Rebuilding the Economy » Laurent Belsie

What the $6,500 homebuyer tax credit means for you

During the first round of the government's homebuyer tax-credit program, only first-time purchasers could qualify for up to $8,000 in tax credits. But this time, many current homeowners could get in on the deal, too. On Thursday, the House and Senate passed an extension of the popular homebuyer program that would ...

Unemployed? This week’s Top 7 job offers

Got the skills to be a full-time e-mail czar? What about making sure that all of Idaho's anadromous salmonids are looked after? Or you could help crush cars. We've got a little bit of everything, from Phoenix to Danbury, Conn., in this week's top jobs. 1. E-mail Czar Employer: Village Voice Media. Wages/salary: ...

Do college presidents need a pay czar?

Updated 3:10 p.m. EST with spreadsheet of data used in this report. Somebody needs to get Ken Feinberg a ladder. That's because after the president's "pay czar" finishes mastering Wall Street pay, he might try storming America's ivory towers. Between 2007 and 2008, the top 25 highest paid college presidents saw their total ...

US productivity soars, worker pay doesn’t

The US government's latest reading on the workplace includes a whiff of what may lie ahead for unemployed Americans. And it's not exactly pleasant. What if your job reappeared, but the work load increased and your raises were so paltry that you never seemed to get ahead?

When will Fed raise interest rates? Watch this phrase.

Statements from the Federal Reserve are like eating oatmeal every morning: not terribly original. Granted, one doesn't want the heirs of Milton Friedman to wax eloquent. Even so, the Fed has become awfully repetitious on one point.

Big bird’s birthday: Part of Google’s charm campaign?

Google celebrated Big Bird's 40th birthday today by replacing the L in its search homepage with the Sesame Street character's tell-tale orange legs. So why did the president of Consumer Watchdog call it "the Trojan Muppet?" Artful logo play is nothing new for Google, who has paid homage to bar codes and ...

NY attorney general v. Intel: tougher antitrust stance in US?

The antitrust charges against Intel aren't particularly new, but the fact that they have been filed in the United States is. For the first time in years, a US government entity – in this case, the New York attorney general – has charged the computer-chip giant with unfair practices that squeeze ...

Cash for clunkers: Real stimulus or political boondoggle?

Those gas-guzzling, rusted jalopies that Americans ditched for new rides under the cash for clunkers program this summer were supposed to find a quiet resting place in junkyards across the country as the US economy accelerated forward into recovery. But the clunkers refuse to die. Instead, they have become the subject ...

A frightful economy? Top 5 Halloween indicators.

You can learn a lot from Halloween: whether consumers are cheery, how sales are going at local stores, even whether to buy stocks or commodities. So here's our list of leading Halloween indicators – and what they might be signaling about the future. 5. The Halloween stock indicator. Since 1950, stocks ...

Without stimulus or clunkers, would economic growth smell as sweet?

If America's economy was a kitchen, the sweet aroma of growth is beginning to waft from it. On Monday: – Ford announced an eye-popping $1 billion profit overall and its first profitable quarter in North American in four years. The automaker raised its outlook for 2011 from "breakeven or better” to ...