Top News
Senators voted down a House-passed bill on Friday that would raise the debt ceiling and require a balanced budget amendment, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said talks between the White House and congressional Republicans were continuing. (MarketWatch)
Visit http://www.marketwatch.com/story/senate-rejects-house-debt-ceiling-bill-2011-07-22 to view the full article online. More than 40 House Republicans on Thursday met with a top official from Standard & Poor's and representatives of other Wall Street groups to hear what could trigger a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating. (CNN/Money)
Visit http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/21/news/economy/debt_ceiling_house_gop/index.htm?iid=Lead to view the full article online. After 18 months of dithering, bickering and delusion, the leaders the euro zone have finally conceded to the inevitable and cobbled together a second bailout of Greece. The total package agreed to on Thursday – with fresh loans of $157 billion – includes some startling breakthroughs in Europe's approach to solving the destabilizing euro debt crisis. (Time)
Visit http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2011/07/22/will-the-second-greek-bailout-save-the-euro/ to view the full article online. Career
You couldn’t have picked a better time to ask for more money. According to a recent survey by human resources firm Buck Consultants, 76 percent of businesses that imposed salary restrictions during the last 18 months have now lifted their freezes. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
Visit http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20110720/how-to-get-a-raise/slides/1 to view the full article online. Unemployment in the African American community continues to hover devastating highs with a reported 16.2% unemployment. It is time for action on the most important issue of our time – economic opportunity, jobs! Members of the Congressional Black Caucus will travel the country for the CBC’s For the People Jobs Initiative. Look for us in Cleveland on August 8, Detroit on August 16 and Atlanta on August 18.
Visit http://thecongressionalblackcaucus.com/issues/jobs-initiative/ to view the full article online. Despite the healing economy, employers are often slow to post openings and make hiring decisions. It’s a frustrating situation that can cause eager job candidates to act in counterproductive ways, scotching promising opportunities. (Bloomberg/Businessweek)
Visit http://www.businessweek.com/management/selfdefeating-jobsearch-moves-to-avoid-07152011.html to view the full article online. International
European leaders announced a bold plan Thursday to help Greece get out of debt, and they pledged to take steps to contain the crisis and preserve the euro.(CNN/Money)
Visit http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/21/news/international/european_union_summit_greece_debt/index.htm to view the full article online. India’s liberalization began with a bang in 1991, but two decades on the unreformed parts of the economy are becoming a drag on growth. Time for another bang. (The Economist)
Visit http://www.economist.com/node/18986387 to view the full article online. Education
Executive MBA programs are at a crossroads. Introduced nearly 70 years ago, they have become the most lucrative academic degree programs in graduate management education. (MIT/Sloan Management Review)
Visit http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/2011-fall/53101/rethinking-the-executive-mba/ to view the full article online. With freshman orientation right around the corner, many college students and their parents are about to get a surprise that could derail years of careful financial planning: last-minute tuition increases and cuts to financial aid packages promised just a few short months ago. (SmartMoney)
Visit http://www.smartmoney.com/plan/careers/lastminute-tuition-hikes-hit-college-students-1310165302807/?link=SM_hp_plan to view the full article online. NBMBAA
Time is running out to register for the NBMBAA 33rd Annual Conference & Exposition, coming up October 4-8 in Atlanta, GA. Save money by registering in the next week to take advantage of early discounts and to make sure you get the sessions and hotel locations you want.
Visit http://www.nbmbaaconference2011.org to view the full article online. Technology
Apple appears to be gearing up for a fresh assault on a market it's never done hugely well in: Enterprise. (Fast Company)
Visit http://www.fastcompany.com/1768457/apples-next-big-conquest-business to view the full article online. Microsoft completed another fiscal year and to no one’s surprise the company threw a few more billion dollars down the sinkhole known as the Online Services Division. (ZDNet)
Visit http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/microsofts-online-sinkhole-85-billion-lost-in-9-years/52989 to view the full article online. Entrepreneurship
So what does the Durant School of Entrepreneurship, or E-School, curriculum look like? I’m currently trying to reshape our existing entrepreneurship curriculum from the traditional model to the new science of entrepreneurship I see emerging. (Forbes)
Visit http://blogs.forbes.com/nathanfurr/2011/07/22/the-new-entrepreneurship-school-curriculum/ to view the full article online. The Economy
Consumers in the U.S. are increasingly using credit cards to pay for basic necessities as income gains fail to keep pace with rising food and fuel prices. (Bloomberg)
Visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-21/consumers-in-u-s-relying-on-credit-as-inflation-erodes-incomes.html to view the full article online. Heeding the call that outsourcing is not always the best bet, big companies are taking notice and re-shoring operations. (Fortune)
Visit http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/22/banging-the-drum-to-bring-jobs-back-home/ to view the full article online. A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved Borders Group's plan to sell off its assets via a group of liquidators in what could be the final nail in the coffin for the 40-year-old chain. Going-out-of-business sales were set to begin at some stores Friday. (CBS News)
Visit http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/22/earlyshow/living/money/main20081850.shtml to view the full article online. Personal Finance
U.S. consumers denied a credit card or auto loan will be entitled to free copies of their credit scores starting today. The Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law passed last year expands credit-score disclosure rules and places the responsibility on financial companies to provide the numbers. (Bloomberg)
Visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-21/u-s-consumers-denied-auto-card-loans-to-get-free-copies-of-credit-scores.html to view the full article online. In many states, the first weekend of August will be a great time for families to do their back-to-school shopping. That's because many items will be exempt from sales tax. (Kiplinger's)
Visit http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/kiptips/archives/get-a-break-on-sales-taxes.html?si=1 to view the full article online. Corporate America
As engineer of Apple's winning retail strategy, Ron Johnson created a juggernaut that reaped both profits and positive buzz. But can he do the same with the department store, a retail format that many feel is becoming antiquated? (Knowledge@Wharton)
Visit http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2813 to view the full article online. After the investment bank's bad behavior during the crisis – and the bad publicity that resulted – it would seem logical for Goldman's clients to disappear. But they didn't. (Slate)
Visit http://www.slate.com/id/2299632/ to view the full article online. Government
While administration officials project an economic catastrophe if the debt limit is not raised by Aug. 2, many Americans do not see this deadline as a major problem. Four-in-ten (40%) say that, from what they've read and heard, it is absolutely essential that the federal debt limit be raised by Aug. 2 to avoid an economic crisis, while about as many (39%) say the country can go past this date without major economic problems. (Pew Research Center)
Visit http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2062/poll-americans-do-not-see-debt-limit-deadline-problem-economic-crisis to view the full article online. The most far-reaching overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression reached its first birthday with fresh criticism of its effectiveness and a new attack on one of its major reforms. (Los Angeles Times)
Visit http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-overhaul-attack-20110722,0,6981338.story to view the full article online. Leadership
For all of the fervor around innovation, far too many organizations are hostile places for new ideas and the people who harbor them. (Harvard Business Review)
Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/07/provoking_the_future.html to view the full article online. Beryl Companies CEO Paul Spiegelman explains how to get employees to show up for work with passion, productivity, and focus – and increase profits. (Inc.)
Visit http://www.inc.com/articles/201107/beryl-companies-paul-spiegelman-deliver-value-to-employees-your-most-important-stakeholders.html to view the full article online. Lifestyle
A growing number of employees at companies with "no-vacation" or "open-ended-time-off" policies are deciding how much time they dare take off as peak summer vacation season approaches. (Wall Street Journal)
Visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304203304576446303194747300.html to view the full article online. |