Salon.com > Business http://www.salon.com Fri, 03 May 2013 03:47:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 6 insidious ways you’re getting ripped off http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/6_insidious_ways_youre_getting_ripped_off_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/6_insidious_ways_youre_getting_ripped_off_partner/#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 17:53:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13287891 AlterNetIn the wake of the financial crisis, there was a momentof hope that predatory businesses would no longer be able to pick at our bones like vultures. Instead, we've seen Dodd-Frank weakened and stalled, and the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stymied at every turn. In the latest round, Republicans are thwarting the confirmation of Richard Cordray to lead the Bureau. Meanwhile, we continue to get fleeced. Here are a few egregious scams to watch out for, along with ways to protect yourself.

1. Auto-renewal scams

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/6_insidious_ways_youre_getting_ripped_off_partner/feed/ 16 Fracking ourselves to death in Pennsylvania http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/fracking_ourselves_to_death_in_pennsylvania_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/fracking_ourselves_to_death_in_pennsylvania_partner/#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 17:10:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13287621 More than 70 years ago, a chemical attack was launched against Washington State and Nevada. It poisoned people, animals, everything that grew, breathed air, and drank water. The Marshall Islands were also struck. This formerly pristine Pacific atoll was branded “the most contaminated place in the world.” As their cancers developed, the victims of atomic testing and nuclear weapons development got a name: downwinders. What marked their tragedy was the darkness in which they were kept about what was being done to them. Proof of harm fell to them, not to the U.S. government agencies responsible.

Now, a new generation of downwinders is getting sick as an emerging industry pushes the next wonder technology -- in this case, high-volume hydraulic fracturing. Whether they live in Texas, Colorado, or Pennsylvania, their symptoms are the same: rashes, nosebleeds, severe headaches, difficulty breathing, joint pain, intestinal illnesses, memory loss, and more. “In my opinion,” says Yuri Gorby of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, “what we see unfolding is a serious health crisis, one that is just beginning.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/fracking_ourselves_to_death_in_pennsylvania_partner/feed/ 21 Alex Jones: Conspiracy Inc. http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/alex_jones_conspiracy_inc/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/alex_jones_conspiracy_inc/#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 11:45:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13287148 It’s good to be Alex Jones. Matt Drudge, the conservative Web entrepreneur and news aggregator, proved prophetic when he predicted that 2013 would be “the year of Alex Jones.” The longtime conspiracy broadcaster is finally breaking into the mainstream consciousness after a buzzy interview with Piers Morgan and his Boston bombing conspiracy, and traffic to his websites has never been higher. The conspiracy business is booming.

And make no mistake, it is a business. That’s not to say that Jones isn’t a believer -- there are easier ways to make money -- but Jones has built a multi-platform new media empire in his Austin, Texas, Free Speech Systems LLC that reaches millions of believers and promises advertisers that it will “direct lucrative buyers to you from our daily audience of active enthusiasts.” And all told, Jones is very likely raking in millions.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/02/alex_jones_conspiracy_inc/feed/ 129 End of the dollar menu? http://www.salon.com/2013/04/25/fast_food_chains_might_do_away_with_dollar_menus_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/25/fast_food_chains_might_do_away_with_dollar_menus_partner/#comments Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:18:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13281916 Pacific Standard“Value menus” increasingly seem a bad physical deal for consumers—and now perhaps a bum fiscal deal for fast-food purveyors. The cheap chow, long a target for nutrition-focused researchers and  locavoring  advocates, has been criticized for all manner of bad outcomes, mostly centered on obesity. Fast food in general is assailed by these same sources, of course—the book is Fast Food Nation, after all, and not Dollar Menu Dominion—but value menus (and their late cousin “supersize”) are seen as particularly egregious in making fat-laden crappy food—despite all the menu labeling, soda shrinking, portion bashing, and bad mouthing in the world— irresistibly cheap.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/25/fast_food_chains_might_do_away_with_dollar_menus_partner/feed/ 13 Eden Foods doubles down in birth control flap http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/eden_foods_ceo_digs_himself_deeper_in_birth_control_outrage/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/eden_foods_ceo_digs_himself_deeper_in_birth_control_outrage/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:45:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13269372 "I've got more interest in good quality long underwear than I have in birth control pills," the unfamiliar voice on the phone said to me.

