Risk of third German recession pressures Europe

A new German recession would spell big trouble for the eurozone.

LONDON (CNNMoney)

Tensions with Russia, slowing global growth and falling consumer confidence mean the region's biggest economy struggled to grow in the past three months, and may turn out to have shrunk for a second quarter running.

The mood among German businesses has sunk to its lowest level since April 2013, and expectations for the next six months are the weakest they've been since December 2012.

Across the eurozone as a whole, data released Monday showed that economic sentiment dipped in September for a fourth month in a row.

"Even the economic powerhouse Germany's sentiment fell, putting it in the frame for a third recession since 2008," said Angus Campbell, senior analyst at FxPro.

Data on prices and the labor market added to the gloom Tuesday.

Prices rose by just 0.3% in the eurozone in September -- the weakest inflation has been for nearly five years. And more than 18 million people are still looking for work across the 18 eurozone states.

Most troubling for policymakers at the European Central Bank will be the decline in core inflation, which strips out volatile prices for food and energy.

That will revive fears that Europe could slump into a vicious circle of falling prices and stagnation.

With France's economy flat lining, and Italy's contracting, much depends on whether Germany can bounce back.

The German government has spurned calls from within Europe and beyond to use its budget surplus to boost growth, emphasizing the need for more reforms.

In the absence of fiscal stimulus, pressure will build on the European Central Bank to go all in with a Federal Reserve-style program to buy government bonds.

Less than a month ago, ECB President Mario Draghi cut interest rates as low as he could, and unveiled plans to buy some loans and mortgages to stimulate bank lending. It was the central bank's second dramatic intervention since June.

Draghi will publish details of the limited asset purchase program Thursday. But Europe's weak prospects mean he's likely to have to do more -- at some point.

Markets seem to be preparing for a further divergence in policy between the ECB and the Fed, which is close to turning off the QE flow. The euro tumbled further against the dollar Tuesday -- losing 0.6% to trade at $1.26.

It has now fallen 9% since May, a sharp move that should bring relief to European exporters and eventually feed through into higher import prices, helping to combat the risk of deflation.

First Published: September 30, 2014: 10:24 AM ET

22.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

ISIS recruiting tactics: Apple pie and video games

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

These personal details are part of a Q&A with an ISIS recruiter on Ask.fm, a popular site where people can ask questions anonymously.

His photo is cut off to conceal his identity, and beside it is the tagline "Im just like you" — common for ISIS recruiters on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

He's answered 299 questions from the community on Ask.fm, a lesser-known social network with 180 million users worldwide, many of them teenagers.

Other answers include: marriage status (single), where he's from (the United Kingdom) and more specific questions about fighting for ISIS and how his parents reacted when he converted.

He also encourages questioners to make "hijrah" or migrate to Syria. He fields inquiries from a variety of people -- one who identifies as American, others curious about joining ISIS.

"He's a recruiter who may be putting himself out there to some kid who may be trolling looking to see if he can cash in on this little Jihadi adventure that they all think they're on," said terrorism analyst Mubin Shaikh after looking at the Ask.fm posts.

Shaikh is a former recruiter for the Taliban who defected and now works to identify and expose potential threats.

ISIS is known to use popular social media for its recruiting and Shaikh shared many examples that have been taken down. On Instagram, there was a photo referencing the popular video game, Call of Duty. On Twitter, a tweet telling readers to "put the chicken wings down n come to Jihad bro."

Ask.fm says it's been removing such pages, though the one referenced in this story is available. "Right now, we are focused on being able to understand, spot and catch extremes of behavior, such as specific threats of violence (including terrorist threats) and other illegal activity," a spokesperson from Ask.fm said in a statement to CNNMoney.

A spokesperson from Instagram/Facebook says terrorist groups, like ISIS, are not permitted on the sites. "We do not allow any person or group to promote terrorism or share graphic content for sadistic purposes. This has long been our policy and something that we take very seriously," the spokesperson said.

The recruitment process goes beyond social networks. On Ask.fm, recruiters will sometimes respond to questions by offering their "kik" username so users can get in touch privately. Kik is a smartphone app for messaging.

There are also jihadi web forums where information is exchanged using advanced encryption software, according to Laith Alkhouri, director of Research at Flashpoint Global Partners, which analyzes terrorist communities.

Some use it to allow individuals to communicate directly with recruiting agents for ISIS. Those protected conversations cover everything from how to cross the border, what to bring, and what life as an ISIS member is like, said Alkhouri.

Shaikh says while companies are becoming more vigilant purging terrorist groups from their sites, damage is done.

"The recruitment has been going on for a long time," he says. "It will be on the decline but it might be a little too late because now the individuals are already there, they're part of the group, part of the threat and they're welcome to bring the threat back."

Related: U.S. has spent nearly $1 billion fighting ISIS

Related: One cost of war: U.S. blowing up its own Humvees

First Published: September 30, 2014: 11:07 AM ET

22.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

U.S. has already spent nearly $1 billion fighting ISIS

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

And costs could rise to as much as $1.8 billion a month if the U.S. military presence grows to 25,000 ground troops, as some have suggested, said the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment (CSBA).

U.S. air strikes started in Iraq last month and expanded to Syria last week.

So far U.S. military efforts have mostly been limited to air strikes. There are also 1,600 U.S. troops in Iraq serving in advise-and-assist roles and staffing the joint operation centers. However, they aren't conducting combat operations against ISIS.

President Obama said he has no plans for U.S. ground troops to engage in combat.

Related: ISIS fighter says U.S. airstrikes aren't effective

The Center said that even if operations don't escalate, it will cost between $200 million and $320 million a month to maintain the current level of airstrikes and support troops. That works out to as much as $4 billion a year.

A Pentagon spokesman told CNN last week that military operations are likely to continue at their current level "for a matter of years.

First Published: September 30, 2014: 10:34 AM ET

22.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Comcast vows: We'll fix our customer service

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

But it might be awhile before people notice a change.

A Comcast executive wrote on a company blog that it will take years before it can "honestly say that a great customer experience is something we're known for."

Neil Smit, CEO of the cable unit of Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), named a new senior vice president of customer experience, reporting directly to him. He vowed to put customers "at the center of every decision we make."

Comcast has among the worst customer service rankings in the nation, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, topping only Time Warner Cable (TWC), a rival it is in the process of purchasing.

Videos by Comcast customers complaining about infuriating or even abusive customer service have forced public apologies from the company.

In one of the most famous complaints, former customer Ryan Block dealt with a belligerent Comcast representative in an eight-minute phone call. The rep refused to cancel Block's service despite his repeated requests to do so.

In a more passive aggressive case, Aaron Spain recorded how he was left on hold for 3 hours and 25 minutes trying to cancel his service, only to discover the office that handled cancellations closed while he was on hold.

And the Chicago Tribune reported the case of a customer who tried to cancel a Comcast home security package after four different thermostats installed by the company malfunctioned.

When he canceled, he was hit with a $1,000 early termination fee. When he refused to pay it, his credit score was trashed. Only after the Tribune became involved did Comcast resolve his case.

First Published: September 29, 2014: 9:30 AM ET

22.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hack the Hood: Preparing low-income youth for tech jobs

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

"My parents fought on the side of the United States during the Vietnam War, so they were imprisoned for eight years," Ho said. "I'm a product of two refugees who were prisoners of war that endured a lot of hardships to get me here."

But chasing the American dream wasn't easy.

"I grew up in a pretty bad neighborhood in deep east Oakland," he said. "During that time when we were living there in apartments, my mom was robbed with a gun to her head."

Ho turned to video games as an escape, and he taught himself how to write computer code in sixth grade. The youngest of six children, he watched his siblings struggle with low-paying jobs.

"All my brothers work two jobs, and all my sisters work all day from 9 to 7 at a nail salon," he said. "And I felt like that life isn't for me."

Related: 6 things you need to know about STEM

In high school, Ho was pressured to join a gang. But he used coding as an outlet for staying out of trouble.

"Growing up in East Oakland where there's gangs and drugs, it's hard to remove yourself totally from it," he said. "I didn't gang bang because I knew my parents brought me here for a reason. And that reason was to get an education and be a better person in life."

At 21, Ho is on that path. After taking classes at a community college, he joined Hack the Hood, a small nonprofit that teaches low-income youth ages 15 to 21 how to build websites for small businesses.

"We work with youth of color, folks who have historically been left out of the technological conversation," said Zakiya Harris, Hack the Hood's chief education officer. "What we're doing is allowing them to see how they can utilize technology as a tool and even build it as a career."

"When I first came to Hack the Hood, I was just lost," Ho said. "I didn't know what to do with life. I had the skills to code, but I didn't have an outlet to actually put my work out there."

Related: Ex-con launches startup aimed at inmates

During a six-week program, Ho designed several websites for small businesses, including one for Woody's Cafe and Laundromat, a family-run business that has been in Oakland for 25 years.

