Money Talking

The odyssey of NSA leaker Edward Snowden has focused more on the where than the what in recent days, so it's easy to forget about what got him in hot water in the first place: Leaking the details of a secret government program that's tracking our digital info with the help of some of the biggest companies in tech. Privacy concerns are just one of the issues that tech powerhouses like Apple, Amazon and Google are facing these days.    Recently many American tech companies have faced scrutiny over factory conditions, tax avoidance and antitrust claims, among other issues.     This week on WNYC's Money Talking, host Charlie Herman speaks with regular contributor Rana Foroohar of Time magazine, who argues that the tech industry is in the middle of a shift where it could replace banking and finance as one of the most disliked industries in America.    Joining them is New Tech City host Manoush Zomorodi who weighs in on some of tech's recent PR debacles, including the revelations that companies have been providing information about users to the National Security Agency. 

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a lawsuit Thursday against former MF Global CEO John Corzine over his role in the loss of $1 billion in customer funds when the brokerage firm collapsed in late 2011. The action marks a new low for Corzine, a former U.S. Senator and Governor of New Jersey and former chief executive at one of the world's most powerful investment banks, Goldman Sachs. For the CFTC — a little-known agency beyond the boardrooms of Wall Street — it's another step toward greater recognition. In recent years, under its chief, Gary Gensler, the agency has taken a more visible role in regulating financial markets and is currently pushing to issue new regulations to regulate overseas derivatives trading. This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine weigh in on the significance of the charges against Corzine and Edith O'Brien, one of his colleagues at MF Global, as well as the future of the CFTC.

The Federal Reserve has kept interest rates low and taken other measures to stimulate the economy in recent years, but we've always known the extraordinary measures were not going to last forever. After this week's press conference, we now know when the Fed plans to change up its strategy. The Fed says if the unemployment rate keeps falling — it’s now at 7.6% — it will begin slowly winding down its programs later this year. This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Joe Nocera with the New York Times and Rana Foroohar with Time magazine discuss the Fed's next move.  They also discuss the SEC's attempt to stop the practice of companies settling accusations of wrongdoing by paying millions in fines without having to admit or deny whether they did anything wrong in the first place. 

The leaders of the United States and China recently met to try to improve relations between the two superpowers.  This week on WNYC's Money Talking, regular contributors Rana Foroohar with Time magazine and Joe Nocera with the New York Times report from China on their conversations with Chinese government officials and business leaders and what they say about how likely a new relationship really is.  Foroohar and Nocera are on a reporting trip to China organized by the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation.  Looking ahead, Nocera speaks about Edward Snowden, the suspected leaker in the NSA PRISM scandal, who is currently marooned in Hong Kong. Foroohar talks about how China will respond to pressure from the United States as China grows its own business intellectual property (IP).

This week in a courthouse in Manhattan, Apple is defending itself against federal charges that it colluded with the nation’s biggest publishers to raise the price of e-books. The case involves testimony from executives at Simon and Schuster and Penguin and emails from Steve Jobs, but another company forms the backdrop for the entire proceeding: Amazon. When Apple introduced its iPad in 2010, Amazon dominated the ebook market. Now Apple is taking the stand to say its actions were not illegal, but were instead an attempt to end Amazon’s virtual monopoly. This week on Money Talking, Joe Nocera with the New York Times and Diane Brady with Bloomberg Businessweek take a hard look at Amazon's hold on businesses from e-books to IT services to its most recent venture, delivering groceries in Los Angeles.

The stock market has been on a tear recently with one measure — the Dow Jones Industrial Average — up nearly 17 percent so far this year. The stratospheric rise makes you wonder whether the market can continue to set record highs or if the bottom is about to drop out.  This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Rana Foroohar with Time magazine and Joe Nocera with the New York Times weigh in on what these market conditions mean for investors and those considering investing. Then, Foroohar and Nocera discuss U.S-Chinese business relations on the heels of the announcement by the new Chinese president Xi Jinping that he wants to forge "a new type of great power relationship" between the two countries. Both Foroohar and Nocera are heading to China next week for a reporting trip with a group of journalists.