It was Michael Potter, the Eden Foods founder and CEO. He was calling to respond to my Salon report from last week, which revealed that his organic food company -- which markets itself to a crunchy, liberal crowd -- was quietly suing the Obama administration over its requirement that his company's employee health plan cover birth control. Mostly, he said in the most amiable, avowedly Midwestern way imaginable -- at one point he called himself "a pretty simple guy, a Midwestern homemade-soup guy" -- he was calling to apologize to me.

It wasn't that he was upset about my reporting or what his company was doing. He was just sorry my request for comment had gone unanswered due to an oversight. I accepted the apology, and asked why he said he didn't care about birth control, since he filed a suit about it and all.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/eden_foods_ceo_digs_himself_deeper_in_birth_control_outrage/feed/ 206 Amazon sells out its small retailers http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/amazons_failure_to_deliver_orders_on_time_hurts_small_retailers_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/amazons_failure_to_deliver_orders_on_time_hurts_small_retailers_partner/#comments Sun, 14 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13269520 Amazon is used to facing harsh criticism. In fact, for many irate customers who didn’t receive their orders on time — especially around the holidays — going online to vent about the company's broken delivery promises almost seems like a pastime.

The Daily Dot

Take Connie V., an Amazon customer who claims on consumer complaints forum Planetfeedback that, despite paying extra for expedited delivery to ensure a Dec. 22 arrival date, her purchases did not come until the day after Christmas.

"My gifts didn't arrive until December 26th, which made my child question why Santa didn't bring them in his sled," she wrote. "I wrote two complaints to the Amazon site and never even received a reply."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/amazons_failure_to_deliver_orders_on_time_hurts_small_retailers_partner/feed/ 7 William Shakespeare: Legendary playwright and exploitative businessman http://www.salon.com/2013/03/31/william_shakespeare_legendary_playwright_and_exploitative_businessman/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/31/william_shakespeare_legendary_playwright_and_exploitative_businessman/#comments Sun, 31 Mar 2013 20:52:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13257292 If there is such a thing as a big scandal in the literary community, this may be it: New academic research has found that William Shakespeare was a cut-throat businessman who often engaged in illegal activities at the expense of the very community he represented in his plays.

From the Daily Mail:

William Shakespeare was threatened with prison for dodging tax and illegally hoarded food to sell on at inflated prices, new research has revealed.

An academic study looking into Shakespeare's 'other life' as one of Warwickshire's biggest landowners has uncovered a less than savoury side to Britain's greatest playwright.

The allegation he exploited famine has also lead to suggestions that his 'Coriolanus,' for years regarded as a plea for the starving poor, was in fact his way of trying to expunge a guilty conscience.

The paper, written by Jayne Archer, a researcher in Renaissance literature at Aberystwyth University, Richard Marggraf Turley, a professor in the department and Howard Thomas, a professor of plant science found that by "combining both illegal and legal activities, Shakespeare was able to retire in 1613 as the largest property owner in his home town."

"His profits — minus a few fines for illegal hoarding and tax evasion — meant he had a working life of just 24 years."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/31/william_shakespeare_legendary_playwright_and_exploitative_businessman/feed/ 13 Leaning in won’t help your career http://www.salon.com/2013/03/15/leaning_in_wont_help_your_career_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/15/leaning_in_wont_help_your_career_partner/#comments Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:02:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13230022 OK, Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg didn’t say “join a union.” But that’s the message the vast majority of working women should be considering this Women’s History Month. The best way for the most women to improve their working lives is through a union.

