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Guess which state’s economy grew at a significantly faster pace than the nation’s measly 2.9 percent?  According to a report from the Department of Commerce, it’s North Dakota, whose economy expanded a robust 7.1 percent in 2010.The key driver behind both North Dakota’s success is drilling for oil.  Historically, North Dakota’s mining sector — which includes […]

Could social media be the victim of the next dot.com bubble? Although Facebook has been valued at $50 billion – more than Yahoo!, eBay, and Time Warner and butting heads with such giants as Amazon and Google, there is some question about what the valuation is based on.  According to Newsweek, “Some media experts have compared […]

American households’ net worth moved up a bit as the year began, with rising stock prices, increased savings and debt reductions outpacing an ongoing decline in real-estate prices.  According to the Federal Reserve, average household wealth in stocks, bonds, homes and other assets — minus mortgages and other debts — rose 1.2 percent to $58.1 trillion […]

Google and SolarCity,  a rooftop solar-panel company announced a $280 million investment deal,  the largest such deal for home-based solar power systems in the United States.  The investment gives San Mateo, CA-based SolarCity the funding to build and lease solar power systems to as many as 7,000 to 9,000 homeowners in the 10 states in […]

European finance ministers are working to resolve a quandary over how to talk banks into “voluntarily” contributing to a second Greece bailout and avoiding a destructive debt default. This attempt to rescue Greece’s finances hinges on how far banks, pension funds and insurers will accept new terms on old debts prior to repayment by Athens.  […]

The nation’s largest conglomerate – General Electric – is getting into the solar business in a big way with the firm’s announcement that it is investing $600 million to build a new solar-panel manufacturing plant as it pursues what it thinks could be a $3 billion business by 2015.  The firm, already a leader in […]

The dot.com era is moving on.  Websites will soon be able to end with anything from “.shop” to “.canon” after the group that manages Internet addresses approved the historic change.  The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which until previously allowed just 22 suffixes including “.com” and “.org,” will accept almost any word […]

Homeowners who took out second mortgages, or borrowed against their homes to use the money as a cash advance,  may regret their decisions.  Close to 40 percent are now underwater on their loans — owing more than their home is worth, according to CoreLogic Data.  The data show 38 percent of borrowers who took second […]

Now that QE2 (quantitative easing 2) is winding down – and with the economy sputtering – will Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke call for a new round of stimulus in the form of QE3? The answer likely is “no”, although it’s doubtful that the Fed will tighten monetary policy until the economy is stronger.  The […]

Climate change and decreasing natural resources will put greater pressure on the world’s supply of food over the next several decades,  threatening millions of people with chronic hunger, according to a report from Oxfam International. The British-based charity says that the world’s food system is “broken,” and that food price increases have driven 44 million […]