"The whole process was very seamless," said Vincent Lau of Woody's Cafe. "All we needed to do was hop on a phone call with Nhat for 5 or 10 minutes, and in about a week or so we had this amazing website."

By helping small businesses gain visibility online, Ho and other participants are building portfolios that could lead to future jobs in tech.

"They're really seeing how this can lend itself to a career without necessarily going to college," Harris said. "These are low-hanging fruit skills in technology that they can actually start using now and earning money."

The program also pairs youth with mentors in the tech industry.

"We get a lot of folks who work in Silicon Valley and who are working in tech to really pay it forward and give back by working with our young people," Harris said.

Since the organization started last summer, it's trained 45 youth to build more than 150 websites for small businesses. And it has already gained the attention of some tech giants.

Related: Why Atlanta is ripe for innovation

In June, Google awarded Hack the Hood a $500,000 grant after it placed in the top four of the Google Impact Challenge—a contest that gave $5 million to non-profits with innovative ideas to make the San Francisco Bay area stronger.

"Over the next two years, our goal is to train over 5,000 young people and build over 10,000 websites for local small businesses," Harris said.

The program has already made an impact on young people like Ho.

He enrolled at UC Davis this fall to study computer science. And he's the first in his family to go to college.

"When I graduate I'm planning on maybe starting a start-up company," he said. "My first real investment is gonna be buying my parents a house. And I feel like that's gonna make them really proud."

First Published: September 29, 2014: 9:20 AM ET

22.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Americans are spending again

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Purchases of durable goods such as furniture and cell phones increased almost 2% in August over the prior month. That's a healthy uptick after mere gains of 0.1% in July, according to data released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a branch of the Commerce Department.

So what drove the "August rush" in spending? The biggest factor was auto sales -- everything from cars to parts -- which accounted for half the gains.

People typically don't make large purchases like cars unless they feel confident in the economy and their personal finances.

Related: Ford recalls 850,000 cars for air bag flaw

America's economy is built largely on people spending for various goods and services. Some economists see buyers as a critical indicator of the economy's health since they make up the majority of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

After the financial crisis in 2008 and the recession, people cut back heavily on their purchases. As more people are finding jobs, including full-time jobs, that should translate into more spending. Incomes have been ticking up every month this year.

Overall consumer spending rose 0.5% in August, one of the strongest gains of 2014. It's a positive sign, especially after spending flattened in July.

"You can't sustain strong economic growth without the consumer leading the way," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

First Published: September 29, 2014: 10:40 AM ET

22.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

PayPal now lets shops accept Bitcoin

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

This week, the payment processing company PayPal took its first venture into the world of all-digital money.

Merchants that work with eBay's (EBAY, Tech30) PayPal can now easily start accepting payments from customers that use Bitcoin (XBT), an independent, government-less currency.

PayPal struck a deal with three Bitcoin payment-processing companies: BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin.

Related: What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is an Internet-based system of money specifically designed to cut out middlemen, like banks and governments. So, it sounds odd to have Bitcoin processors. But they make it easier for everyday, non-tech-savvy businesses to accept bitcoins -- and immediately convert them to cash.

But why take bitcoins -- which have fluctuated in price from $1,100 and $400 in the last year -- instead of proven government money?

The system offers much lower transaction fees, which cost businesses a huge amount of money. The 2%-3% that shops pay in credit card swiping fees can obliterate their profits.

Consider this PayPal's first -- but not last -- foray into the world of Bitcoin. The company has made clear that its interest in Bitcoin runs more than skin deep.

In the last year, eBay's two top executives -- CEO John Donahoe and former president David Marcus -- have expressed interest in Bitcoin's technology.

Related: Here's why Bitcoin matters

PayPal's senior director of corporate strategy, Scott Ellison, told CNNMoney the company is most intrigued by the potential to harness the technology that lies at the heart of the Bitcoin system, a public ledger called a blockchain. It's a totally new way of thinking about transactions. It keeps records that are decentralized and keeps users semi-anonymous while making their transactions public.

"We think Bitcoin has tremendous opportunities going forward," Ellison said. "If you really want to understand how a technology works, you need to actually be in that technological space yourself."

Ellison said the move integrating Bitcoin into PayPal is a continuation of the company's view of itself as "the original payment disruptors."

Jose Pagliery is the author of Bitcoin - And the Future of Money (Triumph Books, Chicago).

First Published: September 26, 2014: 6:15 PM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hello Ello (Peace out, Facebook!)

Ello doesn't require your picture or your name to sign up.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Earlier this month, the social media giant made headlines for suspending the accounts of several gay and transgender entertainers. The rationale? The accounts weren't in the holders' "real" names.

"The more they know about you, the more money they make," said Ello co-founder Paul Budnitz regarding Facebook. "I, quite frankly, don't care."

The platform, which is still in beta, launched just over a month ago with roughly 90 people and is still invite-only. This week, the site has seen an incredible surge in the amount of invite requests. He didn't specify the total number, but said that requests and approvals together often totaled 40,000 an hour.

Budnitz said they didn't expect the site to grow so quickly and are still developing its features. (He acknowledged this could mean a little bit of downtime).

Related: Free startup advice from Silicon Valley's best

According to Budnitz, Ello has "really been embraced by the LBGT community," as well as artists and performers.

Ello wants its users to feel more like people and less like data points. Users are free to be whoever they want so long as they abide by basic rules, like no bestiality or impersonation of public figures, according to Budnitz.

To join, all you need is an invite from a friend and an email address.

"We're not geo-locating, we're stripping IP addresses, we don't ask your name, your gender or sexual orientation. All I care about is that you obey the rules of Ello," said Budnitz, who is one of its seven founders.

About a year ago, they started the platform as a private social network for friends of friends to share their artwork and communicate. Eventually, they had 1,000 friends of friends who wanted in to the network, so they decided to open up the circle.

Related: 6 designers shaking up fashion

They received a $435,000 seed investment from FreshTracks Capital, a Vermont-based VC firm. (Budnitz also lives in Vermont, but other founders are located in Colorado.)

But how does a non-ad supported platform survive once the funding runs dry?

"Isn't it just so sad? Rather than cheering on a new model that actually makes things better, people have to say, 'You can't change things,'" said Budnitz. "Our business model is really simple, and proven. It's like an app store."

By that, Budnitz means they'll upsell users on special features to customize their Ello experience -- and he's confident that he'll be able to monetize the platform this way.

"We literally have thousands of people writing to us with feature suggestions, saying: these are the things I'd pay for."

The top request so far? People wanting to control a professional and personal profile with one log-in. Budnitz says they're likely to roll that out in the future and charge a one-time fee of $2.

First Published: September 26, 2014: 6:43 PM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

3 lessons investors can learn from Derek Jeter

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

As the curtain goes down on the illustrious 20-year career of the New York Yankees shortstop, here are three lessons investors should remember as they navigate the turbulent stock market.

1. Don't swing for the fences: Chicks dig the long ball, but Jeter's career shows there's more to baseball -- and investing -- than just hitting home runs.

The Yankee great is a sure bet to make the Hall of Fame despite the fact that he averaged just 13 home runs a year. In fact, Jeter had just one grand slam in his career.

But Jeter made a pretty solid living by hitting singles and doubles on a very consistent basis.

While it's tough to be as consistent as Jeter, investors should try to mirror his career by avoiding the temptation of trying to find a grand slam stock.

Related: Hot ticket sales for Jeter's last NY game

Speculative stock picking can turn into a big win every now and then, but it can also really backfire.

For example, in late 2011 some courageous investors bought shares of RadioShack (RSH) as it tumbled below $10, a rare event in its history.

Unfortunately for those investors, RadioShack kept crumbling. Today it's barely trading above $1, as the company fights off persistent bankruptcy talk.

Investors who played it safe by betting on the retail industry more broadly fared far better. The S&P Retail ETF (XRT) -- which has never had to deal with a bankruptcy rumor -- has surged 63% since late 2011. Not bad for playing it safe.

Related: Zero Hedge - Wall Street's daily dose of doom

2. Don't panic in the fall: Late September and October can be a stressful time for baseball players and investors alike.

MLB players are dealing with the bright lights of the playoffs, where a single pitch can make or break 162 regular season games. Investors too are grappling with a historically turbulent period that has in the past featured the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the Black Monday crash of 1987.

Jeter thrived under the pressure of the fall, winning five World Series championships and the nickname of "Mr. November" for his stellar performance in the 9/11-extended 2001 postseason.

He succeeded in part by not panicking. That's something investors should remember during times of turbulence -- in the fall or otherwise.

Staying calm would be wise during the current market turbulence, which caused the Dow to plummet 264 points on Thursday amid a selloff led by the tech sector.

More turbulence could be ahead this week as investors get their hands on a wave of economic data, highlighted by key manufacturing numbers and the September jobs report.