AlterNetThe new PBS documentary Makers: Women Who Make America shows how the women's movement changed the workplace for women, men and families. Two of the young Makers highlighted in the film, Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook and Marissa Mayer at Yahoo, now dominate the news. Here's what neither of them tell you: union women earn more than non-union women and have better benefits and working conditions.

Women at Facebook and Yahoo should consider spending their time organizing to have a say in their workplace.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/15/leaning_in_wont_help_your_career_partner/feed/ 8 “Veronica Mars” Kickstarts a movie project http://www.salon.com/2013/03/13/the_captialist_veronica_mars_movie/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/13/the_captialist_veronica_mars_movie/#comments Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:27:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13228102 Earlier this morning, Rob Thomas, the creator of “Veronica Mars,” the sharpest, prickliest drama about a teen detective that ever was, announced that he was trying to raise at least $2 million for a “Veronica Mars” movie on Kickstarter. The beloved series was canceled after three seasons in 2007, and Thomas and the star Kristen Bell have been talking about making a movie on and off ever since. If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, a “Veronica Mars” movie will be filmed this summer. As of this writing, so just four or so hours since the project was announced, the project has already raised $1,100,000. There is going to be a “Veronica Mars” movie.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/13/the_captialist_veronica_mars_movie/feed/ 6 How many book sales equal an Amazon bestseller? http://www.salon.com/2013/03/10/how_many_book_sales_equals_an_amazon_bestseller/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/10/how_many_book_sales_equals_an_amazon_bestseller/#comments Sun, 10 Mar 2013 19:31:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13224680 Amazon sales figures are among the best kept, and most sought after, secrets in the publishing industry. The list updates hourly but Amazon, the biggest book retailer in the country, refuses to share data on what level of sales correspond to a coveted spot at the top of the list. (The New York Times' bestseller list, still arguably the most influential in the country, is also cagey with its metrics.)

In an article today, Publishers Weekly tried to reverse engineer a book's sales on Amazon by tracking its position on the bestseller list. The conclusion, which is couched in plenty of caveats, is that reaching the top of the Amazon list only requires about 300 sales through the site per day. It's not a result that will cheer the always beleaguered publishing industry.

Here's how the experiment worked:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/10/how_many_book_sales_equals_an_amazon_bestseller/feed/ 3 US adds 236,000 jobs, unemployment falls to 7.7 percent http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/us_adds_236k_jobs_unemployment_falls_to_7_7_pct_2/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/us_adds_236k_jobs_unemployment_falls_to_7_7_pct_2/#comments Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:02:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13222837 WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers ramped up hiring in February, adding 236,000 jobs and pushing the unemployment rate down to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent in January. Stronger hiring shows businesses are confident about the economy, despite higher taxes and government spending cuts.

The government's February employment report was filled with mostly encouraging details. The unemployment rate is now at its lowest level in four years. Hiring has averaged more than 200,000 per month since November. Wages increased. And the job gains were broad-based, led by the best construction hiring in six years.

One negative detail: employers added fewer jobs in January than first estimated. Job gains were lowered to 119,000 from an initially reported 157,000. Still, December hiring was a little better than first thought, with 219,000 jobs added instead of 196,000.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/us_adds_236k_jobs_unemployment_falls_to_7_7_pct_2/feed/ 4 Did Trump’s birtherism stain “Apprentice”? http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/donald_trump_talks_to_salon_about_apprentice_ratings_his_2012_presidential_flirtation/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/donald_trump_talks_to_salon_about_apprentice_ratings_his_2012_presidential_flirtation/#comments Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:02:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13218359 Donald Trump's "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice," the spring reality show uniting past contestants like Dennis Rodman, Gary Busey and La Toya Jackson, won its second hour last night among adults aged 18-49. But overall the news was mixed: Viewership was down from previous "Celebrity Apprentice" debuts, to 5.1 million people over the two-hour season premiere. (Last year's premiere got 7.4 million viewers; in 2011, that number was 7.93 million.)