As we approach the summer, the economy is looking like it's doing better: unemployment is falling, stocks are rising and housing is looking better than ever. In the past few years, however, the economy has also been improving right until this point, and then it took a turn for the worse. Will the same happen in 2013? This week on Money Talking, regular contributor Rana Foroohar of Time magazine and Peter Fisher, senior director of the BlackRock Investment Institute, discuss whether the U.S. economy is truly in recovery.  They also weigh in on the Federal Reserve's recent policies of easy money and low interest rates. Looking forward, Fisher previews the University of Michigan consumer confidence survey, which will be released next Thursday. Foroohar examines the recession in Europe and the steps certain countries are taking to counteract its effects.

This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine weigh in on whether college is still worth the investment in this age of exorbitant tuition and skyrocketing debt. As college seniors graduate this month, they're starting their careers in a sluggish labor market where salaries have stagnated and even finding a job can be difficult.   As a result, some students and parents might be asking whether that college degree was really worth the cost. As higher education has gotten more expensive, total student debt has risen to more than a trillion dollars — second only to mortgage debt. The amount has nearly tripled since 2004.

Jamie Dimon, CEO and chairman of the nation's largest bank JPMorgan Chase, is facing criticism from prominent shareholders that could cost him his chairmanship.  Dimon has been called the "Last Man Standing" because he made it through the 2008 financial crisis with his reputation intact, but in a turn of events that verges on schadenfreude, he's under attack.  This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine discuss how JPMorgan's $6 billion "London Whale" trading debacle, multiple federal investigations of the bank's business practices and Dimon's own unapologetic demeanor are raising the hackles of some of JPMorgan's biggest backers.  Looking ahead, Nocera talks about the news that Jeffrey Skilling, the former president of Enron, was able to get 10 years cut from his sentence, meaning he'll be getting out of jail in 2017.  Foroohar talks about the Dow's record highs.

Money Talking host Charlie Herman and regular contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar with Time magazine tell us what they’re reading this weekend.   Charlie Herman will be reading "Robert Diamond's Next Life" by Andrew Ross Sorkin in this weekend's issue of the New York Times magazine, which is the Money issue. "Bob Diamond was the former CEO of Barclays who basically lost his job over the Libor scandal, and it's a great picture of him taking the subway to work like the rest of us schmoes. And it's a profile of him and sort of what his life is like now, post-losing this sort of pinnacle of British bankerdom." Rana Foroohar will be reading a recent study from the Brookings Institution on money and well-being. "One of the big pieces of conventional wisdom comes from an economist Richard Easterlin who in the seventies famously came up with this idea that basically once you hit a lower middle class level of income...you actually don't get any happier for making more money....Brookings has done another look at these numbers and they're saying actually, money does buy happiness." Joe Nocera will be reading "The Hunt for Steve Cohen" by Bethany McLean and Bryan Burrough in the June issue of Vanity Fair. "Bethany McLean has a co-authored piece in the current Vanity Fair about Stevie Cohen and SAC and the government's efforts to nail him for insider trading....I am avidly looking forward to reading this piece out of which I fully expect to finally understand what's going on with the federal government and SAC."

If you had $145 billion on hand, you'd spend some of it right? Well, if you’re Apple, not quite.  The company sold $17 billion worth of bonds this week as part of a plan to give back $100 billion to shareholders.   Essentially, Apple would rather use its credit card and take on debt, than use the money it has sitting in the bank. This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine discuss the implications of Apple's decision and what it says about America's corporate tax structure.  Looking ahead, Nocera previews the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting, which takes places May 4 in Omaha. Foroohar takes a look at the sequester's impact on the jobs number. 

