Bloomberg

U.S. Factory Output Falls for a Third Time in Four Months

Wed, 22 May 2019 00:00:00 -0400

U.S. factory production fell in April for a third time in four months with a broad decline led by weakness in machinery and motor vehicles, adding to signs of manufacturing sector weakness.

Manufacturing output contracted...

U.S. Trade Gap Surged to $621 Billion in 2018, 10-Year High

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 04:00:00 -0500

The U.S. trade deficit widened in 2018 to a 10-year high of $621 billion, bucking President Donald Trump’s pledges to reduce it, as tax cuts boosted domestic demand for imports while the strong dollar and retaliatory tariffs weighed on exports.

The annual deficit in goods and services increased by...

Exxon Will Use Wind, Solar To Produce Crude Oil In Texas

Mon, 03 Dec 2018 14:00:00 -0500

Exxon Mobil Corp. will use renewable energy to produce oil in West Texas. Under 12-year agreements with Denmark's Orsted A/S, Exxon will buy 500 megawatts of wind and solar power in the Permian Basin, the fastest growing U.S. oil field. It is the largest ever...

America's 100 Richest Places

Mon, 05 Mar 2018 05:28:54 -0500

The richest communities in America for years have been in Silicon Valley and the New York City area. Now the Midwest is starting to make some noise. That's one takeaway from the latest Bloomberg analysis of 2016 U.S. Census data. For the second year...

Smartphones Are Killing Americans, But Nobody's Counting

Tue, 17 Oct 2017 10:01:29 -0400

Jennifer Smith doesn't like the term "accident." It implies too much chance and too little culpability. A "crash" killed her mother in 2008, she insists, when her car was broadsided by another vehicle while on her way to pick up cat food. The other driver, a 20-year-old college student, ran a red light while talking on his mobile phone, a distraction that...

Move Americans To Jobs, Not The Other Way Around

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 14:53:20 -0400

For far too long, U.S. politicians have been promising to bring jobs to Americans. They should instead be encouraging Americans to move to jobs. The absurdity of tax incentives to "create jobs" reached new heights last month with Wisconsin's deal to lure iPhone assembler Foxconn Technology Group -- which will reportedly cost taxpayers more than...

At Google, An Employee-Run Email List Tracks Harassment And Bias Complaints

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 10:23:08 -0400

At most companies, if you think you've witnessed sexual harassment, sexism, bigotry or racism, there's one way to get it addressed: going to human resources. At Google, there's another way to air your grievance: submitting your complaint to an employee-run message board that's curated into a weekly email. The list, called...

Why Nobody Trusts The World's Best Currency

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 11:19:36 -0400

It took a decade of gains for the Azeri currency to build up trust, and two devaluations to ruin it. Even after a rally that's made the manat the world's best performer since the start of February, Azerbaijan's Main Street isn't convinced. The little confidence people had left in the Caspian Sea nation's currency after it lost more than...

Landlords Are Taking Over The U.S. Housing Market

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 07:56:30 -0500

As rising home prices, slow new home construction, and demographic shifts push homeownership rates to 50-year lows, the U.S. is increasingly a country of renters-and landlords. Last year, 37 percent of homes sold were acquired by buyers who didn't live in them, according to tax-assessment data compiled in a new report published by...

Trump Barred From U.K. Parliament Over 'Racism And Sexism'

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 11:28:11 -0500

U.S. President Donald Trump must not be allowed to address the U.K. Parliament during a state visit to Britain, House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said. Prime Minister Theresa May invited Trump to visit the U.K., but there have been calls by lawmakers not to give the president the honor of addressing...

Young Americans Piled Into Some Horrendous ETF Trades Right After The Election

Wed, 21 Dec 2016 09:14:12 -0500

Mimicking President-elect Donald Trump - who has called himself "the king of debt" - risk-loving millennials used exchange-traded funds that employed leverage to juice their returns in the wake of the real-estate mogul's election victory. That didn't work out so well for them. With preferences for...

How Russian Propaganda Really Works In The West

Mon, 28 Nov 2016 09:31:37 -0500

Until recently, the phenomenon of Russian government propaganda was only interesting to a small group of Russia experts, news junkies and counter-propaganda fundraisers. It was mainly seen as a tool for keeping Russians supportive of Vladimir Putin. No longer. Thanks to post-U.S. election blame games, and...

DOL Wins ESOP Mismanagement Lawsuit Against California Bank

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 08:36:03 -0500

California Pacific Bank, its chief executive officer and three directors must pay more than $874,705 to participants in the bank's employee stock ownership plan over accusations of mismanagement... Judge James Donato Oct. 24 set the damages that California Pacific-a small, privately held commercial bank in San Francisco-and...

The Next Showdown Is Trump The Brand Vs Trump The President

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 05:04:32 -0500

Donald Trump, the businessman, is about to run headlong into Donald Trump, the president. With his stunning election victory on Tuesday night, Trump now confronts more potential conflicts of interest than any other president in U.S. history. How -- or even whether -- the billionaire navigates this minefield could...

Manufacturing's Productivity Myth

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 10:58:33 -0400

The U.S. manufacturing sector is far from the basket case it is sometimes made out to be on the campaign trail. But it's important to realize that it isn't exactly going gangbusters, either. The everything's-OK line about U.S. manufacturing goes something like this: Yes, lots of manufacturing jobs...

Here's How Goldman Sachs Lays People Off

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 11:46:00 -0400

43 here, 109 there and pretty soon 443 employees are dismissed Bank has to file 'WARN notices' with New York state agency The first "plant layoff" notice came in February: 43 people would lose their jobs. The second arrived six weeks later, increasing the cuts to 109 workers. Then a third, in April, for...

