

Read it at Bloomberg News

Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Why American confectioners don’t need a conspiracy to set prices.

Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Five years ago, Chobani didn’t exist. Now it’s a billion-dollar business. How the son of a small-town shepherd made good.

Mario Tama/Getty

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg says nearly $20 billion could protect the city from climate change. But can he—and his successor—walk the walk? David Freedlander reports.

Warning that the city faces dire consequences in the face of global climate change, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg laid out a far-reaching plan Tuesday to confront rising sea levels and a warming planet.The plan, called “A Stronger and More Resilient New York,” comes in response to Hurricane Sandy, last year’s massive storm that rendered large swaths of the region uninhabitable and left 43 New Yorkers dead.Speaking at Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, a World War II–era shipyard retrofitted as a green-technology manufacturing center, Bloomberg said, “Today this building that once turned out battleships now helps lead us in another battle—a battle that may well define our future for generations to come: the battle against climate change.

There really is a price to pay for tired employees. A German bank employee accidently transferred $295 million from a customer’s account when he fell asleep at the computer.

by Katrina Bishop A German bank employee accidentally transferred 222,222,222.222 euros ($295 million) from a customer's account when he fell asleep at his computer.The bank clerk had been attempting to transfer just 62.40 euros ($82.80) for the customer, a pensioner, when he dozed off with a finger on his keyboard's "2" key.The clerk's boss was fired for failing to notice the mistake, made in April last year, but a labor court in Germany ruled on Tuesday that the dismissal was unfair.

AP Photo

Thanks to NSA surveillance scandal.

It’s 29 years late, but has Big Brother finally arrived? Readers are flocking to buy George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, which describes a totalitarian surveillance state, since news of the National Security Administration scandal broke. The book has landed on Amazon’s list of “Movers and Shakers,” and sales of the novel have increased thousands of percent. “Throwing out such a broad net of surveillance is exactly the kind of threat Orwell feared,” Orwell biographer Michael Shelden told NPR. President Obama even referenced the novel, naming Big Brother, when he defended the program last Friday.

Read it at Los Angeles Times

Jeffrey MacMillan/Washington Post, via Getty; Andrew Burton/Getty

The consulting firm that employed leaker Edward Snowden still has the support of investors. Daniel Gross on why this isn’t surprising.

How much does it cost you if one of your employees goes rogue and screws over your business client? If you’re Booz Allen Hamilton, the government contractor that employed leaker Edward Snowden, about $60 million.On Monday, investors in Booz Allen, which is publicly traded, had their first opportunity to react to the bombshell news that broke over the weekend. And the reaction was something close to a shrug. The stock closed at $17.54, down about 2.

Paul Sakuma/AP

Reportedly for $1.3B.

Google further solidified its mapping dominance today with the purchase of Waze, an Israeli mapping startup. Waze uses satellite signals from members’ smartphones to create real-time maps with traffic information and faster routes. “Imagine if you could see real-time traffic updates from friends and fellow travelers ahead of you, calling out 'fender bender...totally stuck in left lane!’ and showing faster routes that others are taking,” wrote Google Geo Vice President Brian McClendon. Waze, which will remain based in Israel, has 47 million users. Google reportedly paid $1.3 billion for the company.

Read it at Reuters

Michael Reynolds/EPA, via Landov; inset: AP

Mike McConnell has moved seamlessly from senior positions in the U.S. national-security apparatus to senior positions at Booz Allen Hamilton, the consulting firm that employed leaker Edward Snowden. This year McConnell has been cashing in his stock in the company.

Edward Snowden’s decision to leak sensitive government information has shed new light on the highly profitable relationship between America’s national-security apparatus and Washington, D.C.–area contractors who get paid handsomely to assist the government. Data lying in plain sight can show just how lucrative this relationship can be for top security officials.Snowden was a low-level employee of Booz Allen Hamilton, a contractor that derives most of its revenue from the government.

Facilitating shady marketers.

Apparently scammers targeting seniors have had a big ally—banks. The New York Times is reporting that banks like Zions Bank of Salt Lake City and First Bank of Delaware have allowed unscrupulous marketers to illegally charge customer accounts for millions of dollars. Worse, banks are racking up profits by reaping fees from the intermediary payment companies handling the transactions. The Justice Department says it is considering actions against a handful of banks that engage in these practices.

Read it at The New York Times