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The checkered past of Groupon's chairman

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Fortune - By Kevin Kelleher - Jun. 10 (News) - Groupon's IPO has brought an uncomfortable spotlight onto Lefkofsky. While some attention focuses on his ambitions as an investor in tech startups, others see a "spotty history" and draw parallels between the past and the present. Lefkofsky's track record, reflecting failures and successes, bears certain hallmarks: rapid revenue growth accompanied by big losses, a penchant to sell stock early on, and lawsuits filed by investors, lenders or customers who feel they have been wronged.

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J.P. Morgan's hunt for Afghan gold

Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Fortune - By James Bandler - May. 12 (Special Report) - To Hannam, chairman of J.P. Morgan Capital Markets, Afghanistan represents a gigantic, untapped opportunity -- one of the last great natural-resource frontiers. Landlocked and pinioned by imperial invaders, Afghanistan has been cursed by its geography for thousands of years. Now, for the first time, Hannam believes, that geography could be an asset.

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GDP report: Economic growth revised sharply lower

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

CNN - By Annalyn Censky - Feb. 25 (News) - Budget cuts by state and local governments hurt the economy more than originally thought, according to a government release Friday.

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China's renewable energy edge

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Steve Hargreaves - Sep. 22 (News) - China has already surpassed the United States in the amount of wind turbines and solar panels that it makes. China is also gaining on the United States when it comes to how much of their energy comes from renewable energy sources.

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Recession officially ended in June 2009

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Chris Isidore - Sep. 20 (News) - The Great Recession ended in June 2009, according to the body charged with dating when economic downturns begin and end. But the news comes amid rising fears of a double-dip recession.

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The dead gadget glutton

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Katie Benner - Sep. 17 (Opinion) - Our toys and devices are amazing -- until they're obsolete. That's bad news for the planet, but good news for Electronic Recyclers International, a $50-million-in-revenue company that expects sales to double by 2012.

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Inside the secret world of Trader Joe's

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Fortune - By Beth Kowitt - Aug. 23 (Investigative Report) - Apple's retail stores aren't the only place where lines form these days. It's 7:30 on a July morning, and already a crowd has gathered for the opening of Trader Joe's newest outpost, in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. The waiting shoppers chat about their favorite Trader Joe's foods, and a woman in line launches into a monologue comparing the retailer's West Coast and East Coast locations. Another customer suggests that the chain will be good for Chelsea, even though the area is already brimming with places to buy groceries, including Whole Foods and several upscale food boutiques.

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Google to open 'Google Ideas' global technology think tank

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Seth Weintraub - Aug. 15 (News) - Hoping to apply technology solutions to solve the world's problems, Google is hiring Washington technology insider Jared Cohen.

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BP ousts CEO Hayward and taps an American

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Ben Rooney, Grace Wong - Jul. 27 (News) - Tony Hayward will step down as chief executive of BP, the company announced Tuesday, amid ongoing outrage over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

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The $600 billion challenge

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Fortune - By Carol J. Loomis - Jun. 17 (News Report) - Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett are asking the nation's billionaires to pledge to give at least half their net worth to charity, in their lifetimes or at death. If their campaign succeeds, it could change the face of philanthropy.

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AT&T, Verizon, others, thought about dropping health plans

Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Fortune - By Shawn Tully - May. 06 (News) - Internal documents recently reviewed by Fortune, originally requested by Congress, show what the bill's critics predicted, and what its champions dreaded: many large companies are examining a course that was heretofore unthinkable, dumping the health care coverage they provide to their workers in exchange for paying penalty fees to the government.

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What's really behind the Toyota debacle

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Alex Taylor III - Apr. 14 (News Report) - At 77, Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of Toyota, is still causing trouble for the automaker. He is being painted, most recently in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, as both the architect of a global expansion that proved ruinous and an enemy of the Toyoda family. Toyota is basically organized the same way it was half-a-century ago when it first began selling cars in the U.S. None of its operations are functionally integrated -- and all report back to Japan. It is a caricature of a chimneyed company with vertical structures and no coordination

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How Obama got Keynes wrong

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Fortune - By Shawn Tully, Fortune - Feb. 06 (Interview) - The Obama White House likes to say that the theories of John Maynard Keynes form the foundation for its fiscal policies. Most notably, it draws upon the legendary British economist's idea of spending big to pull out of a recession.

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Advanta's painful plastic surgery

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Fortune - By Colin Barr - May. 18 (News Report) - The credit card business has grown so wretched that one major issuer is clipping its customers' cards and giving its investors a haircut. Advanta (ADVNA), the nation's No. 14 card issuer and a top lender to small businesses, said last week it will shut down its card business to stem losses. The move is a momentous one, because credit cards bring in nearly all Advanta's revenue. The company will close customer accounts next month, leaving a million borrowers looking for credit at a time when lenders are pulling back. And Advanta's small-business customers aren't the only ones in limbo: So are the investors whose bond purchases financed Advanta's expansion over the past decade.