Stocks could be headed for a pullback or even their first correction since October 2011, but the S&P 500 is barely 2% away from all-time highs. That's hardly a panic-worthy drop.

Related: There's a 'death cross' in the stock market. Should you worry?

3. Strike a balance: One of the things that made Jeter a great hitter is the fact that defenses and pitchers couldn't rely on one tactic to consistently get him out.

If they pitched him inside, he was strong enough to pull the ball down the line. If they tried to get him out away, he'd drive the ball to the opposite field. That's a much more balanced approach than many sluggers who have predictable swings, no matter how strong.

Investors should try to take a similarly balanced and diversified strategy.

Just because technology stocks like GoPro (GPRO), Tesla (TSLA) and Facebook (FB, Tech30) might get all the hype, doesn't mean they should make up your entire portfolio.

Likewise, investors need to balance out their U.S. stock market holdings with shares of funds that track overseas markets. They also need to have exposure to less the sexy, but more consistent performing, corporate and government bonds.

First Published: September 28, 2014: 8:23 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hello Ello (Peace out, Facebook!)

Ello doesn't require your picture or your name to sign up.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Earlier this month, the social media giant made headlines for suspending the accounts of several gay and transgender entertainers. The rationale? The accounts weren't in the holders' "real" names.

"The more they know about you, the more money they make," said Ello co-founder Paul Budnitz regarding Facebook. "I, quite frankly, don't care."

The platform, which is still in beta, launched just over a month ago with roughly 90 people and is still invite-only. This week, the site has seen an incredible surge in the amount of invite requests. He didn't specify the total number, but said that requests and approvals together often totaled 40,000 an hour.

Budnitz said they didn't expect the site to grow so quickly and are still developing its features. (He acknowledged this could mean a little bit of downtime).

Related: Free startup advice from Silicon Valley's best

According to Budnitz, Ello has "really been embraced by the LBGT community," as well as artists and performers.

Ello wants its users to feel more like people and less like data points. Users are free to be whoever they want so long as they abide by basic rules, like no bestiality or impersonation of public figures, according to Budnitz.

To join, all you need is an invite from a friend and an email address.

"We're not geo-locating, we're stripping IP addresses, we don't ask your name, your gender or sexual orientation. All I care about is that you obey the rules of Ello," said Budnitz, who is one of its seven founders.

About a year ago, they started the platform as a private social network for friends of friends to share their artwork and communicate. Eventually, they had 1,000 friends of friends who wanted in to the network, so they decided to open up the circle.

Related: 6 designers shaking up fashion

They received a $435,000 seed investment from FreshTracks Capital, a Vermont-based VC firm. (Budnitz also lives in Vermont, but other founders are located in Colorado.)

But how does a non-ad supported platform survive once the funding runs dry?

"Isn't it just so sad? Rather than cheering on a new model that actually makes things better, people have to say, 'You can't change things,'" said Budnitz. "Our business model is really simple, and proven. It's like an app store."

By that, Budnitz means they'll upsell users on special features to customize their Ello experience -- and he's confident that he'll be able to monetize the platform this way.

"We literally have thousands of people writing to us with feature suggestions, saying: these are the things I'd pay for."

The top request so far? People wanting to control a professional and personal profile with one log-in. Budnitz says they're likely to roll that out in the future and charge a one-time fee of $2.

First Published: September 26, 2014: 6:43 PM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

How iPhone apps could impact your insurance

Apple's new Health app in action.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

As part of Apple's (AAPL, Tech30) new mobile operating system, developers can build apps that measure things like heart rate, sleep, weight and blood pressure. If users choose to do so, they can then send that information to doctors for medical advice.

Health insurers, which are barred by Obamacare from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, can't base their decisions on this kind of information. But the situation is different for life insurers, who use medical records to make decisions about the relative risks of prospective customers.

"If I'm an insurance company, I'd want access to everything, all the data points, so I can make an informed business decision," said Bradley Shear, a lawyer who works on digital privacy issues.

Related: Apple fixes software bug in iPhone 6

Life insurers take all kinds of information into account as they make policy decisions: age, medical history, occupation, and whether you're a smoker, just to name a few. Whether and how health app data might figure into these decisions remains an open question.

"We don't traffic in hypotheticals," said Jack Dolan, a spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurers. "We have to underwrite using reliable information and sound actuarial principles."

But it's not hard to imagine how data like weight and blood pressure could figure into these calculations.

"If you lose a lot of weight in a short period of time, that may be an indication that you've got a health condition," Shear said.

Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

The insurance industry has already found ways of using tracking data in other contexts.

So-called "usage-based insurance," for example, is a fast-growing segment of the auto insurance market. With UBI, drivers agree to install devices from insurers that measure things like location, speed, miles driven and airbag deployment to help calculate rates.

There's also the possibility of health information being sought by plaintiffs in civil cases. Location data from toll tags like E-ZPass, for example, has previously been used in divorce proceedings.

Related: 6 things to love -- and hate -- about the iPhone 6

Of course, none of this means that you shouldn't share digital health information with your doctor, or that the information will be shared without your consent. But it's one more issue to be mindful of as more and more of our lives are tracked online.

"Doctors want this information, patients want this information and we're seeing safeguards put in place to show consumers how and when that information becomes part of your medical record," said Gerard Stegmaier, a privacy expert with the law firm Goodwin Procter. "It's a brave new world where we're going to have to figure things out as we go along."

First Published: September 26, 2014: 6:11 PM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

PayPal now lets shops accept Bitcoin

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

This week, the payment processing company PayPal took its first venture into the world of all-digital money.

Merchants that work with eBay's (EBAY, Tech30) PayPal can now easily start accepting payments from customers that use Bitcoin (XBT), an independent, government-less currency.

PayPal struck a deal with three Bitcoin payment-processing companies: BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin.

Related: What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is an Internet-based system of money specifically designed to cut out middlemen, like banks and governments. So, it sounds odd to have Bitcoin processors. But they make it easier for everyday, non-tech-savvy businesses to accept bitcoins -- and immediately convert them to cash.

But why take bitcoins -- which have fluctuated in price from $1,100 and $400 in the last year -- instead of proven government money?

The system offers much lower transaction fees, which cost businesses a huge amount of money. The 2%-3% that shops pay in credit card swiping fees can obliterate their profits.

Consider this PayPal's first -- but not last -- foray into the world of Bitcoin. The company has made clear that its interest in Bitcoin runs more than skin deep.

In the last year, eBay's two top executives -- CEO John Donahoe and former president David Marcus -- have expressed interest in Bitcoin's technology.

Related: Here's why Bitcoin matters

PayPal's senior director of corporate strategy, Scott Ellison, told CNNMoney the company is most intrigued by the potential to harness the technology that lies at the heart of the Bitcoin system, a public ledger called a blockchain. It's a totally new way of thinking about transactions. It keeps records that are decentralized and keeps users semi-anonymous while making their transactions public.

"We think Bitcoin has tremendous opportunities going forward," Ellison said. "If you really want to understand how a technology works, you need to actually be in that technological space yourself."

Ellison said the move integrating Bitcoin into PayPal is a continuation of the company's view of itself as "the original payment disruptors."

Jose Pagliery is the author of Bitcoin - And the Future of Money (Triumph Books, Chicago).

First Published: September 26, 2014: 6:15 PM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

First GM victims accept Feinberg settlement

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The girls, Amy Rademaker, age 15, and Natasha Weigel, age 18, were passengers in a 2005 Cobalt that crashed in Wisconsin's St. Croix County in October 2006. Rademaker was in the front passenger seat, Weigel was in the back seat.

Because the crash took place before GM's 2009 bankruptcy, the families would have had a hard time if they tried to sue GM. GM (GM) isn't legally responsible for injuries or deaths that occurred before it filed for Chapter 11. So they have decided to take the settlement, according to their attorney Bob Hilliard.

"Given the unknowns including GM's bankruptcy defense, my clients determined it was time to begin to emotionally move away from GM's unforgivable actions," he said.

Related: Two died in 2006 crash. But GM counts only one

Hilliard did not disclose the settlement amount. The fund will pay at least $1 million to the families of those killed in the recalled cars. Ken Rimer, the Weigel's stepfather, said the money was not the major issue in the decision to settle. He said the families struggled with giving up their rights to sue.

"It's 'OK, we can go on with our lives,'" he told CNN. "We've come a long way in 7-1/2 years."

Rimer said he hopes that settling means that he and other family members can sit down with GM CEO Mary Barra to talk with her, not in an accusatory way. Barra has met with family members of other victims and apologized to them.

Rimer said the families will also will continue to support legislation to toughen regulatory oversight of automakers and to make more information on car defects publicly available faster.

The families did meet with Kenneth Feinberg, the attorney hired by GM to administer the fund and decide how to compensate victims. Hilliard praised Feinberg's discussions with his clients.

