The Three Sentences in the Fed Announcement That Matter

Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve announced the results of its latest all-important Open Markets Committee meeting on Wednesday afternoon, and they're exactly the same as last month's results — but with three important changes. For market watchers, these three sentences mean everything. So how should they be interpreted?

By Adam Clark Estes

Mar 19, 2013

Lululemon's See-Through Yoga Pants Problem Takes a Turn for the Scandalous

Lululemon tried to make a scapegoat out of the Taiwanese company that manufactured a recent batch of see through yoga pants. Bad idea. Said supplier is now suggesting that Lululemon made the whole thing up. 

Comments | 52,594 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Mar 19, 2013

What Silicon Valley Doesn't Want You to Know About Diversity Is Bad for Them

When CNN went to confirm Silicon Valley's diversity problem with actual Silicon Valley companies, most of them refused to share employee data. And sharing diversity numbers — or a lack thereof — is exactly how you fix a diversity problem in the tech world.

Comments | 696 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Mar 18, 2013

Lululemon's Too-Thin Yoga Pants Fiasco Could Cost the Company Over $20 Million

Over the weekend overpriced yoga pants peddler Lululemon announced that it wouldn't be able to sell an entire batch of bottoms, after some manufacturing glitch made them too thin (read: see-through).

Comments | 49,581 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Mar 18, 2013

Roger Ailes Admits He'd Be a Bad Politician

Roger Ailes, president of Fox News and maker of sinister expressions, shows his true colors in a new biography, Roger Ailes: Off Camera, by Zev Chafets. We've seen them before. 

Comments | 1,207 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Mar 18, 2013

How Easy Will It Be to Steal the News from the Washington Post's Paywall?

The paper has a "new" way to make money off its "savvy" readers: This summer, it will adopt a metered paywall system that's very similar to The New York Times — and, just like the Times, actually savvy readers will find a way to access it for free.

Comments | 683 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Mar 18, 2013

What Went Wrong in Cyprus?

Global markets are on edge today after it was learned over the weekend that Cyprus would be getting a bank bailout from the European Central Bank, along with a very controversial provision that could hurt every citizen in the country.

Comments | 2,069 Views

By Connor Simpson

Mar 17, 2013

The Sunday Grind

Boehner 'Absolutely' Trusts the President; Ryan's Budget Is a 'Vision'

The Speaker of the House talks with Martha Raddatz about the state of his relationship with the President, while Paul Ryan defends his budget from the criticisms that it's old, boring and a recycled campaign documents. 

Comments | 2,931 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Mar 15, 2013

Uh Oh, ZipCar's CEO Stepped Down Right After Its Merger with Avis

Hours after that $500 million Avis merger became official, the ZipCar CEO Scott Griffith announced his departure from his car-sharing helm, which could signal the beginning of the end of the beloved short-term rental service.

Comments | 1,854 Views

By Richard Lawson

Mar 15, 2013

What We Watched

'American Idol': The First Cut Is the Weakest

And then there were nine. Only nine! We have miraculously reached the single-digits phase of America's longest and most punishing singing competition, and that is something to celebrate.

Comments | 5,781 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Mar 15, 2013

The Koch Brothers' Media Takeover Has Big-Money Competition from the Left

The bidding war for Tribune Company newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, looks to have another moneyed influencer beyond the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch.

Comments | 1,724 Views

By Philip Bump

Mar 14, 2013

China Has a Problem with Coke's GPS System

China's longstanding effort to solidify claims to various disputed areas has prompted a focus on an unexpected threat: Coke. The concern is probably overblown, though, given how much worse spying pays than selling soda.

Comments | 2,069 Views

By Philip Bump

Mar 13, 2013

Questions Surround Millions InTrade Paid CEO at Time of His Everest Death

Odds that the story behind InTrade's collapse will get more interesting just keep on rising: One possible reason the firm suddenly shut down may be the recent discovery of millions in undocumented payments to John Delaney.

Comments | 2,355 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Mar 12, 2013

Soon, Anna Wintour Will Be Bossing Around Everyone at Condé Nast

Longtime Vogue editor just got a promotion of sorts. On Wednesday, Condé Nast is expect to announce Anna Wintour's new role as artistic director of the entire company.

Comments | 1,724 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Mar 12, 2013

Mexico Wants to Break Up Carlos Slim's Empire

Just a week after he topped the Forbes list of the world's richest people, Carlos Slim faces a sweeping new set of regulations in the telecommunications market which he controls almost exclusively.

Comments | 3,965 Views

By Connor Simpson

Mar 12, 2013

Twinkies Won't Be Back in Time for 4/20

But don't worry, they are coming back: the new Hostess sale will put everyone's favorite processed guilty pleasure back on store shelves by summer. Those bakery jobs, well, yeah, they're not coming back.

Comments | 1,552 Views

By Connor Simpson

Mar 12, 2013

Koch Brothers vs. Rupert Murdoch: The Fight for Tribune Newspapers Is On

The Koch brothers are reportedly considering a bid for the Tribune Company newspapers — focusing on the crown jewels of the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune, or at least what jewels of power are left in the flailing newspaper industry — but they may face stiff competition in the form of a debt-free, full pocketed media power player named Rupert Murdoch.

