Oops! Russian soldier Instagrams himself in Ukraine

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Alexander Sotkin posted two photos of himself to Instagram from within Ukraine -- one on June 30 and another on July 5. BuzzFeed first reported the story.

Although it's an open secret that Russian soldiers are assisting Ukrainian nationals who are rebelling against the Ukrainian government, the Russian army denies that its troops have crossed the border.

A spokesman for the Russian Embassy said the government does not "make any decisions" or "come to conclusions" based on the social media posts. But the spokesman pointed to a news article in Russia's Life News that claimed the photos were forgeries and the locations of the selfies were falsified.

CNN cannot independently confirm his identity.

Sotkin's Facebook (FB, Tech30) profile describes his role as an instructor at the department of radio communications. He has been active on social networks for months while on duty. His colorful Instagram feed features pictures of himself eating a watermelon. posing with other soldiers and wearing a gas mask.

Related: Europe hits Russia's biggest banks

Another recent selfie caption: "sitting around, working on a buk, listening to music, basically a good sunday"

Sotkin may have been unaware that an Instagram feature called "Photo Map" was turned on when he took the photos. The feature tracks and visualizes when and where users post Instagram shots. Photo Map uses GPS to determine its users' locations, a tool that is generally accurate with 50 feet or so.

The location of his Instagram photos suggests he has been stationed on the Russia/Ukraine border since June 23. He posted 34 photos during that span -- 32 on the Russian side of the border and two on the Ukrainian side. The photos of Sotkin on the Ukrainian side were taken several miles across the border.

First Published: August 1, 2014: 5:11 PM ET

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Buffett's $2 billion bounce

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has a big bounce in second quarter profit.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

His company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), said Friday that its profit grew by nearly $2 billion in the second quarter.

The company, a broad-based investment conglomerate that includes diverse names like Geico Auto Insurance, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Dairy Queen, Benjamin Moore, Fruit of the Loom, Heinz, and See's Candies, earned a profit of nearly $6.4 billion, up from $4.5 billion during the same period last year.

In the first quarter, Berkshire's railroad operations took a hit from the extreme winter weather that hit much of the nation.

As the nation's housing market has shown signs of improvement, many of the related companies that fall under Berkshire Hathaway's umbrella saw good results.

"Clayton Homes, Shaw industries, Acme Brick Company, Benjamin Moore, Johns Manville all performed well. That's the real story as the recovery works its way through the economy," said Thomas Russo, Partner at investment firm Gardner Russo & Gardner. The firm has nearly $1 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway shares.

Class A Berkshire (BRKA) shares traded at $188,279 Friday. Shares are up 6.40% this year.

Class B Berkshire (BRKB) shares traded at $125.83, up 6.13% year to date.

First Published: August 1, 2014: 6:01 PM ET

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How to take a great (and cheap!) vacation

Erin Hurson atop a Mayan pyramid in Tikal, Guatemala

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Being frugal did the trick for me, allowing me to travel for most of 2013. If it's a priority, you can make it happen. Here's how I did it.

Live cheaply and save: This is the obvious one. In America, it is normal to buy more than we need or use. It feels natural, or even compelling, but is far from necessary.

Recognize the things you can do without and stop buying them. I reduced my spending by downsizing my living space, eating more frugally, and purchasing less nice-to-have stuff.

Set up an automatic transfer to your savings account earmarked for your trip. My goal was 5-10% of my paycheck.

It won't substantially change your life to go without a few luxuries. The experience of travel will.

Travel in cheap countries: The American dollar goes far in many parts of the world. Where you choose to visit can impact your budget and how long you can stay.

It may be more rough and tumble in cheaper countries, but that's part of the fun! I had the time of my life backpacking through Central America for six months on a budget of roughly $50 per day all-inclusive. I encourage you to be open-minded and adventurous about where you choose to go!

When you can, make some money! With limits on vacation time, it is challenging to work a normal job and travel for long periods. Most employers don't offer sabbaticals, yet short-term work that pays well is scarce.

It shouldn't have to be this way. Some travelers I met from other countries had 1 or 2 years unpaid leave with jobs waiting back at home. Let's change our professional culture to honor travel!

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

But if you don't have that luxury, how can you afford a long vacation?

Taking time off between jobs is one way. Contract, seasonal, or remote work in your field can also provide a paycheck while preserving freedom on a more on-going basis.

Identify your skills that have the highest income potential and industries or companies that might offer greater flexibility.

Every bit you can save matters. While traveling or in between work projects, here's how I supplement my income.

• Part-time casual jobs. These are easier to get and leave but generally don't pay well. Such jobs let me cover by daily cost of living but did not allow me to rebuild my savings.

• Research studies. One of my favorite ways of making extra pocket-money! They are generally interesting and pay well per hour. Check the "Craigslist etc" jobs pages that exist for most major cities.

• Money-making hobbies. I love travel writing and pub quizzes. More often than not my trivia team finishes in the money, paying for a night's worth of beer, food, and entertainment!