"Mr. Feinberg was thoughtful and caring when he met with these folks," said Hilliard. "He listened to them and talked with them about Amy and Natasha. The process was helpful and healing."

Related: 21 deaths now tied to GM defect

Feinberg said no other family of someone killed in a crash has accepted an offer yet.

For many years GM (GM) did not count Weigel as one of the 13 fatalities it tied to the recall problems because there was no air bag available to back seat passengers. But Feinberg determined both deaths were caused by the faulty ignition switch.

Feinberg's current estimate of deaths tied to the recall stands at 21.

First Published: September 26, 2014: 10:45 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ruble's headlong plunge shows Russia hurting

LONDON (CNNMoney)

The ruble fell another 1.6% against the U.S. dollar Friday, extending a slump that has wiped nearly 16% off its value since the start of the year.

Many emerging market currencies have tumbled this month as investors brace for higher interest rates in the U.S., which make the dollar more attractive.

But the ruble has been one of the worst performers. A ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia-backed rebels signed last month appears to be holding, so why is the currency back on the skids?

Freezing assets: The Russian parliament is reportedly discussing a draft law that would allow courts to confiscate assets of foreign investors. That is only likely to accelerate the exodus of capital that saw $75 billion flee Russia in the first six months of the year -- more than in the whole of 2013.

And in a stark reminder of the risks of doing business in Russia, the state has turned on one of its own. State prosecutors on Friday seized an oil company belonging to one of the country's leading oligarchs, Vladimir Evtushenkov.

He was placed under house arrest last week and charged with money laundering when his holding company -- Sistema -- bought the Bashneft oil firm in 2009.

Sistema shares plunged 23% in London. Sistema, which has denied any wrongdoing, said it was "clarifying the situation."

The case has echos of the Yukos affair a decade ago, when Mikhail Khodorkovsky was thrown in jail and forced to sell most of his oil company to state energy giant Rosneft.

Related: 10 Western companies getting slammed in Russia

Lasting damage: Russia's oil-dependent economy was already slowing down before Moscow's annexation of Crimea, and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine prompted the West to impose successive rounds of ever tougher sanctions.

The measures are aimed at restricting Russia's access to Western finance, advanced energy technology and services, and arms. Russia's biggest banks, energy companies and a handful of businessmen close to President Vladimir Putin have been targeted.

The chill in relations with key trading partners is damaging investment, and consumers are hurting from rising prices after Russia banned the import of many Western foodstuffs.

Russia's $2 trillion-a-year economy stalled in the first six months, and a new forecast from the World Bank predicts lasting damage for several years to come.

In a report published this week, it forecast growth of just 0.5% in 2014 and 0.3% in 2015. And the picture barely improves in 2016, according to its baseline forecast. A more pessimistic scenario foresees the Russian economy slipping into recession this year and contracting further in 2015 and 2016.

First Published: September 26, 2014: 10:03 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ford recalls 850,000 cars for air bag flaw

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The automaker said it is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the problem.

Ford (F) said the air bag warning light should go on, indicating a problem with the safety systems. But Ford will replace the computer module in the cars that are the source of the potential problem.

The models covered by the recall include some of the the Ford C-Max, Fusion, Escape and Lincoln MKZ vehicles from model years 2013 and 2014.

First Published: September 26, 2014: 10:54 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Charging the iPhone 6 costs just 47 cents a year

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

That's according to a study conducted by Opower, a software provider for utility companies. Opower's estimate might even be too high -- it assumes you charge your iPhone 6 from 0% to 100% once a day every day, but most people don't empty their batteries of juice every day.

Don't believe it's that cheap? The calculation is actually pretty simple.

Apple's (AAPL, Tech30) new iPhone 6 charges from 0% to 100% in 1 hour and 48 minutes, which is about 10.6 watt-hours of energy. Multiply that by 365 days in a year, and you get 3.83 kilowatt-hours. Multiply that by the average U.S. residential electricity price (12.29 cents per kWh), and you get 47 cents per year.

Related: iPhone 6 has car Bluetooth problems

Did you buy an iPhone 6 Plus? You'd better factor in another nickel: It costs 52 cents to power up every year. The iPhone 5, meanwhile, costs just 41 cents for a year's worth of charging.

They cost so little to charge, because smartphones -- built to last a day(ish) on a tiny battery -- are incredibly low-power devices.

By comparison, a laptop uses 14-times more electricity per year, and a desktop computer uses 49 times more, according to the Fraunhofer USA Center for Sustainable Energy Systems. As smartphones continue to replace PCs, consumer energy usage -- and bills could sink.

Smartphones have also eaten in to video game sales. Playing games on a smartphone instead of a television can save you even more money: An Xbox One uses 61 time more power than an iPhone 6, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, and a TV sucks up 72 times more electricity.

First Published: September 25, 2014: 10:05 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

6 things to love - and hate - about the iPhone 6

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

But it's not perfect. Like any smartphone, there are some things about the iPhone 6 that will drive you batty.

First, here's what you'll love about the iPhone 6.

1) The rounded edges. The iPhone 6 feels really, really good in your hand.

It's insanely thin and light, and there are hardly any square or jagged edges on the device. The vibrate toggle switch is the big exception -- it nicked me a couple of times when I was pulling the iPhone out of my pocket.

The curves give the iPhone 6 a less distinctive look than some of its predecessors and other smartphones on the market. But what the iPhone 6 sacrifices in appearance it makes up in usability. I don't want to put the iPhone 6 down when I'm holding it.

Related: iPhone 6 has car Bluetooth problems

2) The camera. Ironically, the ugliest part of the iPhone 6 helps deliver its most beautiful features.

The iPhone 6's camera juts out of the phone's back by about a millimeter, and the obsessive part of me kept wanting to pop it back in. But whatever Apple got out of that millimeter was worth it.

Photos are clear just about every time. It performs masterfully in weird lighting situations, such as when the subject is in a shadow but the sun is shining brightly. It takes photos remarkably quickly and -- most importantly for photo-taking dullards like me -- without any fuss. And the front-facing camera also takes surprisingly good photos for the selfie-taking types.

The time-lapse and slo-mo video functions seemed more gimmicky than practical to me, but some people might find them useful -- or at least fun.

3) The screen. The iPhone 6's display is gorgeous. It's noticeably sharp, and the iPhone 6's display even looks great when you're not looking at the screen straight on.

That's helpful, say, when you're watching a video with friends or showing photos to your family.

Related: Is the iPhone 6 Plus bendable?

4) TouchID. There is no shortage of complaints about the iPhone's fingerprint sensor malfunctioning, but I found it to be wonderfully convenient and accurate. It makes signing into your phone, downloading apps and buying music a breeze.

So if it works for the simple stuff, Apple Pay is going to be a cinch. Paying for stuff with your iPhone 6 supposedly will be as easy as holding your phone up to a payment terminal while touching the TouchID sensor. We'll see next month when Apple Pay launches -- but it sounds promising.

And here's what you'll hate about the iPhone 6.

5) iCloud. What an absolute mess.

When setting up my iPhone 6, one of the umpteen prompts asked me if I wanted to "upgrade to iCloud Drive." For about 12 hours, when I went to my iCloud settings, iCloud Drive indicated that it was "upgrading" with a pinwheel of death next to it. And once it finally decided to finish upgrading, it didn't impress me. I uploaded a photo and a document via iCloud.com, and I have absolutely no idea how to view those on my iPhone. There isn't even an iCloud Drive app.

Meanwhile, iCloud says it will back up my photos via Photo Stream, but there's no obvious way to manage that -- it doesn't even exist on iCloud.com. What if I want to store photos on iCloud but not on my phone to save precious storage?

Related: Chinese smugglers make big bucks on iPhone 6

6) iOS 8. There are some really nice new features in iOS 8, including the amazing Spotlight universal search feature, text notifications that let you respond without opening iMessage, and all the brilliant camera software. That's on top of excellent existing iOS features, such as the brilliant Control Center quick tasks launcher, Facebook integration and of course FaceTime.

But there's plenty to hate about iOS 8, too. Setting up an iPhone is an unacceptably lengthy experience with way too many questions, options and notifications. Siri still doesn't do anything particularly worthwhile. Apple annoyingly added unnecessary steps for accessing and clearing notifications. And none of the "widgets" in the notification screen that I tested were particularly useful.

There's also a lot of Apple bloatware, including compass (really, Apple?), "tips," maps and Passbook. Others are redundant, including the contacts, FaceTime and camera apps that you can access in other places. But you can't delete or hide those apps -- the only way to clear them off your screen is to put them in a folder labeled "crap."

So here's the bottom line: The iPhone 6 is a gorgeous, incredibly well-designed smartphone with a world-beating camera and some neat tricks. But Apple's software gets in the way of the iPhone 6 being a perfect smartphone.

