NPR Audio - Business

We're headed into the year's biggest travel week, and there's not much bigger than what's sitting in the port of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., right now. It's called the Oasis of the Seas, and it's the largest cruise ship ever built — five times the size of the Titanic, with a price tag of $1.5 billion.

Billionaire investor Raj Rajaratnam was arrested last month and charged with running the biggest insider trading scheme involving a hedge fund. Twenty people from across corporate America have now been charged or arrested in connection with the case, and the scandal now involves some of the country's best-known companies. Host Liane Hansen speaks with Joanna Chung, U.S. financial correspondent for the Financial Times.

- The Obama Administration has launched the Financial Fraud Task Force to investigate issues related to the economic crisis. The Department of Justice will lead the task force's efforts to combat fraud in such areas as mortgage lending, stimulus spending and the government's bailout of the financial sector. Host Liane Hansen talks with Department of Justice Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, who will be one of the leaders of the task force.

In recent years, budgets for permanent foreign staffs have been slashed in all but a handful of newsrooms. GlobalPost, an upstart online news outlet that relies on a network of more than 70 part-time contributors in 50 countries, is making the case for a new for-profit model for covering the world.

A Charlotte, N.C., construction firm is among an increasing number of small companies trying a strategy that makes the firing process a bit gentler. It's called "attached unemployment," a kind of temporary layoff aimed at softening the blow of job cuts.

Dozens of demonstrators who barricaded themselves inside a campus building at the University of California, Berkeley in a protest over fee hikes and budget cuts were removed late Friday, bringing the daylong occupation to an end, university officials said.

As it gets more difficult to see a primary care doctor, walk-in medical centers are picking up the slack. And if Congress succeeds in passing a nationwide health insurance mandate, the urgent care industry expects even more growth.

Boeing has moved to South Carolina from its ancestral home in the Pacific Northwest to build the 787 Dreamliner. The company will spend less on labor and receive more than $175 million in state incentives. But it will have to train a new workforce, which Boeing's Seattle unions predict may be the undoing of the Southern operation.

The Washington Times has long thought to be immune from the economic forces challenging the rest of newspaper industry because of the deep pockets of its founder and owner, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church. But the recession has taken a toll on the paper and now an apparent power struggle among Moon's sons is adding to the paper's challenges.

Bon Jovi is at the top of the album charts this week, riding an unprecedented publicity push. His record label struck a deal with the conglomerate NBC Universal for an exclusive presence on their many TV networks, including appearances on Today, Inside the Actors Studio and The Tonight Show.

Just because they're masters of the universe doesn't mean the people of Goldman Sachs don't care about their fellow man. Fairly or not, the investment bank, which reported a $3.2 billion third-quarter profit, is perceived by many as a company that places profits and political power ahead of the general good.

Jobless rates rose in 29 states and the District of Columbia in October, the Labor Department reported. Rates declined in 13 states and were unchanged in eight.

Treasury yields briefing dipped into negative territory this week, reflecting investors' lingering concerns about the economy.

Sony's new online service connecting the whole range of its gadgets to downloadable content like movies and games should help build brand loyalty, a top executive said.

Rep. Ron Paul, the Texas Republican and lifelong critic of the Federal Reserve, scored a big win on Capitol Hill by getting a House panel to pass a bill requiring new reviews of the Fed's interest-rate decisions.

The bookkeeper in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., won a $300 million jury verdict against the tobacco giant. Philip Morris' parent, Altria Group, called the judgment "fundamentally unfair" and said it will seek a court review.

If you're a member of Costco, the nation's largest wholesale club, you may be surprised to learn that Coca-Cola's products are no longer on the shelves. The two companies are locked in a rare public dispute over the price consumers pay for beverages.

America's Finest News Source has released a book celebrating its 21 years of satire (with a wink). Onion editors Joe Randazzo and Joe Garden talk with Renee Montagne about the serious business of being funny. Also: See the fun The Onion has had at NPR's expense.

New studies are projecting that carbon dioxide emissions — greenhouse gas emissions — will decrease for the year 2009. That is thanks to the global recession. But the reprieve is small and expected to be short lived.