The World's Best IPO Has Gained 6,000%, But Analysts Say Stay Away

Wed, 12 Oct 2016 10:12:16 -0400

The world's best-performing new listing this year is a Hong Kong civil-engineering stock soaring for reasons that appear unrelated to its business. Luen Wong Group Holdings Ltd. jumped 1,438 percent on the first trading day after its April initial public offering and is now 6,715 percent above its offer price. The company, which reported...

The Biggest Winners And Losers From OPEC's Oil Deal

Thu, 29 Sep 2016 11:17:23 -0400

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' agreement to cut production ends two years of Saudi Arabia's pump-at-will policies, which had sunk oil prices to the joy of drivers in the Western world and the consternation of central bankers seeking to stave off deflation. With the reversal of that stance,...

Does Your Gender Affect Your Credit Score?

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:03:19 -0500

In the contest for the gender with the best credit, men win-but only by a hair. The average credit score in the U.S. for men is 630 out of a possible 850, compared with 621 for women. What's more intriguing: Men maintain that credit edge even though their average overall debt and...

You've Been Offered A Ton Of Money. Should You Take It?

Fri, 06 Nov 2015 07:59:49 -0500

It's like the famous marshmallow tests done at Stanford University decades ago, when researchers gave some kids marshmallows and told them if they waited 15 minutes to eat them they'd get a second one. The kids who delayed gratification went on to...

How 3D Printing Is Speeding Up Small Businesses

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 07:31:46 -0500

Since David Friedfeld took over ClearVision Optical from his father in 1985, he's seen most eyewear manufacturing move overseas. The 120-employee company, based in Hauppauge, N.Y., is bringing a small piece of it back. Last year, Friedfeld purchased an entry-level 3D printer for just under $3,000. He still does the bulk of his manufacturing abroad, but he can now print eyeglass prototypes in-house. The device...

The New Curriculum: Reading, Writing, And 3D Printing

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 07:26:19 -0500

If the popularity of Rainbow Loom has taught entrepreneurs anything, it's that kids love creating things using bright plastic. Now another company is hoping to cash in on that predilection with a 3D printer meant specifically for children. Printeer is a 3D printer designed for 8-year-olds. Using a drawing app for the iPad, children can...

Factory Jobs Are Gone. Get Over It

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 07:17:44 -0500

In the runup to this year's State of the Union address, President Obama has been busy trying to fulfill pledges from last year's. He went to Raleigh, N.C., to announce it would become a high-tech manufacturing hub to ensure that the U.S. attracts "the good, high-tech manufacturing jobs that a growing middle class requires." The president is one of many politicians of both parties as well as pundits who think manufacturing deserves special treatment. But this factory obsession is based on flawed economics. As the Brookings Institute economist Justin Wolfers asked recently, "What's with the political fetish for manufacturing? Are factories really so awesome?" Not really-at least not for the U.S. in 2014. Any attempt to draw lessons from the 1950s, when...

Keeping Millennials Happy Is Now Its Own Genre Of Management Training

Fri, 22 Aug 2014 06:18:48 -0400

Young professionals are restless, especially in banking jobs. Now managers are making it their business to learn what makes them tick. In the financial-services industry, only about 10 percent of millennials-the generation born between 1980 and 2000-say they plan to stay in their current job for the long term. Across all sectors, by contrast, 18 percent expect to stay put, according to a 2012 survey (PDF) by PricewaterhouseCoopers. In response,...

Breathe. You Can Get Through Your Performance Review

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 11:08:35 -0400

The annual performance review cycle might as well be heralded by a chorus of groans-it's a chore many managers and employees see as nothing more than an empty bureaucratic exercise forced on them by the helpful folks in the human resources department. Alas, performance reviews aren't going anywhere. To help you survive yours (and maybe even please your boss), here are seven tips...

How to Handle Jeff Bezos and Other Confrontational Bosses

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 09:54:52 -0500

Does Jeff Bezos, with his "notoriously confrontational" management style, sound like the kind of boss you'd want to work for? Little surprise, then, that Amazon.com tied for second place on a list of companies with the highest employee turnover rate. Are there parallels between this ranking and...

The Most Powerful People In Your Organization Are The Software Developers

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 05:07:28 -0400

Whenever there are major technology transitions, corporations go through a period in which software developers gain tremendous power. On one hand, it makes sense that those who understand new and complicated technologies need to be out in front. On the other, developers have an agenda that might not align with business objectives. This is where we are today, and it is an uncomfortable time for both IT management and business leaders. The technologies rippling throughout industries-mobile and cloud computing and big data analytics-are causing dramatic and painful organizational changes. Meanwhile...

Buffett's Buy-and-Hold Billionaire Disciple

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 07:33:36 -0400

Stewart Horejsiï؟½s business was in a funk. It was 1980, and Brown Welding Supply, his familyï؟½s third-generation distributor of hydrogen and oxygen tanks, was battling competitors intent on expanding into its corner of Kansas. While ï؟½it was a profitable business,ï؟½ says Horejsi, 75, who lives in Paradise Valley, Ariz., ï؟½the competition just grew.ï؟½ Frustrated, he bought 40 shares of Berkshire Hathaway...

The Soft Skills Managers Want

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 05:50:07 -0400

In today's workplace, employees need to do more than fulfill their job description and develop intangible soft skills. Since it's easy for companies to find people with the right hard skills, they are hiring more for...

Small Employer Health Plans Push Costs Onto Workers

Tue, 03 Sep 2013 06:46:18 -0400

Small businesses aren't dropping health benefits en masse in response to rising costs and the looming Obamacare reforms. They're just making workers pay more for it. That's the picture that emerges from the new Employer Health Benefits Survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a detailed survey of more than 2,000 U.S. employers of all sizes. The report showed...