Be thankful for the generous support of family and friends: Since returning to the U.S., I have often been fed and housed by people I love. Their support leaves me grateful and inspired.

I pay this kindness back and forward as best I can. How can your support system help you? What broader communities, like couchsurfing, can you participate in?

Be conscious of your money: Once you have money, how do you spend and watch it responsibly? International travel makes money management a little more complex. I use a few financial tools to help.

• Two bank accounts: I have a domestic checking account for most deposits and paying bills. This account works in the U.S., but has high ATM withdrawal fees abroad. I also use Charles Schwab's Investor High Yield Checking Account for travel. This account is blissfully simple: managed online, no annual fee, no account minimums, and you can withdraw money from any ATM in the world for free!

• Two credit cards: I have the Chase Freedom, which offers 1% or 5% cash back. I also have a Capital One for 1.5% cash back. There are no international fees. (Useful!) And it lets you monitor your credit score. (Neat!)
• Keep saving for retirement: Contributing to a Roth IRA as part of your saving activities is a good idea. A Roth IRA can also serve as a last-resort emergency fund. Principal contributions can be withdrawn anytime -- tax and penalty free.

• Stay connected: I watch all of my accounts together using Mint.

In conclusion .. you can do it too! Live frugally at home and abroad, earn money when you can, be aware of your finances, and save save save. Then enjoy the trip of a lifetime. Best wishes to all your bank accounts and happy traveling!

Erin Hurson writes the travel blog, Lady as a Tramp. A version of this story first appeared there.

First Published: August 2, 2014: 8:43 AM ET

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EBay is latest tech company to reveal lackluster diversity report

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

EBay (EBAY, Tech30) is the latest tech company to publish an employee diversity report, revealing it hires mostly white and male workers. The eBay numbers follow similar reports from fellow tech industry leaders. Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB, Tech30) and Yahoo (YAHOF) have all released data on the gender and racial makeup of their employees.

EBay is 58% male -- a number slightly less skewed than Google's 70% and Facebook's 69%. When it comes to racial diversity, the numbers closely mirror its fellow tech giants. 61% of its employees are white, 24% are Asian, 7% are black and 5% are Hispanic. Multiracial and "others" make up the remaining 2%.

When it comes to its tech jobs, the percentage of black and Hispanic employees is just 2%, and representation of women is just 24%. Asians actually hold the majority of tech positions, at 55%.

Related: 'Google should hire me'

EBay's leadership is 72% white. Only 28% of the company's leaders is women -- and eBay says that number is more than double what it was three years ago, since the launch of their Women's Initiative Network, which aims to attract female employees to the company. That poor diversity is in spite of eBay having a female CEO (Meg Whitman) for a decade, until 2008.

The numbers illustrate what has long been suspected about Silicon Valley's diversity gap, but is only recently being backed by data, as companies are loosening their grip on the once closely guarded stats.

When CNNMoney probed 20 big tech companies for their employee diversity numbers back in 2011, eBay was one of just five to reveal its data, almost a year and a half after the investigation started.

Related: Facebook is 69% male and mostly white

"As a leader in commerce and digital payments, we take diversity seriously," eBay said in the statement accompanying the report. "Since eBay was founded in 1995, we have believed in the power of technology to democratize commerce and create more opportunities for all. We believe in the same power of inclusion and opportunity inside our company."

The e-commerce company said it plans to release a diversity report annually .

Last month, Google followed its diversity report with the launch of its Made With Code initiative to encourage girls to pursue careers in tech. Both Google and Facebook have received visits from civil rights activist Jesse Jackson who has been pushing for greater minority inclusion in the tech industry.

First Published: August 1, 2014: 11:05 AM ET

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India move halts $1 trillion trade deal

India blocked the global trade deal over concerns about protecting its food subsidy programs.

LONDON (CNNMoney)

The 'Bali Package' was hailed last December as the first global trade deal in nearly 20 years, with the potential to generate big benefits by increasing the flow of goods, revenue collection and investment.

Costs of trade could have fallen by 10% to 15% as governments committed to slashing paperwork, and easing border delays and transit bottlenecks.

Members of the World Trade Organization gave themselves until Thursday to formally adopt the "Trade Facilitation Agreement."

But India, backed by a handful of other developing countries, wanted faster progress on a related deal that allowed it to continue to stockpile and subsidize food for the poor.

After failing to get support on this, India pulled its support for the global deal to simplify customs rules.

Related: Can India boost growth rate by 50%?

"Our direction is determined by our current circumstances which require us to provide for food security for a significant number of people," said Syed Akbaruddin, India's foreign ministry spokesman.

Subsidies and stockpiles are a sensitive subject because they can put other producers at a disadvantage by distorting prices.

Roberto Azevedo, the Brazilian diplomat who leads the WTO, said some of the 160 countries who signed the deal in Bali believed there was unfinished business that needed to be addressed. Others were adamant the carefully-crafted accord should not be picked apart.

"We have not been able to find a solution that would allow us to bridge that gap," he said.

The WTO may attempt to revive the pact in September but chances of success look slim.