"We're very happy with the 10 o'clock hour," Trump told Salon in an interview on Monday. "And after four episodes, it goes to 10 o'clock. So it's really the 10 o'clock hour."

"We beat everybody. We beat every other network," Trump said. "That's our hour. We serve as our own lead-in." (Last night on NBC, the first hour of "Apprentice" followed the newsmagazine "Dateline.")

Trump refused to brook questioning as to whether NBC -- which has collapsed in the ratings so far in 2013, slipping to fifth place after Univision in the February sweeps -- might not be the ideal home for a TV show.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/donald_trump_talks_to_salon_about_apprentice_ratings_his_2012_presidential_flirtation/feed/ 17 Read our salon on fracking http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/a_salon_we_drill_into_fracking/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/a_salon_we_drill_into_fracking/#comments Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13216894 The growing tension between environmental concerns and business interests intensified this weekend amid reports that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was ready to approve a plan to allow hydraulic fracturing (aka "hydrofracking" or "fracking") in parts of his state, until a last-minute intervention from Robert Kennedy Jr. put the plan on delay as it undergoes further study. As politicians at all levels (including the president) will be deciding whether to embrace the controversial method of shale gas drilling in coming months, we asked two experts with divergent views to discuss the issue with us -- and you.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/a_salon_we_drill_into_fracking/feed/ 29 Did the Internet kill “Girls Gone Wild”? http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/did_the_internet_kill_girls_gone_wild/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/did_the_internet_kill_girls_gone_wild/#comments Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:42:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13216140 When the world is tired of sloppy drunk chicks taking off their tops for trucker hats, it is tired of itself. World, we must be damn weary. The Joe Francis "Girls Gone Wild" empire has filed for bankruptcy protection.

I'm sure you're absolutely heartbroken over what will happen to the man who's made a living finding young women whose judgment is deeply impaired and coercing them into acts that range from a flash of boobies to reportedly losing their virginity to him. Across the nation, women everywhere are so sad, they're leaving their shirts on and can't even muster a single, forlorn "whooooooo."

There was a time, just a few years ago, when Francis seemed to have the Midas touch, a moment when everything in his path turned into nipples and girl-on-girl makeout sessions. Francis was said to have been worth $150 million, and his future looked like it would continue to be more of the same. After all, what's a more reliable moneymaker than youth and poor decision-making?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/did_the_internet_kill_girls_gone_wild/feed/ 19 There is kitty litter in your cigarette http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/there_is_kitty_litter_in_your_cigarette/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/there_is_kitty_litter_in_your_cigarette/#comments Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13215629 A dozen tobacco companies have avoided as much as $1.1 billion in taxes by using fillers (like the clay found in cat litter) to make their cigarettes heavier, exempting them from a 2,653 percent increase in a federal excise tax on non-"large cigar" tobacco products.

As reported by Bloomberg News, current rules "require a rolled tobacco product to weigh at least 3 pounds per 1,000 to be labeled as a 'large' or 'premium' cigar, a category where taxes increased just 155 percent."