First Published: September 25, 2014: 10:36 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

6 things you need to know about STEM

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Here are six things you need to know about STEM:

Kids need to get excited about science early.

STEM jobs are growing at 1.7 times the rate of non-STEM jobs, and the U.S. is simply not producing enough candidates to fill them. Only 16% of high school seniors are interested in pursuing STEM careers, according to the Department of Education.

The Obama administration is investing millions of dollars to produce an additional one million STEM undergrads by 2022. But that would barely fill the projected shortage in STEM jobs.

To get more students interested, some universities are changing their approach.

"[College professors] have changed how they teach in order to draw in a more diverse group," said Londa Schiebinger, a professor at Stanford. "They show you the cool applications first -- then they bring in the theory and more difficult techniques. It's hooking people in and showing them what they can do with the skills."

Related: Few female engineers and execs at Google

But it's got to happen sooner -- starting in kindergarten -- in order to attract a diverse mix and spur innovation.

"How much cooler would STEM be if we got the creative juices of broader segments of the population?" said Schiebinger.

STEM grads aren't just important for engineering.

74% of college graduates with STEM degrees are going into non-STEM jobs, according to the Census Bureau. They're pursuing careers in everything from healthcare and law to education and social work.

While that's bad news for employers hoping to fill STEM positions, the graduates are highly sought after and earn higher wages than their non-STEM counterparts, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

"You want them to go on to higher value-added pursuits. You want them to start their own companies," said Anthony P. Carnevale, director of Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce. "Having a technical degree is the best foundation to give you the most choice in this economy."

Related: Young women raise big bucks for startups

Just in case there's any doubt: Microsoft's (MSFT, Tech30) Satya Nadella, Amazon's (AMZN, Tech30) Jeff Bezos and Yahoo's (YHOO, Tech30) Marissa Mayer all have engineering degrees -- and none are technically working in a "STEM" field.

Fewer women are graduating with computing degrees.

These numbers have actually decreased over the past two decades. According to the National Center for Women & Information Technology, women made up just 18% of computer science college grads in 2012. In 1985, it was 37%.

"Women are becoming discouraged from computer science because it's a boy's club," said Vivek Wadhwa, fellow at Stanford Law School and author of Innovating Women. "We need to level the playing field, change our practices. We've created the shortage for ourselves."

Computer science is a growing sector, and it's important for women to be a part of that growth. Employment opportunities are projected to grow 15% from 2012 to 2022 (that's faster than average), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Not all STEM jobs are created equal.

Though women earn roughly half of all bachelor's degrees in STEM fields, according to the National Science Foundation, their concentrations differ from their male counterparts.

Women tend to specialize in less lucrative STEM fields, according to FiveThirtyEight. They pursue careers in health and life sciences, while men are more likely to go into computer science and engineering (which tend to pay more).

Related: Women thrive in China's booming tech scene

The salary difference can be substantial. Nutritional science majors (86.4% of whom are women) earn a median $35,000 out of college. Meanwhile, Mining and Mineral Engineering majors (roughly 90% of whom are men) make a median $75,000 out of college.

Foreigners aren't taking Americans' jobs.

Foreign students gravitate toward STEM fields like medicine and computer software design, which have some of the lowest unemployment rates, according to a report from the Partnership for a New American Economy.

These are also jobs that U.S. companies consistently struggle to fill -- much more than their non-STEM counterparts, according to a Brookings report.

That means foreigners aren't keeping native workers in those fields from finding jobs.

Moreover, immigrants bring knowledge of global markets, which is key for innovation, according to Wadhwa.

The U.S. will be increasingly reliant on foreign talent.

Foreign students study STEM or business fields at a higher rate than American students (about 66% compared to 48%), according to a separate report from Brookings.

Moreover, the number of native-born students pursuing STEM degrees is growing at just 1% a year.

Related: Women take on manufacturing

Members of Congress have introduced efforts to make it easier for foreign STEM graduates to get a green card.

But mobilizing homegrown talent is also a priority for the Obama administration, which is putting $35 million toward a STEM teacher training competition and mentoring initiative that will connect students to tech workers.

Encouraging more people, especially women, to consider STEM fields is key to ensuring the U.S. doesn't suffer a massive brain drain when foreign talent leaves the country.

"We still need immigrants. [But] we need to encourage women to enter those fields," said Wadhwa. "[Then] immigration can take its natural path."

First Published: September 25, 2014: 10:04 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Is the iPhone 6 Plus bendable?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

There are reports circulating online claiming that the new, larger iPhone bends when owners carried them in their pockets for long periods of time. Ironically, the reports came the same day that smartphone warranty provider SquareTrade called the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus the "most durable smartphones ever."

It's impossible to say whether reports of bending iPhone 6 Pluses are a sign of a systemic design flaw, a defect in a limited number of devices or even a hoax. CNNMoney was not able to replicate the issue in several attempts to bend the iPhone 6 Plus.

Apple (AAPL, Tech30) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Related: Chinese smugglers make big bucks on iPhone 6

One report Apple blog MacRumors shows photos of iPhone 6 Plus devices that appear slightly warped. The owner claimed the curvature appeared after carrying the device in the front pocket of his pants for several hours.

Other reports have been posted to Twitter (TWTR, Tech30) under the hashtag #BendGate -- although many are clearly Photoshopped images.

Some iPhone fans suggested that the jumbo smartphone is just not compatible with skinny jeans. There's also a camp that argues that if you own a $750 smartphone, you shouldn't sit on it.

Related: iPhone 6 has car Bluetooth problems

Last year, there were some reports that the iPhone 5S could bend. So this isn't an entirely new issue for Apple -- if the reports are accurate.

CNNMoney received a test model and several staffers tried and failed to change its shape using brute force. (Though we might not have been trying hard enough: We are required to return the device to Apple in working condition.)

The iPhone 6 Plus is significantly larger and thinner than the traditional iPhone. It's also made of aluminum, which is a naturally flexible material.

First Published: September 24, 2014: 9:45 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

What do women want in a husband? A job!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Solid employment is the #1 priority women are looking for in a husband, more than compatibility in raising children or in moral and religious beliefs, according to a Pew Research Center study released Wednesday. Having the same education or racial/ethnic background are far lower on the list.

Men have different priorities. Their main concern is having similar ideas about having and rising children.

Three in 10 never-married Americans who want to settle down say the main reason they haven't is that they can't find someone who has what they are looking for in a spouse.

The pool of eligible bachelors, however, has been shrinking.

Participation in the labor force among men -- particularly young men -- has fallen significantly in recent decades. Only 82% of men ages 25 to 34 were in the workforce in 2012, down from 93% in 1960.

At the same time, the share of American adults who've never been married is at an all-time high, according to a Pew analysis of Census data.

One in five Americans age 25 or older have never tied the knot, more than double the share in 1960.

Instead more are shacking up and raising children outside of marriage. Some 24% of those age 25 to 34 are living with a partner, according to Pew.

Related: Millennials say no to marriage

Those who still are exchanging vows are doing so later in life. The median age has soared to 27 for women, up from 20 in 1960, and to 29 for men, up from 23.

The "marriage gender gap" has widened over the past half century with men more likely to never get hitched.

Many of today's single Americans may never marry. If trends continue, a record 25% of today's young adults will remain single by the time time reach their mid-40s to mid-50s, according to Pew. That's a fivefold increase since the 1960s.

First Published: September 24, 2014: 9:36 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Branson: Take as much vacation as you want!

LONDON (CNNMoney)

Employees at Branson's Virgin Group can take unlimited vacation whenever they want, provided they work at one of the main offices in New York, London, Geneva or Sydney.

For now, the new policy will apply to roughly 160 employees.

Branson said Virgin subsidiaries would be encouraged to follow suit if the experiment is successful.

"Take a holiday whenever you want. Take as much holiday as you want. We're not going to keep a check on how much holiday you take," he said in a CNN interview.

Companies in which Virgin owns a stake, including Virgin Galactic and Virgin America, employ as many as 40,000 people.

Related: Unlimited vacation days and other perks you don't get

However, the apparent giveaway may not be as generous at it seems.

The lack of a formal policy can leave some people feeling pressured to take less time off, rather than more.

Branson said in a blog post that he assumes staff will only take time off when they're up to date with their work, and feel their absence won't damage the business or their careers.

Branson said he was inspired by Netflix (NFLX, Tech30), which gives its employees unlimited holiday time.

"Treat people as human beings, give them that flexibility and I don't think they'll abuse it. And they'll get the job done," Branson told CNN.

Vacation policies are at the center of a debate about work-life balance as more employees routinely work late into the night on their smartphones.

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has called for a three-day work week. In return, workers would have to complete 11-hour days and stay on the job until age 70 or 75.

Policies on working time and vacation vary widely around the world.

European nations typically guarantee workers more down time than the U.S.