-- CNN's Harmeet Singh in Delhi contributed to this article.

First Published: August 1, 2014: 10:49 AM ET

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GM is still selling lots of cars

GM posted another strong sales month in July despite its recall crisis.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The No. 1 U.S. automaker posted a 9% jump in sales, boosted in large part by bulk orders from car rental companies and corporate buyers.

GM (GM) rivals Ford Motor (F)and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles also posted gains of 10% and 20%, respectively. Sales rose 12% at Toyota Motor. (TM)

Related: Best-loved cars in America

Analysts expect total July auto sales to hit an annual rate of 16.7 million cars, well above the 15.9 million sales rate of a year ago. Strong hiring by employers over the last six months, coupled with low interest rates and pent-up demand from buyers driving cars that are, on average, much older have helped lift sales.

GM has posted strong sales for the year, up 4%, despite the fact that it's recalled a record 28.8 million cars. The company has admitted its employees were wrong to wait a decade before recalling 2.6 million cars with a faulty ignition switch tied to at least 13 deaths.

Related: Top quality new cars

On Friday it started accepting applications from victims of that recall. The company expects to pay out at least $400 million to those victims, and also faces hundreds more lawsuits from other victims.

But about two-thirds of the cars that GM has recalled are older models it no longer makes. And the automaker has generally won high marks from critics and car owners for the quality of its current models.

First Published: August 1, 2014: 10:48 AM ET

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Wall Street wants tax holiday to be a QE4

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

No, not another federal holiday to honor a dead president. (Coolidge, perhaps?) We're talking about an IRS holiday from Congress that would allow U.S. companies to bring back some of the $2 trillion in cash they've been stashing overseas to avoid paying taxes.

Such a move would give companies fresh powder to deploy on M&A, stock buybacks and even hire new workers.

"It could potentially act as a very potent market stimulus," Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial, wrote in a recent note. He compared the impact to a fourth round of quantitative easing from the Fed and even dubbed it QE4.

Related: When U.S. companies dodge taxes, is it unpatriotic?

While a tax holiday doesn't appear imminent, it has recently been floated by some leaders in Congress.

And there is a precedent for such a move. Congress ushered in a tax holiday in 2004 that paved the way for $362 billion of foreign profits being brought back onshore.

Here's how it works: Under the current system, companies don't need to pay the 35% corporate income tax on most overseas profits until they are "repatriated." And that cash can stay overseas indefinitely.

Apple (AAPL, Tech30), for example, has more than $50 billion sitting overseas. That's money Apple could be using to build new plants, reward investors with fatter dividends or snatch up a hot tech company. (SnapChat, maybe?)

The current rules, which Democrats and Republicans acknowledge are broken, have helped fuel a series of "inversion" deals that hurt federal tax revenue.

These transactions occur when a U.S. corporation moves its legal headquarters overseas after buying a foreign company that is based in a low-tax country. Medtronic's (MDT) takeover of Ireland's Covidien (COV) and drug maker AbbVie's (ABBV) plan to move to the U.K. by buying Shire (SHPG) are examples.

Related: More companies bail on U.S. for lower taxes

Under a tax holiday, companies could bring their overseas profits back to the U.S. and only pay a reduced tax rate. It was 5.25% in 2004.

"It would impact capital spending, employment, dividend payouts. It'd have a very therapeutic effect on the economy and the market," said Peter Kenny, chief market strategist at The Clearpool Group. "Many companies would love to bring capital back to the United States -- but it's just so prohibitive."

Shot in the arm for stocks: A tax holiday could also help offset the dwindling stimulus from the Fed, which this week dialed back QE by an additional $10 billion. The Fed is expected to end QE for good by October.

If companies brought back $1 trillion of overseas profits, that would match the Fed's peak annual bond-buying pace. (The Fed had been buying as much as $85 billion a month.)

Related: U.S. companies should pay U.S. taxes

But a tax holiday wouldn't boost stocks across the board. Large multinational companies that make a big chunk of their profits overseas would stand to benefit the most, said Bruce McCain, who helps oversee more than $20 billion at KeyCorp.'s Key Private Bank.

Mixed fiscal fallout: If endorsed by Congress, a tax holiday would also help pad Treasury's coffers in the short term through an influx of corporate income tax revenue.

However, it's not clear a tax holiday would help the country in the long run.

The Joint Committee on Taxation recently estimated a tax holiday would slash federal tax revenue by $96 billion over the next decade. That's because multinationals may continue hoarding cash overseas under the assumption that another tax holiday would be just around the corner.

There's also no guarantee that companies would use the cash for hiring. A report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concluded that the 2004 tax holiday "did not produce the promised economic benefits" because companies mostly bought back stock instead of investing the money to grow their businesses.

Clearly a tax holiday would be more effective if it was part of a broader reform of the tax code.

But there's a better chance of "Sharknado 2: The Second One" winning an Emmy than this divided Congress puling off an overhaul of the tax system in a midterm election year.

First Published: July 31, 2014: 10:54 AM ET

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