Teens Tire of Facebook—But Not Enough to Log Off

Has Facebook lost its cool? That’s a question TIME posed earlier this year to dozens of teenagers, who mostly insisted that newer social networks like Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter were more engaging, even if (and partially because) everyone they knew in real life wasn’t on them. Now, a new study by the Pew Research Center has confirmed that teens are growing a bit weary of the world’s largest so

Sorry Paul Tudor Jones: It’s Male — Not Female — Traders We Should Be Worried About

Reading hedge fund giant Paul Tudor Jones’ recent comments that having babies makes women bad traders reminded me of a close friend of mine, a very senior investment banker at a major Wall Street firm, who once worked for someone she called “The Screamer.” I would regularly show up to lunches or dinners with my friend and hear stories about how The Screamer had shouted yet another round of expleti

‘Big Gas Savings’: Kmart’s Funny Followup to the Viral ‘Ship My Pants’ Ad

Kmart surprised consumers everywhere recently with the “Ship My Pants” ad, a viral juvenile-humor hit viewed more than 17 million times on YouTube since being released in April. Now, the all-purpose discount retailer appears to have struck goofy gold yet again, with an online ad promoting Kmart’s “big gas savings.” Say either phrase quickly — “ship my pants,” “big gas savings” — and you get the jo

Drive for Free? Deals on Electric Cars Keep on Coming

For many consumers, electric vehicle ownership has been a nonstarter for purely financial reasons. The math indicated that the money one saved in gas from an EV was usually outweighed by the car’s high initial price. But the math has been changing. The financial argument for buying an electric car is getting a lot more compelling lately, thanks to special lease deals from manufacturers and generou

U.S. Durable Goods Orders Rise 3.3 Percent in April

(WASHINGTON) — U.S. orders for long-lasting manufactured goods rebounded in April, buoyed by more demand for aircraft and stronger business investment. The gains suggest economic growth may be holding steady this spring. Orders for durable goods, items expected to last at least three years, rose 3.3 percent last month from March, the Commerce Department said Friday. That followed a 5.9 decline in

Money Talking: Where’s the Economy Headed This Summer?

Is the U.S. back? That’s the big question in the global economy right now. Earlier this week, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that he’d be tiptoeing away from the Fed’s asset buying program, perhaps as early as the fall, since the U.S. economy was showing signs of recovery. That news, along with weaker than expected Chinese growth data, helped send Japan’s Nikkei stock market index

Google Faces Fresh U.S. Scrutiny Over Market Power

Google just can’t seem to keep “the man” off its back. It’s only been a few months since Google walked away from a multi-year federal antitrust investigation into its search practices, with the legal equivalent of a slap on the wrist. Now, Google is said to be facing another antitrust probe, this time into its dominant position in the market for online display advertising. The Federal Trade Commis

Lyft-Off: Car-Sharing Start-Up Raises $60 Million Led by Andreessen Horowitz

Popular car-sharing start-up Lyft has raised $60 million in a major new round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, the influential Silicon Valley venture-capital firm started by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen. The new funding comes as the ride-sharing market is exploding, with upstart firms like Lyft, Uber and SideCar leveraging smartphone technology to provide alternatives to traditional t

Japan Market Crash: A Slow Leak in the “Central Bank Bubble”

There’s a truism in investing that the last one into a market is the first one out. And that certainly seems to be the case today, with Japan’s Nikkei index crashing off the back of two things: First, hints from the Federal Reserve that the U.S. economy is improving enough to justify a slow pull-back from the central bank’s market-goosing asset buying program known as “quantitative easing;” and se

Get a Job Offer from a Stranger

A good network is important when searching for a job. But if you don’t already know the right people, you need to expand your reach. People you don’t know yet can be just as helpful as those you do. Here’s how: Define your professional goals. Write down your objectives and make sure you can tell a cohesive story about yourself and where you’re headed. Cast a wide but focused net. Scour LinkedIn, c

Photo Shoot Your Way to Sales Growth

The way you visually represent your company can affect your sales growth. We look at how using original photography makes a big difference in your bottom line. If you want to differentiate your business from your competition, then look no further than the images on your company website. Stock photography litters the Internet, and often the same generic models-as-business-people smile out from comp

The Consumer Psychology Behind Warby Parker’s $95 Pricing for Eyeglasses

US Unemployment Aid Applications Fall to 340K

(WASHINGTON) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell by 23,000 last week, further evidence that the job market is slowly returning to health. Applications for unemployment aid declined to a seasonally adjusted 340,000 in the week ending May 18, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s down from 363,000 the previous week and a level consistent with solid job gains. The l

‘Loser’ No More: Tesla Repays $465 Million U.S. Loan

Tesla Motors has done right by U.S. taxpayers. The fast-growing electric car company has repaid the entire $465 million loan it received from the U.S. Department of Energy, in a vindication for company co-founder Elon Musk, the billionaire mogul and rocket-ship enthusiast. The loan repayment, made nine years ahead of schedule, was completed Wednesday when Tesla wired $451.8 million to the federal

How ‘Extreme Couponing’ Is Ruining Coupons

It always seemed mind-bogglingly difficult to achieve the kinds of savings portrayed on the TLC show “Extreme Couponing.” Thanks to tougher supermarket policies and the proliferation of less valuable coupons, extreme savings through coupons seems downright impossible. The best coupons have two key features: They offer discounts on the products you like and would be buying anyway, and the discounts

The Next Real Estate Bubble Has Already Begun (But It’s Not What You Think)

