Posts filed as “Business”
Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling May Get Out Of Jail Sooner Than Expected
While you were distracted by sequestration, increasing unemployment numbers, plans to cut Social or ’s ever-growing baby bump, the U.S. Department of Justice announced last week they were contemplating reducing former Enron CEO Jeffry Skilling’s 24-year sentence in the slammer for his role in the failure of his firm. Enron? Remember Enron? It seems so ...Read more.America’s silent freelance army
The US last calculated the number of contingent workers in 2005 – how can we structure better policies without hard data?
What kind of job do you have?
No, I don't mean what do you do for a living. Do you have a job, a regular position with set days and hours? One of those old-fashioned things that comes with – at least we hope – health insurance, retirement benefits, vacation and sick...Read more.
The economic plan to rob grandma’s bread basket | Helaine Olen
Republicans insist the government is spending too much on social security. Their solution? Something called chained CPI
Here is one of the problems in retirement planning: you can go along for years, faithfully using retirement calculators, re-balancing your stock market investments, reading your estimated social security payouts, just sure you are on track and – well, poof! – the rules of the game can change in an instant.
And, apparently, the United...Read more.
Your 401k won’t save you | Helaine Olen
Most of us have less than $100,000 in retirement savings, less than half what some estimate is needed
Most of us respond to questions about our financial prospects after retirement with sentiments that could be best be compared to the look on Captain Quint's face when he realized he was about to be eaten by the shark in the 1970s classic Jaws.
There is a $6.6tn gap between what we...Read more.
Groupon’s Fired CEO Andrew Mason Sends Memorable Goodbye Letter To Staff
I want to take a moment to salute Andrew Mason, the co-founder and now former CEO of . Whatever else one thinks of his tenure, Mason set a new standard for exiting a job with grace, humor and a commendable lack of finger pointing. In a note Mason sent to employees announcing that he’d been ...Read more.Wal-Mart Emails Reveal Customers Under Financial Stress
One wonders if executives at Wal-Mart Stores ever studied the business wisdom of Henry Ford....Read more.How Much is that Hip Replacement in the Hospital?
Here’s a fun fact for the week of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show: you are much more likely to get an answer to the question “How much is a hip for that doggy in the window?” than to “How much is that hip in the human hospital?” Or at least that’s one conclusion you ...Read more.Holiday Retail Sales Barely Budge Over Last Year
A quick note on those 2012 holiday retail sales figures …. The Christmas retail sales numbers are beginning to be released, and let’s just say it wasn’t a very merry holiday season for the nation’s shopping sector. According to Advisors SpendingPulse, 2012 holiday sales increased by a grand total of 0.7 percent from last year. ...Read more.Bill Ackman Takes on Herbalife
Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman might well have given a few desperate Americans an early Christmas gift last week when he took on nutritional supplement company in a three-hour presentation at a special session of the Sohn Conference in City. No, I am not discussing Ackman’s now famous short of the company, based on his contention ...Read more.Barack Obama And The Federal Government Are Not Taking Your 401(k)
s supposed secret and diabolical plan to steal your 401(k) monies to plug holes in the federal budget, one of the many low points of the 2008 presidential campaign, is back. It appears to have started on this go-round with World Net Daily’s Jerome Corsi, best known for his opinions about the validity of ‘s ...Read more.About Helaine Olen
I’m a New York based journalist.
My book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, will be published by Penguin’s Portfolio imprint on January 2, 2013.
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