Thousands of University of California students converged on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles Thursday, as regents adopted a 30 percent fee hike. It's one of the latest signs of California's continuing economic crisis. UC officials say, faced with a huge deficit of their own, they have no choice but to raise the fees. Many students say they can't afford to pay more.

The new combat videogame "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" has blasted away previous entertainment records. The game's publisher ActiVision says it raked in more than $550 million in the first week of sales. That's more than last year's top selling video game "Grand Theft Auto IV."

The country's spiraling unemployment rate continues to take a particular toll on men. The "he-cession," as it's sometimes called, has hit African-American men especially hard, increasing their unemployment rate to more than 17 percent last month.

Oprah Winfrey is expected to announce Friday that her talk show will end in 2011. Winfrey's production company, Harpo Productions Inc., said she would provide more details on Friday's Oprah Winfrey Show.

The talk-show icon will call it a wrap after 25 seasons, her production company said. A formal announcement is expected on Friday's edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the government's $700 billion bailout program will end "as soon as we can," and that part of it will be used to lower the record deficit. He urged Congress to move quickly in overhauling the nation's financial rules, which he says is key to a healthy economy.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended Thursday the administration's handling of the financial crisis, as he again urged Congress to pass a regulatory overhaul that has been months in the making. Geithner faced tough questioning on the bailout of insurance giant AIG and Wall Street bonuses. Republican Congressman Kevin Brady even demanded Geithner's resignation.

Some powerful Democrats in the House want the GAO to report on whether drug companies raised drug prices ahead of a health-care overhaul.

The Washington Blade — widely regarded as the newspaper of record by members of the gay community — surprised readers when it abruptly folded its operation Monday. For 40 years, the paper covered the highs, lows and tragedies of gay life. But while blogger Zack Rosen says the Blade's demise is unfortunate, he says it's not the end of the world. Rosen is a former writer for the newspaper and now runs the Web site TheNewGay.net.

Nearly 10 percent of all home loans outstanding in the third quarter of 2009 were at least one payment past due, the Mortgage Bankers Association says. That figure does not include loans that are in the process of foreclosure.

A forecast of economic activity for the next six months edged up less than expected in October, signaling slow growth next year. The Conference Board says its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.3 percent last month. Economists had expected a larger increase.

Internet icon AOL plans to cut about a third of its staff, or about 2,500 jobs. Time Warner, the New York media conglomerate, said this week that it will spin AOL off to investors Dec. 9.

Recovery will accelerate next year due to "substantial improvements" in financial markets and fast-growing Asian countries, but is likely to remain fragile, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. The OECD more than doubled its estimate for 2010 growth in its 30 member countries to 1.9 percent, from the 0.7 percent forecast in June.

New jobless claims were unchanged last week at 505,000, matching analysts' expectations, but the four-week moving average of claims dropped to its lowest in almost a year, the Labor Department said Thursday.

If Wall Street wants to win back public respect, there is a more substantial gift it can make that does not involve money. Goldman Sachs and the other banking behemoths can take their foot off the Congress and free servile politicians to enact true financial reforms.

One of Britain's most revered companies is under threat of a takeover. Candy maker Cadbury already rejected a hostile takeover bid by U.S. giant Kraft Foods. Hershey has confirmed it is considering a joint takeover bid for Cadbury, along with Italian chocolate maker Ferrero. But it seems the offers may need to be considerably sweetened to persuade the British.

California faces a budget deficit of nearly $21 billion, according to a report released Wednesday by a nonpartisan budget analyst.

Hershey, hoping to expand its overseas presence, has lined up a potential partner, Italian candymaker Ferrero International SA, in a possible bidding war for British candy maker Cadbury PLC. The combination could have the financial firepower to top a $16.4 billion hostile bid by Kraft Foods Inc.

The Web site Recovery.gov says more than 640,000 jobs have been created or saved by the government stimulus. But the head of the board that tracks stimulus spending tells Congress he can't certify that number is "accurate and auditable." A reporter finds that counting the jobs created or saved isn't an easy task.

Prices for MRIs are much cheaper in Japan than in the U.S. The difference in prices provides some insight into why health care costs are so high in the U.S. There's something else at work, too. MRIs are very popular in Japan: Some people get them every year even if they aren't sick.