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Inside Obama's economic crusade - Feb. 13, 2009

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Business 2.0 - By Nina EAston - Feb. 13 (News Report) - But Greg Mankiw, the Harvard economist who chaired Bush's CEA for two years - and who counts many of Obama's picks as friends - offers a more politically charged label: Keynesians, after the British economist who championed interventionist policy. "They are extremely committed Keynesians," he says. "I hope they show the requisite humility that not all economists share their view."

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Obama's business brain trust

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Fortune - Nov. 08 (News Analysis) - On the long road to the White House, Barack Obama reached out to a diverse collection of economic thinkers.

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Lehman's fall reflects Wall Street's flaws

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Fortune - By Shawn Tully - Sep. 17 (Special Report) - With Merrill, and Bear Stearns before it, being acquired by giant commercial banks, we're witnessing the triumph of the diversified, universal banking model over the Wall Street one that focused on trading securities and advising corporate clients. Eventually, the trend will probably capture Morgan Stanley and Goldman as well. Even if they skirt the fate of their former peers, their time is past.

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What Obama means for business

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Fortune - By Nina Easton - Jun. 20 (Special Report) - "I still believe that the business of America is business," Obama told Fortune. "But what I also think is that with all that power and talent, and all those resources at their disposal, comes some responsibilities - to not game the system, to not oppose increased transparency in the marketplace, to not oppose fiscally prudent measures to balance our budget."

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Downsizing the American home

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Fortune - By Shawn Tully - Jun. 19 (Special Report) - When the real estate market comes back, it will not be with a sonic boom. It is likely to be subtle, below the public's radar. The revival will probably begin in the areas hit hardest by the bust: in Florida, Las Vegas, and the honeycombed tracts that flank the broad freeways east of Los Angeles known as the Inland Empire. (Indeed, home sales in Southern California surged 22% from March to April, hitting their highest levels since August.) Why will housing come back? For a reason as solid as floor joists: The entry-level buyer, for the first time in years, is finding that owning a new house is suddenly just as cheap as renting. "Those first-time buyers got locked out by high prices," says John Karevoll of DataQuick, a research firm that assembles data on the U.S. real estate market. "Now the buying activity that was on hold is starting to come back."

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Obama: NAFTA not so bad after all

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Fortune - By Nina Easton - Jun. 18 (News Analysis) - The general campaign is on, independent voters are up for grabs, and Barack Obama is toning down his populist rhetoric - at least when it comes to free trade. In an interview with Fortune to be featured in the magazine's upcoming issue, the presumptive Democratic nominee backed off his harshest attacks on the free trade agreement and indicated he didn't want to unilaterally reopen negotiations on NAFTA.

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What Iraq will cost the U.S.

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Fortune - By Lawrence B. Lindsey - Jan. 12 (Special Report) - The war has not been economically ruinous. The bill for Iraq over the past five years is now approaching a cumulative $500 billion, or about $100 billion per year on average. My hypothetical estimate got the annual cost about right, but I misjudged an important factor: how long we would be involved.

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Energy bill: No fast fixes for rising fuel costs

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:58:07 -0800

Fortune - By Renuka Rayasam - Dec. 13 (News Report) - After months of wrangling, the Senate hammered out an energy bill Wednesday that includes a compromise on tax incentives for renewable energy. Despite small-business provisions remaining intact, the bill - scheduled for a Senate vote on Thursday - provides little relief to companies facing rising fuel costs.

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Beware our shadow banking system

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:10:46 -0800

Fortune - By Bill Gross - Nov. 28 (Opinion) - What we are witnessing is essentially the breakdown of our modern-day banking system, a complex of leveraged lending so hard to understand that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke required a face-to-face refresher course from hedge fund managers in mid-August.

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Jittery consumers seem likely to trigger a recession

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:39:03 -0800

Fortune - By Colin Barr - Nov. 26 (Special Report) - After years of living happily beyond their means, Americans are finally facing financial reality. A persistent rise in energy prices will mean bigger heating bills this winter and heftier tabs at the gas pump. Job growth is slowing and wage gains have been anemic. House prices are sliding, diminishing the value of the asset that's the biggest factor in Americans' personal wealth. Even the stock market, which has been resilient for so long in the face of eroding consumer sentiment, has begun pulling back amid signs of deep distress in the financial sector.

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Can the Washington Post survive?

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:43:57 -0700

Fortune - By Marc Gunther - Jul. 27 (News Report) - Can newspaper publishers turn the Internet from a threat into an opportunity - as Rupert Murdoch wants to do with his $5 billion bid to buy Dow Jones (Charts), owner of The Wall Street Journal? It's a long shot, but it's their only hope. Their plight is something not often seen in business: Newspapers remain important institutions, providing a valuable public service, but their business model is slowly, or maybe not so slowly, going away.

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