Economy
As the Federal Reserve came under increasing scrutiny by outraged lawmakers and the public in recent years, it hired a lobbyist to defend its controversial secrecy and produced propaganda-filled comic books aimed at young children. It even sought to develop a tool to spy on concerned citizens over the Internet.
Goldman Sachs Corporation is facing a new wave of charges of not looking out for the interests of its clients this week, as one corporate vice president published a resignation March 14 letter in the New York Times and the company agreed March 13 to pay a $7 million fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Goldman Sachs stock took a hit on the two-pronged attack March 14, losing $2.2 billion in stock value with a three-percent plunge, though the stock recovered significantly the next day.
Encyclopædia Britannica’s president Jorge Cauz (left) announced on Tuesday that his company would no longer print its 129-pound, 32-volume sets of its iconic print encyclopedias. He put the best face possible on the decision:
Everyone will want to call this the end of an era, and I understand that. But there’s no sad moment for us. I think outsiders are more nostalgic about the books that I am…
The print set is an icon. But it’s an icon that doesn’t do justice to how much we’ve changed over the years.
In an economic transaction, who should be the one saying thank you — the buyer or the seller? Or in an employment relationship, who should be thanking the other — the employer or the employee?
Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C., left) introduced the Energy Freedom & Economic Prosperity Act (EFEPA) in February and then offered his bill as an amendment to the Transportation Bill last week. Had it passed it would have eliminated all energy tax credits not only for wind, solar, biomass and biofuels but for coal, oil and natural gas as well. Said DeMint:
