Business & Economy

A Timely Drop in Gas Prices for Memorial Day Trips

PBS NewsHour

Nearly 35 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles this Memorial Day weekend, according to the American Automobile Association. Drivers will find the average price of gas is down 14 cents a gallon from this time last year and 25 cents since the end of March. Judy Woodruff reports. Continue

Do You Get Back All Your Money From a U.S. Bond?

PBS NewsHour

Viewer Sam Katz asks: "Even though government bond prices fluctuate daily, wouldn't you get back your original investment if held to maturity plus interest along the way?" Continue

For This Military Town, a Memorable Memorial Day

PBS NewsHour

Patchwork Nation has an update on the economic picture in Hopkinsville, Ky., a Military Bastion community. Thousands of service personnel from nearby Fort Campbell are back from overseas deployments -- and spending money in local businesses. Continue

OSHA Struggles When Tower Climbers Die

FRONTLINE

Fifty men have died in accidents on cell sites since 2003, but federal workplace safety regulators have few tools and little will to impose consequences on the companies that count on their labor. Continue

Facebook's 'Botched' IPO: What Went Wrong...

PBS NewsHour

Just four days after it went public on the stock market, Facebook became the center of intense attention Wednesday -- both on Wall Street and in Washington -- as shares hit $32, well below the initial offering price. Jeffrey Brown, Dartmouth's Anant Sundaram and Rob Cox of Reuters Breakingviews discuss what went wrong. Continue

It's not easy being green

Need To Know

Need to Know correspondent Mona Iskander updates her report from Greenville, Mich., about a town that tried to reinvent itself by bringing in a solar panel manufacturing company. Continue

Cell Tower Deaths

FRONTLINE

Magazine for May 22, 2012: "Cell Tower Deaths" and "Six Billion Dollar Bet" Continue

What Happened to MF Global's Customer's Money?

FRONTLINE

Seven months since MF Global filed for bankruptcy, here is what is known about the brokerage firm's customers and what happened to $1.6 billion worth of their missing money. Continue

How We Calculated the Tower Industry Death Rate

FRONTLINE

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which calculates annual fatality rates for a range of industries, does not have a standard code for tower climbing and, thus, does not compile uniform data on tower workers' fatality rates. Here's how we were able to calculate deaths per 100,000 workers for the tower industry for each year from 2003 to 2010. Continue

Six Billion Dollar Bet

FRONTLINE

The story of Jon Corzine, the former head of Goldman Sachs and political power broker, who took over MF Global in the spring of 2010 with oversize ambition and a passion for risk. But after a massive bet on European debt turned sour, the firm lay in ruins, with more than a billion dollars of customer funds missing. Continue

Is Long-Term Care Insurance a Good Idea?

PBS NewsHour

Viewer Nancy writes to economics correspondent, asking: "What happens to long-term care insurance in the new health care? I have paid for long-term care for over 10 years. My Board Certified Elder Law Attorney told me it was my 'best decision.' Was it?" Continue

Will Human Workers Become Obsolete?

PBS NewsHour

Part of his series on Making Sen$e of financial news, Paul Solman has been showcasing the future of technology from a recent conference run by a California think tank -- things such as 3-D printing of prosthetic legs and iPhone heart tests. But the conference also resurfaced an age-old question about the future of human workers. Continue

Do You Get Back All Your Money From a U.S. Bond?

PBS NewsHour

A NewsHour viewer asks business and economics correspondent Paul Solman: "Even though government bond prices fluctuate daily, wouldn't you get back your original investment if held to maturity plus interest along the way?" Continue

Need to Know, Fri., May 25, 2012: Green jobs, volunteerism

Need To Know

Need to Know correspondent Mona Iskander updates her report from Greenville, Mich., about a town that tried to reinvent itself by bringing in a solar panel manufacturing company. Continue

Dan Savage on marriage equality

Need To Know

Dan Savage talks about how marriage equality would change the lives of same-sex couples and why it’s become so important to the LGBT rights movement. Continue

If Greece Were a Binge Drinker

PBS NewsHour

Economics correspondent writes a pair of responses to his austerity/stimulus post of a few days ago, which he notes illustrates the current conflict in economic ideology quite nicely. Continue

Watch: Six Billion Dollar Bet

FRONTLINE

Jon Corzine, former head of Goldman Sachs and political power broker, took over MF Global in the spring of 2010 with oversize ambition and a passion for risk. But after a massive bet on European debt turned sour, the firm lay in ruins, with more than a billion dollars of customer funds missing. Continue

Inside MF Global During Its Collapse

FRONTLINE

A former trader discusses those scary final days in late October 2011, and what it was like to learn that customer money was missing. "They were saying it was $500 million; then it was a billion," he tells FRONTLINE. "It was just unbelievable. It was like a movie. And just how could it possibly be?" Continue

AT&T;'s Statement to FRONTLINE

FRONTLINE

"Worker safety has always been a hallmark of AT&T," states the company. "Data shows cell tower worker fatalities have significantly decreased." Continue

Cell Tower Deaths

FRONTLINE

To satisfy the ever-increasing demand for cell phone service, tower climbers install and service cell antennas, a job that requires them to ascend hundreds of feet. Across the country, some of these workers have fallen to their deaths from cell phone towers. FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate this hidden and deadly cost of the smartphone revolution. Continue

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