Money Talking

Across the country, home prices are up, foreclosures are down and mortgage rates are unbelievably low. The inventory of homes is also low, which means it's hard for buyers to find the right place. The New York City metro area is right in line with those trends. Whether it's a two-bedroom on the Upper West Side, a brownstone in Carroll Gardens or a split-level in Northern New Jersey, buyers lured by the healthy housing market are nevertheless struggling to find a home. "We're seeing inventory falling over the last couple of years. This is a national trend, not just in New York," said real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel.  But, as you might expect, the New York market does have some of its own dynamics thanks to the large number of wealthy individuals who live here.  "Last week, I was fortunate enough to get four offers. Three of those four offers were all cash. There is a lot of cash in the New York area," says Brian Lewis, executive vice president at Halstead Property, LLC.  This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine weigh in on whether the recent upswing in the housing market is sustainable and a sign of a true recovery. Looking ahead, Foroohar and Nocera examine the future of J.P. Morgan Chase and the bank's CEO Jamie Dimon. 

Money Talking host Charlie Herman and regular contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine tell us what they're reading this weekend.  Charlie Herman is reading Jon Lee Anderson's article in the New Yorker, "How We Forgot Iraq."  "He wrote about the build up to the war in Iraq ten years ago, he was in Iraq during the fighting."  Herman adds, "I'm curious to see him recapture the mood and what's actually happened in Iraq ten years later." Rana Foroohar will be reading the article "The Modern King in the Arab Spring" by Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic about Jordan's King Abdullah.  "OMG.  He trashes everybody," says Foroohar referring to the king.  She adds, "All these thought bubbles that you always imagine must be in leaders' heads, suddenly they're on the page." Joe Nocera also plans to read the Atlantic. He's checking out the cover story, "The Touch-Screen Generation" by Hanna Rosen.  "Hanna Rosen comes away very skeptical, or at least appears to be skeptical, ultimately, about whether these apps are good for children or not."

For years, politicians have called for the nation to end its dependence on foreign oil.  That time could be fast approaching. This week, the Energy Information Administration forecast that the U.S. is expected to produce more oil than it imports for the first time since 1995.  Most of the increase will come from shale fields in North Dakota and Texas. The news comes after earlier reports that the U.S. could produce more oil than Saudi Arabia by 2020. This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Rana Foroohar of Time magazine and Joe Nocera of the New York Times join WNYC's Business Editor Charlie Herman to assess just how the nation is becoming more energy independent and what it means for the economy.  Also, with the U.S. consuming less foreign oil and other countries like China picking up the slack, how will that change global alliances.   Looking ahead, Foroorhar is keeping a close eye on what happens to the stalled bailout of the island nation of Cyprus.  Nocera, on the other hand, is watching what happens to J.C. Penney's CEO Ron Johnson as he tries to fix the ailing retailer.  

Over his 11 years as mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg has pushed for economic development, immigration reform, public health initiatives and gun control, among other issues.  After a judge blocked his administration's ban on sugary beverages this week, Bloomberg quickly arranged a press conference where he defended the policy.  "I’m trying to do what’s right. I have to defend my children and you and everybody else to save lives," he said. "Obesity kills. There’s just no question about it." Bloomberg has fewer than 300 days left at City Hall, and the roadblock on sweetened drinks means he may not have time to implement one of the biggest public health initiatives he's pushed for during his tenure.  It also raises the question of his legacy.  This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Rana Foroohar of Time magazine and Joe Nocera of the New York Times assess the economic impact of Bloomberg's policies and discuss how he might put his clout and $27 billion fortune to work after he leaves office. Looking ahead, Foroohar talks about the news that former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is writing a book about his experience during the financial crisis.  Nocera examines how March Madness brings the NCAA hundreds of millions of dollars in just a few short weeks. 

Pattie Sellers has spent years reporting on some of the most powerful women in corporate America as an editor-at-large at Fortune and as the executive director of the magazine's Most Powerful Women Summit. When the summit began in 1998, there was only one female Fortune 500 CEO on the list.  Today, there are 21 at companies like IBM, HP, Kraft and Lockheed Martin. As a part of WNYC's Money Talking, Sellers talks with WNYC business and economics editor Charlie Herman about the new book from Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg, Lean-In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, and where women now stand on the corporate ladder. Sandberg argues that women need to be more assertive in their careers. To help them, she's launched a new venture and is promoting "Lean In Circles" for women to support one another. "You can create a social movement globally if you are Sheryl Sandberg, the most powerful woman in Silicon Valley, who is the number two at the world's largest social networking company, who knows everyone, who can get anyone and everyone to come her book party," Sellers said.  