"The amount of holidays people are given in the States is dreadful," the British-born Branson told CNN. "How can you find time to get to know your children if you're working with very very little holiday time?"

First Published: September 24, 2014: 9:32 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Where new grads want to work most: Google

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

In a global survey of business and engineering majors, Google (GOOG) was chosen as the most desirable employer, according to research firm Universum Global.

The Big 4 professional services firms -- EY, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Deloitte -- filled out the rest of the top 5 among business students asked where they'd most like to work after graduation.

Among engineers, it was more about cars (BMW Group), tech (Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30)) and, well, a whole lot of things (GE (GE)).

Full list: World's Top Employers for New Grads

The Big 4 are gaining in popularity with business students who find the firms' strong company culture and training and development programs appealing, says Petter Nylander, CEO of Universum. But it's not all about the office experience -- business students said their future paycheck is still their no. 1 priority.

Meanwhile, software firms have slipped in business students' rankings in recent years, but gained in popularity with engineering students. Engineers also rated automakers more highly, with companies like Volkswagen and Ford Motor (F) climbing the ranks.

The annual survey polled more than 200,000 students from 12 countries.

First Published: September 23, 2014: 10:54 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Neighbors accuse Zuckerberg of hoarding parking spots

Scene outside of Mark Zuckerberg's home in San Francisco.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The 30 year-old tech billionaire has irritated residents of the San Francisco neighborhood where he and his wife Priscilla Chan are remodeling a $10 million home, according to CNN affiliate KPIX.

One gripe: Zuckerberg's people are hogging parking spots.

Last year, the construction crew that is working on the six-bedroom "fixer-upper" informed residents of the Dolores Heights neighborhood that workers would block 4 to 5 parking spaces for their equipment.

Now one neighbor, Trafton Bean, claims that Zuckerberg is hiring people to hold more of the highly-coveted parking spots.

Bean told KPIX that he and his roommates noticed people sitting in parked cars overnight near Zuckerberg's home, which he said was not "exactly kosher."

Related: Sheryl Sandberg stars in a comic book

One of Bean's roommates confronted the car sitters, who he said confessed to being hired by Zuckerberg to hold parking spots in addition to the ones already claimed by the workers.

The parking situation is not the only nuisance Zuckerberg's neighbors are upset about.

KPIX said many neighbors complain about the "ear-splitting" noise of nearly 50 construction workers running jackhammers and tearing up the sidewalk.

The home is being wired with fiber-optic cables so the Zuckerbergs can be fully connected. The property is also equipped with several security cameras, including some across the street, which some residents find intrusive.

The renovation is slated to be done in Spring 2015.

Facebook (FB, Tech30) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

First Published: September 23, 2014: 11:00 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gadgets to make you a superhuman

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Wearable gadgets -- from Google Glass to the Apple (AAPL, Tech30) Watch -- are here to stay. But it's not yet clear what purpose many of these wearable gizmos will serve. They're marketed as everything from second screens for your smartphone to fitness trackers to personal assistants.

Meanwhile, there's a less talked-about group of wearable gadgets that has a clear, futuristic purpose: To turn people into superhumans by amplifying their senses and abilities.

Many of these gizmos are prototypes, but they paint a portrait of a future in which gadgets hack people -- not the other way around.

Related: Apple unveils the Apple Watch

Sight: A group of British designers developed a mask called Eidos that allows people to see movement better. The device overlays what you're seeing now with images that it recorded just a few milliseconds ago. The effect is a kind of time-lapse video, only in real time.

Eidos allows you to see moving objects more clearly and determine patterns in them. For instance, a rower or golfer could trace her ideal stroke, or security professionals could better track suspicious activity.

Hearing: SoundHawk is a kind of a hearing aid on steroids. The wearable device doesn't just amplify all sounds like a traditional hearing aid -- it cuts through background noise, focusing on the speech of the person you want to hear. An app lets you tune the device to listen for specific sounds you'd like to make louder (say, your wife), and reduces other sounds.

And Eidos makes another mask that works like SoundHawk. It doesn't look nearly as inconspicuous, but it has the same basic function.

Strength: The Ekso body suit is a kind of robotic exoskeleton that gives people super strength. It's kind of like a real-life Iron Man suit.

Perhaps one day Ekso will be used to make ordinary people into superhumans. Today, Ekso is marketed for people with traumatic injuries, including victims of strokes, spinal cord injuries or disease and brain injuries. The suit works by powering steps when the wearer shifts his or her weight. Motors push the legs forward .

Health: Google (GOOGL, Tech30), Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) and some other companies are developing smart contact lenses that measure the glucose levels in diabetics' tears. If successful, the contacts could help to eliminate one of the most painful and intrusive daily routines of diabetics.

The prototype contacts are outfitted with tiny wireless chips and glucose sensors, sandwiched between two lenses. They are able to measure blood sugar levels once per second. Google is working on putting LED lights inside its lenses that would flash when those levels are too low or high.

Wear all these devices, and you can become a real-life bionic woman. Or a $6 million man -- only for much less.

Related: Hands on with a Google-powered smartwatch

Related: Wear this and get a good night's sleep

First Published: September 23, 2014: 11:01 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

GM recalls 205,000 Cadillacs, Impalas

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

On Saturday, the automaker announced it was recalling Cadillac XTS and Chevrolet Impalas because of a problem with the electronic parking brake arm in some vehicles.

GM (GM) said it was not aware of any crashes, injuries or fatalities because of the issue.

The affected cars are model year 2013-2014 Cadillac XTS and 2014-2015 Chevrolet Impala sedans. (An additional 16,249 vehicles are being recalled worldwide.)

Related: A decade of guilt over GM crash

It's the latest in a brutal year for the automaker, which has issued more than 65 separate recalls affecting nearly 30 million vehicles.

The largest -- and most tragic -- recall involved a flawed ignition switch in certain small Chevrolet, Pontiac and Saturn cars. The problem went unreported for a decade and has been tied to at least 19 deaths.

GM recalled 2.6 million cars because of the ignition switch problem. It is paying $35 million to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for its conduct in that case.

First Published: September 20, 2014: 12:10 PM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

The fight against Ebola is grossly underfunded

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

"Their economies are basically being devastated," said Daniel Epstein, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. "Economic activity has halted in many areas there. The harvest isn't going on. People can't fly in and fly out."

WHO workers even had difficulty flying into the Ebola-stricken nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, Epstein said.

Related: Ebola patients are buying survivors' blood from the black market

Over 2,600 people have died, according to the latest WHO count. If Ebola is not contained this year, the cost could increase by eight times its current estimate, according to a report published Wednesday by the World Bank Group. Ebola's toll in Liberia alone could affect almost 5% of the country's GDP this year, the World Bank said.

"Our findings make clear that the sooner we get an adequate containment response and decrease the level of fear and uncertainty, the faster we can blunt Ebola's economic impact," said World Bank president Jim Yong Kim in a statement.

Related: History of Ebola outbreaks

In need of aid: The United Nations said this week that $1 billion in aid is needed to contain the Ebola outbreak. But a UN database tally of donations shows that many wealthy Western nations that verbally pledged support have donated paltry sums to fight the disease.

Total donations, including non-binding pledges, to fight Ebola are about $388 million, well under half of the United Nation's estimate, according to data from Financial Tracking Service, a database that tracks humanitarian aid and is managed by the United Nations. The Obama administration announced this week that it hopes to send an additional $500 million in humanitarian aid to the West African nations this fiscal year.

Even with the U.S. government's significant aid proposal, the total number would still fall short of the United Nations' estimate of a billion.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon went as far as saying "our best estimate is that we need a 20-fold increase in assistance" at a meeting this week.

Related: Despite Ebola, CEOs bullish on parts of Africa

Some private foundations have also stepped in. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated over $8 million so far to various organizations to fight Ebola. That is more than the combined donations of Canada, Germany and Spain, according to FTS data.

Overall, the Gates Foundation has pledged $38 million, which eclipses many more countries.

Epstein noted that countries such as Canada contribute to the aid effort in non-monetary ways by sending aid workers and conducting medical research.

"We're also at the stage where people are seeing what the landscape is and figuring out, what's the best way to donate funds?" Epstein said. "In a humanitarian crisis, there are often delays between what people realize what they have to do and what they actually do."

First Published: September 20, 2014: 8:31 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

What will make stocks go even higher?

Stocks hit fresh records last week and the S&P 500 is up nearly 9% this year.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Stocks hit fresh records last week after the Federal Reserve soothed investors' concerns by indicating that it's probably not going to raise interest rates anytime soon.

With the S&P 500 up nearly 9% this year, traders warning of a market pullback seem wrong, at least for now.

Related: Most loved and hated stocks right now

Here's what needs to happen for stocks to climb even higher:

1. A 'not too hot, not too cold' economy: For stocks to keep going up, the Fed has to cooperate and not hike interest rates before investors expect it to, which right now is the summer of 2015.

