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

When Good Things Happen To Bad People: Disturbing News About Workplace Bullies

As if life isn’t unfair enough for the alarming number of people who are bullied at work—or otherwise adversely affected by such behavior—recent research suggests that a lot of workplace bullies achieve high levels of career success. In fact, their bullying and on-the-job achievements might just be related.That’s according to a new study (“Political Skill and the Job Performance of Bullies”) in th

14 Simple Ways to Get Considerably More Done

Car Sharing: Future Looks Bright, Even With Some Cloudy Legal Issues

There’s just no stopping the sharing. Despite recent legal challenges to certain “peer to peer” car-sharing services, the range of sharing options keeps on expanding, making it easier and easier for consumers to skip taxis, traditional car rentals — and car ownership in general. Last week was quite the roller-coaster ride for peer-to-peer car-sharing service RelayRides. First, the company, which a

Gambling on Tumblr: Marissa Mayer’s Billion-Dollar Bet to Make Yahoo Cool

What’s the price of “cool”? For Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, the number appears to be $1.1 billion. That’s how much cash Yahoo plans to pay for New York–based social-blogging platform Tumblr, according to multiple reports. Yahoo’s board approved the transaction on Sunday, and an announcement is expected on Monday, according to AllThingsD. Although $1.1 billion seems like a massive amount to pay for a

Republicans Seem to Be Out of Economic Ideas — Here Are Two Suggestions

If you think about thrift as a moral quality, it’s easy to understand why Republicans have gotten things so wrong in terms of macroeconomic policy over the past few years. Austerity, after all, has a folksy and intuitive appeal, the idea being that you can’t cure debt with more debt. No household could — and why shouldn’t the government be run like a stable household, never borrowing what it can’t

How Much Will a Legal Marijuana Habit Cost You?

If you’re an average pot smoker in Colorado — paying average prices for average-quality marijuana — you can expect to spend around $650 on weed next year. A study conducted by the Colorado Futures Center at Colorado State University aimed to get to the bottom of how much the state can expect to collect in tax revenue, now that marijuana is legal. By doing a little extra math, we can get a rough es

U.S. Gas Prices Up 11 Cents Over Past 2 Weeks

(CAMARILLO, Calif.) — The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 11 cents over the past two weeks. The Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday says the price of a gallon of regular is $3.66. Midgrade costs an average of $3.84 a gallon, and premium is $3.98. Diesel held steady at $3.93 gallon. Of the cities surveyed in the lower 48 states, Tucson, Ariz., has the nation’s lowes

Yahoo Acquires Tumblr: Initial Reactions From Around the Web

Tumblr seemed to be playing hard-to-get for a little while, but no longer: Yahoo has approved a $1.1 billion deal to purchase the hip social-blogging platform. According to All Things D, the tech giant’s board unanimously approved the all-cash deal on Sunday, although it won’t be officially announced until Monday. In the meantime, the news is, of course, making the rounds on the Web, and plenty of

Report: Yahoo Nearing $1.1B Acquisition of Tumblr

(NEW YORK) — Yahoo may be on the verge of closing its biggest acquisition during the 10-month reign of CEO Marissa Mayer as she tries to attract more traffic and advertisers to the Internet company’s website and mobile applications. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company’s board of directors will meet Sunday evening to consider approving a $1.1 billion acquisition of online content-sharing site Tumblr in

Slices of History: Great Moments in Pizza Innovation

Pizza has reached a new pinnacle. It’s available in more places, and in weirder and more wonderful varieties, than ever before. And we’re scarfing it down: The research firm Technomic estimates that Americans eat 350 slices per second, and that more than four in 10 of us now munch on pizza at least once a week. Read on for a brief look back at some of the big innovations that have helped pizza bec

5 Tech Stocks You Should Have Bought Instead of Facebook

Facebook’s intensely hyped initial public offering one year ago today was supposed to be a triumphant moment for Silicon Valley and Wall Street. After years of buildup and a valuation that had ballooned to $100 billion, ordinary investors would finally get the chance to own a slice of the hottest tech company on the planet. In the weeks leading up to the IPO, many tech experts — including some of

Weak Financial Literacy Scores Threaten a Global Education Movement

The global movement to teach kids about money in school has produced little hard evidence that the effort is paying off. That doesn’t mean it’s all been a waste of time, or that we’ll never get the results we want. But it certainly gives doubters ammunition. In a series of financial literacy tests dating to 1997, the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy has found that young people’s

Report: Yahoo! Board Approves Billion-Dollar Tumblr Deal

Updated May 19, 1 p.m. EST: AllThingsD reports that the Yahoo! board has unanimously approved a deal to purchase Tumblr for $1.1 billion. More updates to follow. Updated May 17, 8:20 p.m. EST: Yahoo!’s board plans to meet Sunday to decide whether to approve a $1.1 billion all-cash offer for New York-based social blogging platform Tumblr, AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka reported late Frid

Unemployment Falls in 40 U.S. States, Rises in 3

(WASHINGTON) — Solid hiring helped lower unemployment rates in 40 U.S. states last month, the most since November. The declines show the job market is improving throughout most of the country. The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates increased in only three states: Louisiana, Tennessee and North Dakota. Rates were unchanged in seven states. California, New York and South Carolina a

Give Feedback That Crosses Cultures

Giving critical feedback is an essential part of a manager’s job. But people in Shanghai don’t provide feedback in the same way as people in Strasbourg or Stockholm, so how can do your job when you’re working across cultures? Here are three tips: Learn the new rules. Read up on the values, beliefs, and assumptions people generally hold about social interactions in this region. Observe it in action

Money Talking: Is College Worth It?

Should some college-bound students opt for a two-year degree at a technical school? Will an education give you a better life? Money Talking digs into the tough questions in the debate over the high cost of higher education and the mounting student debt that’s one of its byproducts. The central question: Is college worth it?