Comments | 4,931 Views

By Richard Lawson

Mar 12, 2013

Movie Review

'Spring Breakers': Girls Behaving Terribly

Spring Breakers, writer/director Harmony Korine's lurid and violent fever dream, is grotesque in a way, but it's also alluring; if not exactly sexy, it's certainly an effectively tantalizing image of youthful indulgence.

Comments | 23,478 Views

By Philip Bump

Mar 11, 2013

What's the Difference Between Gambling and Trading Again?

Bad news for gamblers: The shuttering of InTrade leaves you only the stock market, futures markets, casinos, and other predictive markets on which to blow your time, your money, or both. Assuming, of course, that you understand the difference between all of those things. If you don't, we're here to help.

Comments | 2,242 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Mar 11, 2013

The Secret to Carl Icahn's Bully Success

No one puts the activist in "activist investor" quite like Carl Icahn, who just won the latest round in the fight over Dell computers — just one of his many, many attempts to bend major corporations to his will.

Comments | 1,035 Views

By Jen Doll

Mar 11, 2013

'Girls': When the Watching Is Painful

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Sunday's episode of Girls was about pain. Physical, mental, and emotional pain, and all three, together. And most of all, the pain of watching people in pain.

Comments | 4,046 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Mar 10, 2013

The Online Betting Adventure That Was InTrade Is Over (For Now)

The popular however inevitably controversial online betting site InTrade shut down abruptly on Sunday, citing an ongoing investigation and casting skepticism on Irish law in a vaguely worded statement.

Comments | 2,242 Views

By Philip Bump

Mar 8, 2013

BuzzFeed's 'Happiest Facts of All Time' Were Mostly Plagiarized from Reddit

Here's a not-so-happy fact: "The 30 Happiest Facts of All Time," the biggest hit of the week on BuzzFeed, which has been caught before lifting its highly shareable feel-good listicles from Reddit, was mostly plagiarized from a month-old Reddit thread "Reddit, what is the happiest fact you know?"

Comments | 22,443 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Mar 8, 2013

Time Inc. After the Non-Deal: Keep Calm and Prepare for Doom

The mood is "lighter" since Time Warner's deal to spin off all 21 titles in its magazine division collapsed this week, even though the new plan — spinning off the publishing branch into a publicly traded company valued at just $2.50 per share — should have nobody calming down.

Comments | 2,586 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Mar 7, 2013

Sheryl Sandberg Saw Her Backlash Coming

After reading Sheryl Sandberg's "feminist manifesto" Lean In, you get the eerie impression that she knew what her critics would say.

Comments | 4,138 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Mar 7, 2013

Carl Icahn Is Stirring Up Trouble at Dell

About that proposed $24.4 billion buyout of Dell: the notorious shaker-upper doesn't like the sound of the deal, so it looks like he's gone and bought up a big stake to get his way — in very Icahn-ish fashion, of course.

Comments | 172 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Mar 6, 2013

Apparently, Al Gore Didn't Want to Sell Current TV to Oil-Rich Al Jazeera

Did you really believe that Al Gore would get away with selling Current TV to Al Jazeera for $500 million without getting sued? Silly optimist.

Comments | 2,890 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Mar 6, 2013

Time Warner Is Breaking Up with Time Inc.

Since talks fell through with the Meredith Corporation on Wednesday afternoon, Time Warner has decided to spin off Time Inc. and all 21 of its magazines into a separate company.

Comments | 2,733 Views

By Stephanie Lucianovic

Mar 6, 2013

Why I Write for Free

Unless they're independently wealthy, I don't believe anyone should work for free. However, I will admit that I have written for free. And I continue to do so somewhat compulsively.

Comments | 9,053 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Mar 6, 2013

Microsoft Fined $731 Million by the European Union, but Google May Be the Target

The European Commission has fined Microsoft $731 million for breaking an anti-trust promise, setting a strong precedent for how things can go for Google in its European anti-trust investigation.

Comments | 172 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Mar 5, 2013

Not All Work-from-Home Bans Are Created Equal

So Best Buy announced this week that it, too, will start making its workers come in and — well, well — nobody is calling new white-male CEO Hubert Joly a bad feminist yet. What gives?

Comments | 1,896 Views

By Philip Bump

Mar 5, 2013

The Truth About NASCAR's NRA 500

Why would the controversial political advocacy organization sponsor a NASCAR race? The same reason a regional headache remedy would: It's cheap.

Comments | 3,557 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Mar 5, 2013

New York Times Designs 'Snow Fall' 2.0 (Almost)

After the success of its multi-chapter, multimedia avalanche story, the Times today has given the online splash-page treatment to another graphics- and info-driven story, Dennis Overbye's "Chasing the Higgs Boson."