The Fed is likely to play along if the economy continues moving at a "not too hot, not too cold" rate, according to Jim Russell, Senior Equities Strategist for U.S. Bank Wealth Management..

"The economic numbers are really coming in right on script," he said.

In Russell's mind, if the economy started to look too weak, investors would start to fret about the prospects for the recovery. On the other hand, if it was looking incredibly robust, there could be some concern that the Fed would need to hike interest rates earlier than most strategists are currently forecasting.

Related: More US families own cats than stocks

2. Real earnings growth: In addition to the Fed, earnings have been the mother's milk of the bull market. Companies are growing their bottom lines, but most of the healthy profits of the past few years have come largely through cost-cutting.

As the overall economic picture gets better, stocks could see a real boost if companies can show that they're actually growing revenue because people are buying more things.

"If the economy continues to improve, I want to see organic top line growth from corporate America," said Robert Landry, a money manager with USAA investments in San Antonio, Texas.

3. Geopolitical stability: Geopolitical risk has been responsible for various market shocks this year, but they have all been short-lived. That trend should continue as long as the these situations don't spin out of control.

The current crises may sound nerve wrecking with the United States getting ready for an extended campaign against ISIS and turmoil between Russia and the West over Ukraine still tense even after the cease-fire. But Landry claims that most times these things blow over quickly as far as the markets are concerned.

"Sometimes there's pretty negative reactions to these events when they occur, but the most typical reaction is that markets tend to rebound fairly quickly," he said.

Related: Why investors remain unfazed by ISIS

What could trigger a market descent? Of course, market drops are never easy to predict, and there are plenty of things that could cause stocks to reverse course.

For one, stock valuations are pretty steep. The S&P 500 is trading at 15.6 times next year's earnings compared to its 10-year price to earnings ratio average of 14.1.

And there's some worry that economic woes in Europe could curtail corporate profits. Russell noted that the market should get a better of idea of what effect Europe is having on business fortunes when companies start to release pre-earnings announcements in the coming weeks.

At the same time, even if stocks were to take a breather, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, according to Landry.

"Pullbacks tend to be healthy, especially when you have some outsize gains within a short period of time," he said.

First Published: September 21, 2014: 7:29 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Friday Links

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

A weekly collection of design, data and interactive links.

Video
Butter Fingers | Items you might not want to let slip through your fingers
The Sound of COS | Experience the sound of COS in a short film by Lernert & Sander

Music and Design
Generative Videos | Reza Ali's six music videos for OK Go
Party Mode | An audio visualizer powered by d3.js and the web audio API
Thru You Too | Collaborative YouTube music video

Design/Data viz
A Disappearing Planet | Interactive look at extinctions around the world
The Bezier Game | A game to help you master the pen tool
Hue Grant | The internet at its finest

See last week's links

Have a nice weekend!
@dubly and @talyellin

First Published: September 19, 2014: 4:15 PM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Post-it note eating insider trader pleads guilty

Who's hungry? Insider trader ate his Post-it notes after passing stock tips.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Frank Tamayo, a 41-year-old Brooklyn man, surrendered Friday morning to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and pleaded guilty in Federal Court in New Jersey.

Prosecutors say Tamayo received information about upcoming corporate deals from Steven Metro, the head clerk at a corporate law firm in New York.

Tamayo then handed that information over to Vladimir Eydelman, a stock broker at Oppenheimer (OPY) and Morgan Stanley (MS). Eydelman in turn used it to trade stocks for Tamayo and other customers.

Metro and Eydelman were charged separately in March.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil charges against all three men.

In an awkward attempt to be stealthy, Tamayo would write a stock ticker on a piece of paper, usually a Post-it note or a napkin, which he would show to Eydelman, indicating that the stock was a buy.

Tamayo would then put the paper in his mouth "and chewed it until it was destroyed," according to prosecutors.

Related: Former SAC manager gets 9 years in prison

The information exchange between Tamayo, a mortgage broker, and Eydelman would take place at locations near his office, including a spot near the clock in New York City's Grand Central Station and a midtown coffee shop.

"Tamayo was the firewall between Metro and Eydelman," said Robert Cohen, an official with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Metro had the information, Eydelman did the trading, and Tamayo kept them apart."

The scheme started in 2009, when Metro met Tamayo at a bar in New York City and started talking stocks over drinks. According to the SEC, Metro told Tamayo about a $500 million investment Liberty Media planned to make in SiriusXM, which prompted Tamayo to call Eydelman.

Over the next five years, Metro divulged information on at least 13 different deals that his firm, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, was working on, including mergers and acquisitions.

Related: Five famous insider trading cases

Metro found potential inside tips by searching his firm's data base for keywords such as "merger agreement," "bid letter," "engagement letter," and "due diligence."

Eydelman also took steps to cover his tracks. The stock broker would send emails to Tamayo outlining his thoughts on why he recommended buying a particular stock. By sending emails that seemed part of his job and innocuous, prosecutors said, he hoped to leave a paper trail that created the appearance that the trade was based on legitimate research and not inside information.

Tamayo's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

First Published: September 19, 2014: 4:06 PM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

The fight against Ebola is grossly underfunded

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

"Their economies are basically being devastated," said Daniel Epstein, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. "Economic activity has halted in many areas there. The harvest isn't going on. People can't fly in and fly out."

WHO workers even had difficulty flying into the Ebola-stricken nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, Epstein said.

Related: Ebola patients are buying survivors' blood from the black market

Over 2,600 people have died, according to the latest WHO count. If Ebola is not contained this year, the cost could increase by eight times its current estimate, according to a report published Wednesday by the World Bank Group. Ebola's toll in Liberia alone could affect almost 5% of the country's GDP this year, the World Bank said.

"Our findings make clear that the sooner we get an adequate containment response and decrease the level of fear and uncertainty, the faster we can blunt Ebola's economic impact," said World Bank president Jim Yong Kim in a statement.

Related: History of Ebola outbreaks

In need of aid: The United Nations said this week that $1 billion in aid is needed to contain the Ebola outbreak. But a UN database tally of donations shows that many wealthy Western nations that verbally pledged support have donated paltry sums to fight the disease.

Total donations, including non-binding pledges, to fight Ebola are about $388 million, well under half of the United Nation's estimate, according to data from Financial Tracking Service, a database that tracks humanitarian aid and is managed by the United Nations. The Obama administration announced this week that it hopes to send an additional $500 million in humanitarian aid to the West African nations this fiscal year.

Even with the U.S. government's significant aid proposal, the total number would still fall short of the United Nations' estimate of a billion.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon went as far as saying "our best estimate is that we need a 20-fold increase in assistance" at a meeting this week.

Related: Despite Ebola, CEOs bullish on parts of Africa

Some private foundations have also stepped in. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated over $8 million so far to various organizations to fight Ebola. That is more than the combined donations of Canada, Germany and Spain, according to FTS data.

Overall, the Gates Foundation has pledged $38 million, which eclipses many more countries.

Epstein noted that countries such as Canada contribute to the aid effort in non-monetary ways by sending aid workers and conducting medical research.

"We're also at the stage where people are seeing what the landscape is and figuring out, what's the best way to donate funds?" Epstein said. "In a humanitarian crisis, there are often delays between what people realize what they have to do and what they actually do."

First Published: September 20, 2014: 8:31 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple's iPhone 6 goes on sale, and the lines are insane

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus hit stores Friday, with Apple (AAPL, Tech30) fans around the world camping out in line to become some of the first owners of the new devices.

In New York City, nearly 1,000 people were already in line by around 9 p.m. Thursday evening -- a line that spanned several city blocks. In Hong Kong, the line started around 5 p.m. Thursday, and grew to include customers who had flown in from India, China and the United Kingdom just to make their purchases.

Sales started with a literal bang in Australia, where a young man at the head of the line outside a Perth store unboxed his new iPhone 6 on live TV, only to drop it to the pavement. (Onlookers gasped, though the device reportedly survived the fall just fine).

Related: 6 must-have apps for the iPhone 6

The new phones became available for pre-order last Friday, with Apple selling a record 4 million in 24 hours. Apple said demand for the devices "exceeds the initial pre-order supply," though additional phones were available to walk-in customers at certain Apple Stores on Friday.

Jonathan Stayton and Vivian Kam contributed reporting from Hong Kong and Jose Pagliery from New York.

Related: Apple says iOS 8 will shield your data from police

First Published: September 19, 2014: 10:52 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

As open enrollment nears, Obamacare website still isn't totally safe

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

To be clear: Hackers haven't stolen sensitive data from the Obamacare site. But ongoing security and privacy issues plague Healthcare.gov, potentially putting your personal information at risk.

A report by the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, shows why the Obamacare website has room for improvement:

• Security tests aren't complete. Health officials aren't conducting full, system-wide exams to make sure everything works together safely.
• The Obamacare website didn't require strong passwords.
• The website didn't patch bugs quickly enough.
• The system didn't restrict test servers from accessing the Internet.