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wants to start a women's movement around her forthcoming book Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead.  Women earn more college degrees than men, but they hold just 14 percent of C-suite jobs in corporate America, according to Sandberg, a percentage that has not changed much in 10 years. "They start leaning back," Sandberg said in a pre-released clip from a 60 Minutes interview airing Sunday. "They say, 'Oh, I'm busy. I want to have a child one day, I couldn't possibly take on any more.' Or, 'I'm still learning on my current job.' I've never had a man say that stuff to me." Sandberg has started a non-profit called Lean In to promote the message that women should not curb their ambition when it comes to moving up the corporate ladder. The book will be published March 11, but it has already sparked a national conversation about women and workplace equality. Sandberg will appear in 60 Minutes and was profiled in Time: "Confidence Woman." Her book has also drawn criticism from some of the very women she is trying to help.  "I think it’s quite bullying to say that the onus is on women to change the nature of the workplace today, and that it’s up to us to step up," Rachael Ellison, founder of REworking Parents, told WNYC's New Tech City. This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Rana Foroohar of Time magazine and Joe Nocera of the New York Times wade into the debate over the merits of Sandberg's argument that women need to lean in to get ahead.  They also examine the role that the economy plays when it comes to career choices for women and men.  Looking ahead, Nocera looks at news that Time Warner will spin off its magazines into a separate publicly traded company by the end of the year. Foroohar talks about Friday's jobs report.

A month ago, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 14,000 for the first time since 2007, and it has continued to hover around that mark.  At the same time, the economy is limping along, and the massive federal spending cuts known as "the sequester" that go into effect Friday could make things worse. This week on Money Talking, regular contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine discuss whether the disconnect between the stock market and the real economy means a market bubble in the making.  Plus, there’s been a lot of criticism of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's decision telling telecommuting workers to return to the office, but some (including Mayer herself) have argued that the new policy is about changing the company's culture to make Yahoo more innovative and successful.  Money Talking asks: Will the no-telecommuting policy hamper or help Yahoo as it attempts to regain dominance among other tech giants like Google and Facebook?

President Obama did not mention Wall Street or financial regulation during his State of the Union address.  This week on WNYC's Money Talking, former FDIC chairman Sheila Bair and regular contributor Joe Nocera join host Charlie Herman for a discussion of what that might mean for banking regulation during the president's second term.  Bair currently serves as a Senior Advisor to the Pew Charitable Trusts and is the author of the book Bull by the Horns, her account of the financial crisis. Nocera and Bair also weigh in on "too big to fail" and whether Wall Street has changed since the Great Recession.    Looking ahead, Nocera talks about Google Glass and Bair about whether we can expect to see the reform of the securitization market. 

President Obama's surprise call for a minimum wage hike during his State of the Union address Tuesday seems to have the entire nation pondering the same question: What should the minimum wage be? The president wants the federal minimum wage to go from $7.25 to $9 an hour to help lift millions of Americans out of poverty.  Not all economists, however, agree that it will have that effect on the country's economy.   This week on WNYC's Money Talking, contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine discuss what an increase could mean for employment, worker productivity, poverty and income inequality in the United States.  As a map from the U.S. Department of Labor shows, the minimum wage depends on where you live. The city of San Francisco currently has the highest rate in the country: $10.55 an hour. In New York City and state, workers earning the minimum wage make the federal rate of $7.25 an hour. Several New Yorkers WNYC asked thought the current minimum wage and even the President's proposal were far too low.  "I think it should be more than $9. Nobody can live on $9. Maybe $12," said Sharon Vassell, an office manager in Manhattan. "That would be a good minimum wage." Of course, small business owners have a different take because they worry rising wages will hit their bottom line.   What do you think the minimum wage should be and why? Tell us in the comments section below or tweet us: @MoneyTalking.  Also in this week's episode, a discussion of the recent spate of high-profile mergers and acquisitions, including the proposed $24 billion buyout of Dell.

American manufacturing got some much-needed buzz when Apple CEO Tim Cook announced in December that a line of Macs will be made in the U.S.A. in 2013.  Walmart made news the next month when it pledged to purchase an additional $50 billion of products made in the United States over the next five years. So, all this insourcing is a good thing, right? Well, not so fast.  Factors like the rising cost of labor in China, high-tech robotic automation, and 3D printing may be bringing some manufacturing operations back to the United States, but it's not a guarantee of more jobs for American workers. This week on Money Talking, contributors Rana Foroohar of Time magazine and Joe Nocera of the New York Times discuss the future of American manufacturing and whether it's likely to create the number of jobs that President Obama has promised.  "We can create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years," Mr. Obama said at the Democratic National Convention in September.  Looking ahead, Foroohar explains so-called "currency wars" and why the United States, Japan and other countries want their currencies to stay low.  Nocera takes a look at likely nomination for Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, a major fundraiser for President Obama in 2008.

