Vatican Releases Findings From Watchdog Agency
The Vatican is continuing its mission to be more translucent in their financial workings by releasing the findings of their new business regulator agency on Wednesday. The report showed that there had been six reports of questionable financial activity. Two of these reports were sent on to Vatican prosecutors to examine further.
While listing these actions, the report doesn’t discuss any administrative activities that will be done throughout 2012. The agency was created by the Vatican to help repair their reputation [...]
Web Developers are In Demand
Web developer jobs are growing, thanks to a salary of about $30 dollars an hour and the fact that it doesn’t always require a bachelor’s degree. Companies are unable to hire all the employees necessary to meet the requests for workers.
College programs are finding it difficult to train their students for jobs in the web and mobile development field because these fields are changing too quickly. “If somebody wants to get into this job, it just doesn’t make sense to [...]
Yahoo Purchases Tumblr
Yahoo has reportedly signed a deal to purchase the blogging site, Tumblr, for $1.1 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Yahoo board has approved the deal. It is also believed that the company will be announcing the news at an event in New York City on Monday.
The acquisition is one of the many new moves made by Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer during her first year in the position. Some of her previous changes have included a revitalized Yahoo [...]
Citigroup CEO steps down despite recent company gains
Citigroup’s CEO Vikran Pandit has announced that he will be stepping down from his position after serving in it for five years. He will be replaced by Michael Corbat, who has worked for Citigroup for 29 years. This comes as a surprise to many since Citigroup recently had a particularly strong financial quarterly report. The resignation comes in the wake of Citigroup shareholders voting against Pandit’s 15$ million pay package. Pandit’s salary has been a point of contention between shareholders and [...]
Middle class families in America continue to fall behind
The middle class, more than 70 percent of America’s driving force, is struggling to survive and shrinking before our eyes, according to the Pew Research Center on Wednesday. “America’s middle class has endured its worst decade in modern history,” the reports said. “It has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some — but by no means all — of its characteristic faith in the future.”
Pew surveyed 2,500 people and 85% of those people [...]
Apple’s stock set all time high
Apple’s shares set yet another all-time high on Friday on emerging expectations for an upcoming wave of new gadgets. Apple’s stock reached $644.13, beating the previous high set in April. Its shares blew through a series of record highs in the first four months of year, but leveled in May after Apple reported that its iPhone sales had plateaued.
Apple, the most valuable company in the world, announced the anticipated September launch of the new iPhone, which lifted its stock [...]
Facebook stock closes nearly 50 percent below IPO
Social media giant Facebook closed its stock at $19.87 on Thursday, which is the first day the social network’s “lockup” expired for early investors, allowing them to sell their stakes. Analyst initially expected that early investors and employees would sell their shares and become millionaires or billionaires. Facebook’s stock has now fallen nearly 50 percent below its initial public offering, which was priced at $38 while stock opened at $42.05 in May.
Since its IPO on May 18, Facebook has [...]
Wall Street gets ready to lay-off more workers
Financial firms on Wall Street cut more than 75,000 people in 2011, and their employees are preparing to layoff another round of people. Analysts on Wall Street estimate that banks will have roughly 10 percent to 15 percent fewer employees in the beginning of 2013 than they did at the start of 2012.
“Firms believe that their costs are way too high,” said Alan Johnson, CEO of compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates. “I tell my clients we’re not in a [...]
Freddie Mac posts income of $1.2B
The government-controlled mortgage giant, Freddie Mac, posted its net income of $1.2 billion for the second quarter. Freddie Mac and its larger sibling Fannie Mae were rescued by the government in September 2008 after substantial losses on risky mortgages threatened the companies’ collapse.
American taxpayers have spent nearly $170 billion to save Freddie and Fannie, which was the most expensive bailout in the 2008 financial crisis. It could reportedly cost taxpayers $200 billion more to support the mortgage giants through [...]
July Jobs Report: U.S. adds 163,000 jobs, unemployment ticks up at 8.3 percent
The American economy continued its slowly but surely upward slope from the depths of the Great Recession by adding 163,000 jobs in July, the Department of Labor said on Friday. The number is in comparison to June’s 64,000 jobs. The economy is now producing as more goods and services than it did before the downturn officially began in December 2007, albeit it does so with almost five million fewer jobs.
The pace at which the economy has been adding jobs [...]
Apple, Samsung battle in court over iPhone, iPad
Two technology giants will battle in federal court on Monday in a highly observed trial over control of the U.S. smartphone and computer tablet markets. Apple Inc., the world’s most valuable company, filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co. in 2011, alleging the world’s largest technology company’s smartphones and computer tablets are illegal knockoffs of its very popular iPhone and iPad products. The California based company is demanding $2.5 billion in damages.
Samsung argues that Apple is stealing and that some [...]
Facebook public earnings lower than expected
Facebook’s shares dived to an all-time low in after hours trading after the company’s first quarterly earnings report failed to impress investors. The social networking giant’s shares fell more than 10 percent to around $24, almost 40 percent below the company’s initial public offering price. However, Mark Zuckerberg’s company beat analysts’ revenues expectations faintly and earnings matched forecasts, but it was not enough for Wall Street.
The company continues to post strong growth with $10 billion in cash to end [...]