The American public is, for obvious reasons, a bit gun-shy when it comes to asset bubbles. Ever since the financial crisis, market watchers have worried about bubbles in the stock market, in high yield debt, and even the reinflation of the real estate bubble. The latest asset class to receive worried attention from policy makers? Farmland. That’s right, according to The Financial Times prices on U

Memorial Day Gas Prices: After Wild Ride, About Where We Were Last Year

Memorial Day weekend, known not only as a time for hitting the road but also the kickoff to the summer road trip season, has always been regarded as a key moment for gas prices. This year, the national average for a gallon of regular is almost exactly the same as it was for Memorial Day 2012. And yet, for the past two years, the periods leading up to Memorial Day couldn’t be more different. In 201

Bernanke’s Dilemma: No Good Moves Left

There’s a term in chess called zugzwang, which describes the point in a game when it’s your turn to move but every move you could make would worsen your situation. That’s pretty much what the chessboard looked like for Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke when he testified before Congress this morning. What everyone most wants to know is when the Fed is going to start tapering off its bond-buying

Theme Park Inflation: Universal Orlando Becomes First to Cross $90 Admission Mark

It’s become an annual springtime tradition. Each year around Memorial Day, some theme park—likely in central Florida—jacks up ticket prices by a few bucks, prompting the competition to follow suit with their own price hikes. This year, like last, it’s Universal Studios Orlando leading the charge. Toward the end of May 2012, the company raised its single-day admission to $88, up from $85, making Un

JetBlue Proves There’s a Reasonable Way to Hit Us With Fees

You know the drill: An airline hikes its fees, and within seconds travelers vent their outrage in response. JetBlue shows that it doesn’t have to be this way. When United Airlines raised its ticket change fee to $200 (up from $150) a few weeks ago, the masses grumbled in here-we-go-again exasperation, in full expectation that the competition would follow suit with fee hikes of their own. Sure enou

Oklahoma’s Dangerous Dearth of Storm Cellars

UPDATED 5/22/13 12:30 pm The deadly tornadoes that struck outside Oklahoma City on Monday have a lot of people asking why there aren’t more storm cellars and safe rooms in the area, which would have enabled more residents to shelter safely. Glenn Lewis, the mayor of devastated Moore, Oklahoma, said today that he wants to pass a law requiring either tornado shelters or safe rooms in new homes. ”We’

The Unspeakably Wonky Idea That Can Solve the Corporate Tax Debate

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul isn’t happy that Apple executives are being questioned by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations today regarding their tax avoidance strategies. Apple is completely justified, Paul argued, in paying as little in taxes as is legally acceptable. ”Instead of Apple executives we should have brought in here a giant mirror,” he said. “”Congress should be on trial

Banking on Business Growth

Your banker can make a big difference in your long-term business success. Is yours working hard for you? The right partnerships can play a big role in the success or failure of a business, so enter into any partnership with an eye toward how it can advance your goals. Choose a bank the same way, not because it’s next door and you’ve always gone there. Finding the right bank for your needs doesn’t

JPMorgan’s Dimon Survives Shareholder Referendum

(TAMPA, Fla.) — Shareholders at JPMorgan Chase will let Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO, keep both his jobs. At the bank’s annual meeting, 32 percent of shareholders voted for a measure that would have required the bank to split the roles. Had the measure succeeded, Dimon would have had to relinquish the role of chairman. Shareholder groups lobbying for the split gained momentum from last year’s

Focus Your Business Pitch on Yourself, Not Your Plan

Potential investors and partners are often more interested in an entrepreneur as a person than in the business plan. That document is important, but be sure to also show these three characteristics: Passion and purpose. Investors want to know if you’re the right person for this idea. Make your personal connection to the business you’re launching clear. Resilience. The road to building a business i

Inside Yahoo!’s Tumblr Deal: Here’s Who Hit the Billion Dollar Jackpot

It will likely be years before we know if Yahoo!’s blockbuster $1.1 billion deal to buy social blogging platform Tumblr was a success. But 24-hours after the deal was officially announced, a few things are certain: The deal represents a landmark event for New York City‘s tech startup scene, and a handful of Tumblr employees and investors are now extremely wealthy. Here’s a quick breakdown of the b

It’s Official: Tech Has Replaced Banking as the New Corporate Bad Guy

U.S. senators have accused Apple, the world’s most valuable company, of also being the world’s biggest tax avoider, as congressional investigators yesterday laid out how the technology giant has jumped through tax loophole after loophole in order to save some $44 billion of otherwise taxable income. Today they’ll follow up by grilling Apple CEO Tim Cook on Capitol Hill. Aside from the fact that Ap

Apology Not Accepted: The Right — and Wrong — Way to Say You’re Sorry

A great deal has been written about Harvard University professor Niall Ferguson’s controversial comments about the late economist John Maynard Keynes. (The short version: Keynesian economic theory, Ferguson suggested, is flawed because Keynes himself was gay and childless — and consequently blind to the dangerous long-term consequences of his own ideas.) The statement itself has been pretty exhaus

The $7,000 Computer Science Degree — and the Future of Higher Education

While a new report puts the average debt load of new college grads at a stomach-churning $35,200, the Georgia Institute of Technology is rolling out an alternative program experts say offers a beacon of hope for both students and employers: A three-year master’s degree in computer science that can be earned entirely online — and that will cost less than $7,000. The school is partnering with Udacit

Apple’s Cook to Face Senate Questions on Taxes

(WASHINGTON) — A Senate panel says Apple Inc. is avoiding paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes, but the world’s most valuable company says it is complying with the laws and pays “an extraordinary amount” in taxes to the U.S. government. Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook is scheduled to testify Tuesday on Capitol Hill to explain the company’s tax strategy. (VIDEO: Costly Coffee Date with Apple CEO Tim Co