The practice of weighting tobacco products has contributed to a 100 percent increase in sales of the filler-laced products, and a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blames the “tax disparities between product types” for increased adult consumption of pipe tobacco and cigarette-like cigars. While cigarette smoking has been on the decline for more than a decade, "large cigar" smoking, including the filler-laced cigarettes, tripled in the same time period.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/there_is_kitty_litter_in_your_cigarette/feed/ 14 Fifty shades of … beige? http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/fifty_shades_of_beige/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/fifty_shades_of_beige/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:12:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13213389 At Vanity Fair's famous Oscar party Sunday night, the New York Post was eager to find out from Fifty Shades of Grey” author E .L. James — the writer now famous for her "Twilight" fan-fic bodice whipper, I mean, ripper  —  who is being cast in the film adaptation of her internationally best-selling BDSM romance series. She told them, "We don’t even have a filmmaker … so we are still a long way away from casting. I have some ideas  … but it may not be who people expect.” She also told the Post that she's toning down the sex for her next book. "It won’t be nearly so raunchy — and I will probably write it under another name,” she said. The trilogy, the first novel of which was initially self-published as an e-book titled "Master of the Universe," and later repackaged as both an e-book and a trade paperback as "Fifty Shades of Grey" by Vintage Books, has sold over 65 million copies around the world, in over 37 countries, and was chosen book of the year by the public in the National Book Awards back in December.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/fifty_shades_of_beige/feed/ 3 Marissa Mayer, morale killer http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/marissa_mayer_morale_killer/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/marissa_mayer_morale_killer/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:37:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13212691 When All Things D's Kara Swisher reported Monday that Yahoo CEO and reluctant metaphor for working motherhood Marissa Mayer's brave new vision for her organization now involves telling several hundred workers they can either stop working from home or get the hell out, a nation of hardworking, life-career-juggling telecommuters winced in sympathy. As our own Irin Carmon put it, "Yahoo is setting back … progress and flexibility" in a move whose "impact falls disproportionately on women." A Yahoo employee, meanwhile, told Swisher it was "outrageous and a morale killer."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/marissa_mayer_morale_killer/feed/ 100 How many more bailouts will we allow? http://www.salon.com/2013/01/08/its_time_to_break_up_the_banks_once_and_for_all/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/08/its_time_to_break_up_the_banks_once_and_for_all/#comments Tue, 08 Jan 2013 23:10:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13165111 TARP – the infamous Troubled Assets Relief Program that bailed out Wall Street in 2008 – is over. The Treasury Department announced it will be completing the sale of the remaining shares it owns of the banks and of General Motors.

But in reality it’s not over. The biggest Wall Street banks are now far bigger than they were four years ago when they were considered too big to fail. The five largest have almost 44 percent of all US bank deposits.

That’s up from 37 percent in 2007, just before the crash. A decade ago they had just 28 percent.

The biggest banks keep getting bigger because they can borrow more cheaply than smaller banks. That’s because investors believe the government will bail them out if they get into trouble, rather than force them into a form of bankruptcy (as the new Dodd-Frank law makes possible).

That’s why it’s necessary to limit their size and break up the biggest.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/08/its_time_to_break_up_the_banks_once_and_for_all/feed/ 7 Overweight-only gym helps members relate http://www.salon.com/2013/01/07/overweight_only_gym_helps_members_relate/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/07/overweight_only_gym_helps_members_relate/#comments Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:10:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13163461 DALLAS (AP) — Downsize Fitness is an exclusive health club, evocative of the nation's trendiest gyms. But there's a strict requirement to join: You must be 50 pounds or more overweight.

The chain wants its members to feel comfortable while exercising, so there are no mirrors inside and the windows are fogged. Even the equipment is designed for heavier people.

Chicago entrepreneur Francis Wisnewski says he started the gym because "I've been overweight my whole life, and I was embarrassed to go to the gym myself."

The first locations opened in Chicago and Las Vegas in 2011, and expanded to Dallas in 2012.

Gym member Janie Busch said she likes the supportive atmosphere.

Krisanne Hale, a personal trainer in Dallas, is still trying to lose weight. She says that helps members relate.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/07/overweight_only_gym_helps_members_relate/feed/ 8 Why not mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin? http://www.salon.com/2013/01/06/why_not_mint_a_trillion_dollar_platinum_coin/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/06/why_not_mint_a_trillion_dollar_platinum_coin/#comments Sun, 06 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13162788 AlterNet It's bizarre how people distinguish between serious and unserious proposals.

With another debt-ceiling show-down looming, talk of the 'platinum coin option' – declared deeply unserious in 2011 – is once again gaining some traction. Here'sJosh Barro over at Bloomberg:

I'm glad to see Representative Jerrold Nadler lending his support to the idea that PresidentBarack Obama should avert a debt-limit crisis by issuing large-denomination platinum coins, as permitted by 31 USC § 5112.

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