That last one sounds innocuous, but it's why the Obamacare site was hacked this summer. A test server -- that was never supposed to be connected to the Internet -- got infected with malware.

Luckily, the malware was the kind that spews spam, not steals personal data. And that server didn't house any personal information, so nothing was exposed, the government said.

At a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing Thursday, Gregory Wilshusen, the GAO's information security issues director, testified that the weaknesses that remain "put these systems and personal information at an increased and unnecessary risk of compromise."

There could be other problems facing Healthcare.gov too -- but Wilshusen complained health officials aren't giving investigators enough access to spot problems.

For those worried about a data breach, the Obamacare website doesn't keep your health records. But it does process valuable information: your name, address, Social Security number and income level.

The Obamacare launch on Oct. 1, 2013 was a mess. For weeks the site was overwhelmed with traffic, and many people couldn't access it. Emails between top employees at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Health and Human Services revealed at the House hearing showed:

• Just five days before the nationwide launch, the CMS director of consumer information found out the website could only handle 10,000 users at once. "Performance testing results in the toilet," she wrote.
• Early on, a top security official at CMS ordered employees to "hit the pause button" on an independent review of the website's security, because it was considered unfairly negative and "could see the light of day."
• Weeks before the website went up, a senior health department adviser warned, "Whatever launches, if functional, will only technically meet the criteria of launching the exchange."
• In an act of goodwill and transparency, health officials put the Healthcare.gov source code on the code-sharing community Github, where code naturally gets positive criticism. Then they awkwardly took it down because of "bashing of the source code" by developers.
• When the website launched, Healthcare.gov was unsafely sending information unencrypted. That has since been fixed.

So far, 7.3 million people remain enrolled in Obamacare. That means 91% of the 8 million who signed up stuck around and paid for coverage.

Related: How safe are you? CNNMoney's custom Flipboard magazine

First Published: September 19, 2014: 10:27 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Russian brewer buys Pabst Blue Ribbon

Russia's Oasis Beverages is acquiring American Pabst Brewing Company, which makes Pabst Blue Ribbon, Ballantine Pale Ale and Blast.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Oasis Beverages, which is based in Russia, said on Friday it's signed a deal to acquire Pabst Brewing Company, which is headquartered in Los Angeles.

Pabst traces its roots to 1844 and owns a number of well-known American beer brands, including Pabst Blue Ribbon, Old Milwaukee, Schlitz and the malt liquor Colt 45. It recently resurrected one of the most popular beers of the mid twentieth century, Ballantine India Pale Ale.

Oasis, which also has brewing operations in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, did not disclose the terms of the deal, except to say that the investment company TSG Consumer Partners has a minority stake.

Oasis said it will not change any of the Pabst brands.

"There are definitely NO plans to change any of the recipes of the brands," said an Oasis staffer, in an email to CNNMoney. "The entire team at Pabst including the Head Brewer Greg Deuhs will continue to focus on maintaining the classic recipes and consistent quality of all Pabst products. NO CHANGES WHATSOEVER."

Related: Beer giants SABMiller and AB InBev brewing up a deal

Eugene Kashper, chairman of the Oasis Beverages Board, said Pabst headquarters will remain in LA.

"The opportunity to work with the company's treasure trove of iconic brands, some of which I started my career selling, is a dream come true," said Kashper, who started his career 20 years ago with The Stroh Brewery Company.

The Pabst company is being sold by C. Dean Metropoulos, which also owns Hostess Brands, best known for its Twinkies.

Pabst's "blue ribbon" title comes from having won a competition at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. The label on the can boasts that the beer was dubbed "America's Best" at the famous fair.

Related: Hipster alert: Ballantine is coming back

A relatively inexpensive beer brewed in Milwaukee, Pabst has enjoyed a jump in popularity in recent years since it was rediscovered by hipsters.

The company has also tried to keep up with the times and recently launched Blast, a high-alcohol Four Loko competitor pitched by Snoop Dogg.

First Published: September 19, 2014: 10:16 AM ET

22.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

How immigrant entrepreneurs are making it

Billy Bauer with his father, Harold Bauer, founder of Royce Leather.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Firsthand knowledge of the culture as well as connections abroad make immigrant entrepreneurs well-positioned to navigate the complicated export landscape.

That's true for Royce Leather, a family-owned leather business in Secaucus, N.J.

Harold Bauer founded Royce Leather in 1974, just one year after moving to the U.S. from Austria.

Today, 65% of his business comes from exporting to 15 countries. That's up from 45% just five years ago.

Bauer, who comes from two generations of leather artisans, has been able to capitalize on family connections in Western Europe (particularly Germany and Austria) for sales leads and distribution partners.

"That's where we're from -- where we understand the customers best," said Billy Bauer, 22, Harold's son and marketing director of Royce Leather.

Billy added that his father's foreign language skills (he speaks five languages) give him an edge in tapping into markets like France and Russia.

Related: I'm a legal immigrant, but not allowed to have a job.

Experts agree that immigrant entrepreneurs have a leg up.

"Family ties, familiarity with the culture, market, and investment environment in the home country all could facilitate export" said Qingfang Wang, an associate professor of Geography and Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Wang is quick to note that not all immigrant-owned businesses are able to leverage these ties, however they do have a "much higher propensity for participating in transnational activities."

Doug Barry, an author and trade specialist with the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, agrees.

"Immigrant-owned companies are more likely to export and to be successful in doing so," he said. "Why? One reason is that they just do it. They are comfortable dealing with other cultures."

Related: Want to boost sales? Start exporting

This is true of Priska Diaz, a Peruvian immigrant and founder of New York-based startup BittyLab, which makes innovative baby bottles. She didn't anticipate exporting so early on -- her business is just one year old -- but she didn't shy away from it either.

Diaz, who moved to the U.S. at 17, wanted to first build and establish her business in the U.S. market. But due to "unsolicited international demand" for her Bare Air-Free Baby Bottles, she started exporting her products (sold via Amazon) (AMZN, Tech30) to Canada, the U.K. and Australia.

Now, international sales make up 10% of her business, which she plans to grow. Diaz, 39, said her childhood friends (who live around the world) are proving to be a real business asset in finding international distribution partners (she's been contacted by distributors in South Africa, Turkey, and the Middle East).

"There's a level of trust that makes it easier to work with my friends," said Diaz.

Ben Guez echoes that sentiment. The French entrepreneur launched electronic cigarette company Ophis a year ago in Beverly Hills. He said his European roots help him bridge partnerships abroad.

"Our international clients feel confident to talk with two immigrant entrepreneurs," said Guez, who co-founded Ophis with Rudy Halioua, also from France.

Related: Secrets to success from Smalltown USA

Still, few U.S. small businesses are exporting their goods and services -- just about 300,000 of some six million.

But those that do export anticipate ramping it up over the coming year, according to a survey from Western Union Business Solutions. They surveyed small and medium-sized businesses who engage in international trade. Nearly half said they've grown exports over the past 12 months.

Those looking to start exporting or expand their international base can learn from immigrant entrepreneurs.

"It's natural for them to go to a foreign country to sit down with people who are not like them," said Barry. "These characteristics are not exclusive to immigrant business owners and can be learned and applied by anyone."

First Published: September 18, 2014: 9:57 AM ET

22.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Amazon releases new Fire tablets and e-readers

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

A $79 Kindle and the Kindle Voyage are the company's new e-reader offerings.

"This is our thinnest, highest resolution, highest contrast e-reader we've ever done," Amazon VP Peter Larsen said of the Kindle Voyage, which starts at $199.

"We have a long term-vision to replace paper," Senior Vice President of Devices David Limp said at the launch event in New York Wednesday.

That translates to e-readers with higher resolution and contrast display. By releasing a cheaper e-reader, Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) hopes to tap into markets like India and China.

Related: Apple says iOS 8 will shield your data from police

The company also unveiled new Fire tablets, including one aimed at children. Their Fire HD Kids Edition comes with a two-year "worry-free" warranty.

The tablet is equipped with Amazon FreeTime, a feature that lets parents manage what their children can access.

Other new tablets include the 6-inch Fire HD, a tablet the company is touting as "the most powerful tablet under $100" and a $140 7-inch Fire HD tablet.

To prove the durability of Amazon's Fire HD tablets,Larsen said the company puts the tablets through the ringer, blasting everything from salt water to sunscreen on them and placing them inside a tumbler, which simulates the inside of a purse or backpack.

Executives also introduced the Fire HDX, showing off new audio features. As part of the demo, executives said the tablet was 20% lighter than the Apple's (AAPL, Tech30) iPad Air, and had a million more pixels.

All devices are available online for pre-order and will begin shopping in October.

First Published: September 18, 2014: 9:54 AM ET

22.17 | 0 komentar | Read More