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10 Industries That Will Be Hurt Most by the Sequester
Tweet Share on Facebook February 28, 2013 CommentPresident Barack Obama says the sequester will kill "hundreds of thousands of jobs." But where?
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10 Retailers Most Vulnerable to 'Showrooming'
Tweet Share on Facebook February 27, 2013 CommentA lot of shoppers have gone to an electronics store to check out the goods, then used their smartphone to order the product they want online. That habit, known as "showrooming," is now spreading to other types of retail outlets, threatening even more turmoil in one of the nation's most turbulent industries.
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3 Things We Need to Learn From the Sequester
Tweet Share on Facebook February 27, 2013 CommentA majority of Americans think the government is too big—in the abstract. When you ask what should be cut, however, they have a hard time saying what should go.
The upcoming "sequester" ought to help taxpayers decide which parts of the government they like and which they could do without.
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Charts: Sequestration Drama May Overstate the Stakes
Tweet Share on Facebook February 27, 2013 Comment
It has all the usual hallmarks of a Washington crisis: threats of doom, mud slinging between Democrats and Republicans, and growing disgust from the American public. But the stakes in the sequestration battle are notably lower than they've been compared to other recent Washington standoffs.
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News Flash: Workplace Slackers Still Exist
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2013 CommentOne endangered species has turned out to be more resilient than expected: Unproductive employees.
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The Outlook Darkens for the Barnes & Noble Nook
Tweet Share on Facebook February 25, 2013 CommentThe latest plot twist in the Barnes & Noble drama may foreshadow the death of the beloved Nook e-reader.
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Businesses and Families Have Already Endured a 'Sequester'
Tweet Share on Facebook February 25, 2013 CommentAirport lines will snake out the door. Teachers and firefighters will get laid off. Military training will be canceled, leaving the homeland vulnerable.
These are just a few of the calamities that will supposedly occur if "sequestration" goes into effect on March 1, cutting about $85 billion in government spending through the rest of 2013. Yet the majority of Americans have already dealt with more sizeable cutbacks in their own lives, while finding ways to prevent disaster. The federal government, in fact, may be the only big institution that hasn't slimmed down lately, giving taxpayers yet another reason to distrust the feds.
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Why Chinese Hacking May Backfire
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2013 CommentThere's no dispute that China has become the world's most aggressive sponsor of global computer hacking. What's less clear is whether it's doing China any good.
A new White House report declares that "the pace of economic espionage and trade secret theft against U.S. corporations is accelerating." The report traces most of that espionage to China, while listing several specific cases in which proprietary information belonging to Ford, DuPont, General Motors, Dow Chemical, Cargill, Motorola and other U.S firms ended up in Chinese hands. Elevating the issue to a presidential level suggests the Obama administration may take concrete action against China rather than simply jawboning about it.
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Why Apple and Amazon Win at Retail and Best Buy, J.C. Penney, and Kmart Lose
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2013 CommentRetail is an industry in decline—but only for traditional retailers. For companies that have become successful doing something else, opening a chain of stores can bring millions of new customers and the profits that go with them.
This paradox of the retail marketplace is evident in some of the biggest names at the mall. Traditional retailers such as Best Buy, J.C. Penney, Sears, and Kmart are struggling to reverse losses, turn themselves around and give shoppers new reasons to think they're relevant. The recently announced merger of Office Max and Office Depot is just the latest example of a retail glut that has already sunk Borders, CompUSA, Circuit City, and many others.
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A Stock Market Correction May Have Begun
Tweet Share on Facebook February 21, 2013 CommentFor a few weeks, Wall Street analysts have been wondering what it might take to trigger a stock-market selloff.
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Rick Newman
The global economy is mysterious, even scary. Chief Business Correspondent Rick Newman demystifies it and explains what matters to you. Rick is the author of Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success and the co-author of two other books: Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11, and Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
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