Publicly traded companies may soon be required to disclose political donations if the Security and Exchange Commission accepts the arguments from investors, elected officials and several corporate and securities law experts. The SEC could make a decision as early as this month to change the rule, posing the first real test for Mary Jo White who was recently confirmed as chairwoman of the committee. This week on Money Talking, contributors Rana Foroohar of Time magazine and Joe Nocera of the New York Times discuss whether such a change would be good for business or if it's simply politics at play. Advocates of the disclosure say corporations should not be able to hide political donations from their shareholders. But opponents say the disclosure requirement is a bad idea. David Primo, a political science professor at the University of Rochester, told WNYC’s The Takeaway that corporate political spending does not pose any additional risk to a company beyond its day-to-day business.  Opponents also fear the rule will scare corporations from exercising their right to make political donations. “It could actually hurt shareholders if it leads to activism against corporations,” said Primo. Some companies already disclose their political spending. Activist shareholders, especially those entrusted with public pensions like New York’s Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, have been successful in getting companies to disclose their political spending even in the absence of any federal rule. Looking ahead, Foroohar is watching for the possibility of another bubble in the real estate market, in this case, the commercial market.  And Nocera is watching if states that approved the sale of marijuana will begin taxing it like cigarettes.  

There's been a lot of buzz about the comeback of manufacturing in the U.S. and the promise of new jobs. In the last three years alone, half a million jobs have already been created. Companies ranging from Apple to Walmart have announced plans to start making things here in the U.S., or are pledging to buy more products with the label "Made in America." The President believes the country can create a million manufacturing jobs in the next four years.  But will it be enough to replace the millions of jobs already lost, or the factories long since shut-down and moved overseas to China, Mexico and Vietnam? This week on Money Talking, contributors Rana Foroohar of Time magazine and Joe Nocera of the New York Times explain what the future of manufacturing will look like.  One word:  technology. Nocera recently went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to meet the people behind Spuni, an ergonomic baby spoon company.  Thanks to 3-D printing and crowdfunding, the company hopes it will soon be manufacturing several hundred thousands spoons.  "We can be sitting around table and say, 'Hey, this is an interesting idea, why is someone never done this before?' and literally three days later, we have the first prototype," said co-founder Trevor Hardy. Looking ahead, Foroohar discusses whether the boom in shale oil in the U.S. will create jobs and Nocera looks at who is going to buy the nation's largest gun maker Freedom Group.   Correction:  An earlier version of this story misspelled Trevor Hardy's last name.

Some of the most well-known companies in corporate America have recently landed at the center of some pretty rough and tumble fights between their board of directors and activist investors. This week on Money Talking, Rana Foroohar of Time magazine and Steve Bertoni of Forbes magazine discuss why there appears to be a sudden surge in shareholder activism and what it means for the company, the investors and the economy. These investors, people like Carl Icahn, David Einhorn and Daniel Loeb, have been challenging businesses like Apple, Dell and Yahoo on issues ranging from how the companies spend their cash reserves to how much they are worth. These kinds of shareholders may not have a seat on the board of directors, but they purchase a large enough amount of stock in order to push for major changes in the company. In March, shareholder opposition to the $24.4 billion buyout of Dell by its CEO, Michael Dell, ramped up when Icahn joined the fight and made his own bid to buy out the company. Einhorn, a hedge fund manager and president of Greenlight Capital, criticized Apple for holding on to too much cash and pressured the company to issue new stock. Apple CEO Tim Cook is now reportedly considering what to do with the company’s surplus.

Look out iPhone. You've got (even more) competition. Facebook launched new software Thursday called "Home" that will put the social media company front and center on phones that use the Android operating system. Meanwhile, Samsung announced plans to open 1400 mini-stores inside Best Buy stores to compete with Apple stores. It's the biggest step the South Korean electronics maker has taken as it encroaches on Apple's dominance in the United States. This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine examine the battle for mobile market share among tech giants like Google, Facebook, Apple and Samsung.  Looking ahead, Foroohar discusses the economic ramifications of the sequester and Nocera talks about the business implications of the Rutgers basketball scandal.