Comments | 1,552 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Mar 5, 2013

Stat of the Day

The Dow Jones Just Passed 14,200 for the First Time

Moments after the opening bell rang at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average busted through its all-time high water mark.

Comments | 517 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Mar 4, 2013

This Is What a $3.9 Million Car Looks Like

Lamborghini unveiled its hotly anticipated new supercar, the Veneno, at the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland on Monday, proving once and for all that the Italians are the emperors of pretty but entirely impractical things.

Comments | 21,593 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Mar 4, 2013

Meet the World's 1,426 Billionaires

Forbes has just released the 2013 edition of its world "Billionaire's List", and while the names at the top are mostly familiar, the ranks of the elitest of the elite continue to grow.

Comments | 1,991 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Mar 3, 2013

Jobless Keith Olbermann Wants His Old Job Back

Former Current TV chief news officer and host Keith Olbermann is talking to the head honchos at ESPN, possibly about rejoining the sports news giant where he worked from 1992 to 1997.

Comments | 7,449 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Mar 3, 2013

A Fight Over Toothpaste Has Resulted in New Restrictions on Executive Pay in Switzerland

On Sunday, Swiss voters approved a new "fat cat initiative" aimed at overpaid executives and the big corporations they work for.

Comments | 3,660 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Mar 1, 2013

Instagram Reveals the Great Goldman Party of 2013

For the first time since 2006, Goldman Sachs hosted one of its famous partners galas, and we know all about the lavish affair thanks to... Instagram, meaning the recession has officially ended and photo sharing apps are legitimate reporting tools.

Comments | 1,462 Views

By Richard Lawson

Mar 1, 2013

The Smart Set

Erin Burnett Wants to Be Paid to Wake Up Early

Today in celebrity gossip: A CNN star needs more money, it's Justin Bieber's birthday, and Christian Slater went to the Everglades. 

Comments | 16,519 Views

By David Wagner

Feb 28, 2013

'Now That's What I Call Music!' Is Still Insanely Valuable

European antitrust regulators have pried NOW That's What I Call Music! from Universal Music Group's hands, ensuring they won't reap any more profits from one of the music industry's perennial bestsellers.

Comments | 2,069 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 28, 2013

Businessweek Let Its Provocative Design Go Too Far with This Racist Cover

Considering Bloomberg Businessweek's generally stellar covers, a lot of people are wondering how exactly this one with its absurd caricatures and racial undertones got through the editorial process.

Comments | 1,897 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Feb 28, 2013

Peter King Declares Civil War Against Southern Republicans

Many people have noticed the GOP is increasingly becoming a southern party. So has New York Republican Peter King. The congressman is getting tired of his colleagues insulting his state and then begging it for money.

Comments | 10,931 Views

By David Wagner

Feb 28, 2013

Why Barnes & Noble Might Want to Stay in the Bookstore Business

Nook sales took a nosedive last quarter, reminding Barnes & Noble executives that their luddite brick-and-mortar business still holds value. Ironically, the most stable route forward for the company right now seems to be sticking with physical rather than digital retail. 

Comments | 2,242 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Feb 28, 2013

'Girls Gone Wild' Files for Bankruptcy to Protect Itself from Steve Wynn

A lawsuit against "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis has forced the softcore video company he created to file for bankruptcy. 

Comments | 2,391 Views

By John Hudson

Feb 28, 2013

Media Diet

R.J. Cutler: What I Read

The acclaimed filmmaker makes the liberal's case for watching Fox News

Comments | 2,414 Views

By Philip Bump

Feb 27, 2013

DHS Bureaucrat's Planned Resignation Inspires an Hour of Political Fury

When Gary Mead sent notice of his planned resignation to colleagues, it's likely he didn't expect that the move would almost instantly become a furious topic in the boiling debate over the sequester.

Comments | 1,890 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Feb 27, 2013

America's Biggest Companies Are Also Joining in the Same-Sex Marriage Fight

A day after a group of prominent Republicans joined a Supreme Court battle over gay marriage, dozens of major American corporations, including Facebook, Apple, and Intel, announced they would also side with the pro-equality forces in court.

Comments | 4,943 Views

By Connor Simpson

Feb 26, 2013

Budweiser Has Been Sued 3 Times for Watering Down All Those Watery Beers

A group of new lawsuits contends that Budweiser brands, from Bud Light Platinum to Michelob Ultra, make the beer giant the king of watered down beers. Somewhere, beer snobs are snickering — maybe even to the tune of $15 million.

Comments | 20,984 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Feb 26, 2013

Chill Out, Marissa Mayer's Work-at-Home Memo Is Not About You

Least compelling of all the arguments against Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's new tyrannical order — outlawing permanent work-from-home arrangements for her employees — come from people who feel like their particular work-life patters are about to be upset . 

Comments | 1,551 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

Feb 26, 2013

The Senate Finally Confirms Chuck Hagel

The Senate got their successful cloture vote on Tuesday afternoon, finishing the filibuster of Chuck Hagel's nomination to be Secretary of Defense — and clearing the way for a successful vote on his confirmation, 58-41.

Comments | 2,931 Views

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