The push for immigration reform got a shot in the arm this week when a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators released a comprehensive proposal that would provide a path to citizenship for the country's 11 million undocumented workers.  The announcement Monday came a day before President Obama pitched his own plan.  "We have an immigration system that is out of date and badly broken, a system that’s holding us back instead of helping us grow our economy and strengthen our middle class," Mr. Obama said in a speech at a Nevada high school Tuesday.  In this episode of Money Talking, Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine examine the economic case for immigration reform, which has been made by researchers, business leaders and elected officials of every political persuasion. The most recent attempt at comprehensive immigration reform ended abruptly in June 2007 when President George W. Bush's proposals failed to pass the Senate.  A few weeks earlier, the Congressional Budget Office found that legalizing undocumented immigrants would have a slight net benefit on the federal budget, increasing revenues by $48 billion while costing just $23 billion in increased public services. Nocera and Foroohar explain what this year's proposed reforms would mean for wages and benefits, entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security, consumer prices and the economy as a whole. Looking ahead, Nocera previews the future for aerospace giant Boeing Co. as it struggles to roll out its 787 Dreamliner, the high-tech jet that has been held up by supply chain issues and malfunctions of its lithium-ion batteries.  Foroohar talks about how General Electric is forging new ground when it comes to wiring appliances and even jet engines with sensors so they can transmit information to people and other machines. It's known as the Industrial Internet. 

CEOs, political leaders and even a few celebrities are meeting to rub elbows and discuss the world’s biggest political and economic challenges this week at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This year's theme: "Resilient Dynamism." This week on Money Talking, contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine weigh in on whether Davos matters.  Foroohar, who is in Davos, reports on what world leaders like Germany's Angela Merkel, Italy's Mario Monti and Britain's David Cameron are saying when they take the stage. Nocera responds to a Bloomberg News poll of global investors that found the top risk to global economic growth is not Europe's shaky finances, but budget discord in the United States. Plus, a look back at the tenure of U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and what lies ahead for his likely successor, President Obama's chief of staff Jacob Lew.

Today is the deadline to submit claims for a piece of the $25 billion mortgage settlement state attorneys general reached with the five largest mortgage servicers in February 2012.  Anyone who lost a home to foreclosure when dealing with Ally Bank (formerly GMAC), Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase or Wells Fargo from 2008 through 2011 can apply. It's not to be confused with the recent $8.5 billion settlement announced between the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the federal government's chief regulator of banks, and 10 financial institutions. This week on WNYC's Money Talking, Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine weigh in on whether the settlements between banks and regulators and Attorneys General adequately addressed the foreclosure mess of the past several years.

Congress narrowly avoided the fiscal cliff, but now lawmakers face a three-pronged problem that some in Washington say makes the fiscal cliff look like a cakewalk.  Lawmakers must lift the debt ceiling before the government defaults on its debts on March 1. They also need to review mandatory cuts to military and domestic spending, known as the sequester. Finally, they need to approve funding for government operations in order to prevent a shutdown.  Erskine Bowles, the chairman of the National Commission on Responsibility and Reform, calls it the "triple fiscal fiasco." "These deficits of over a trillion dollars a year, they are like a cancer, and it's a cancer that's going to destroy our country from within," Bowles said at an event sponsored by the Campaign to Fix the Debt and NASDAQ OMX Tuesday. You could also call it Fiscal Cliff 2.0. This week on WNYC's Money Talking, regular contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine weigh in on whether the Democrats or Republicans are right when it comes to how they frame the debt ceiling debate.  President Obama say raising the debt ceiling is about being able to pay bills we've already racked up, while the GOP argues it's about the size of government.  They also discuss whether it's realistic for the federal government to mint a $1 trillion platinum coin or invoke the 14th Amendment to help solve the problem.  Plus, more on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new rules for mortgages, AIG's decision not to join a lawsuit against the federal government and President Obama's cabinet appointees for his second term. 

For years, we've heard that the markets hate uncertainty and that businesses will stay on the sidelines and hold on to profits when it's unclear how policymakers will act.  Well, this week, we got some certainty. Washington reached a deal on taxes: raising rates for the wealthy and largely keeping them unchanged for the middle class, with the exception of the payroll tax.  This week on WNYC's Money Talking, regular contributors Rana Foroohar of Time magazine and Joe Nocera of the New York Times weigh on whether the fiscal cliff deal will spur companies to start spending money and hiring again.  Plus, what freshman lawmakers in the 113th Congress are saying about how to deal with future debt.