Alfred Kahn, an economist who became known as the “architect of deregulation” under the Carter administration, has died of cancer. He was 93.
It is widely accepted that Kahn’s efforts dismantled air travel as the domain of the elite and paved the way for low-cost airlines. Get the full story »
Reports: S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices for October, 8 a.m.; Consumer confidence index, 9 a.m.
Animation website Xtranormal, whose cartoon-making tools have spawned viral videos of cuddly puppies debating such topics as quantitative easing in stilted monotones, is no longer offering free, unlimited use of its tools. Get the full story »
Bloomberg News | Apple Inc. has been sued over claims that some of its iPhone and iPad apps, including Pandora and dictionary.com, transmit users’ personal information to advertisers.
Shopping is back in style, at least for the holiday season.
Retail sales for the holidays soared more than 5 percent, according to two reports released Monday, led by online and clothing purchases. The preliminary reports, among the first tallies of the holiday shopping season, beat the estimates of most retail economists. Get the full story »
Former William Blair & Co. Managing Partner Edward “Ed” McCormick Blair, 95, died at his home in Lake Bluff on Dec. 22.
Blair was the son of William McCormick Blair, founder of William Blair & Co., a Chicago-based investment firm, and the great grandnephew of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the McCormick reaper. Get the full story »
A Massachusetts man is accused defrauding more than 50 investors by running a Ponzi-style scheme with their $9.6 million.
Randy M. Cho, 39, told investors he was a self-employed securities trader who had a special relationship with Goldman Sachs and could buy discounted shares of well-known companies such as Google, Facebook and Rosetta Stone before their initial public offerings, according to court documents. Get the full story »
The average price of U.S. gasoline rose above $3 a gallon in the last ast week, reaching its highest level since October 2008, the Energy Department said on Monday.
The national price for regular gasoline increased 7 cents from the previous week to an average of $3.05 per gallon, as rising crude oil prices bolstered fuel costs.
Millions of H&R Block Inc. customers who relied on short-term loans backed by their expected tax refunds will not have that option this year, since Block’s banking partner was forced by federal regulators to stop offering the loans.
It’s a blow to Block, the nation’s largest tax preparation company, which could lose customers to competitors still offering the loans because it has virtually no time to find a new funding partner before tax season starts in January. Get the full story »
Logitech International SA Monday denied Google Inc. had asked the Swiss electronics firm to suspend production of television set-top boxes until the U.S. Internet giant irons out software problems.
“Suggestions that production of the Logitech Revue companion box might need to be halted to address software issues are unfounded. As those familiar with the product know, it is not necessary for Logitech to make changes to the companion box to accommodate future enhancements to Google TV,” Logitech spokeswoman Nancy Morrison said in a statement to Dow Jones Newswires. Logitech was addressing a report in trade publication Digitimes that Logitech is delaying shipments through January. Get the full story »
Tesla Motors shares fell the most since early July Monday, the first day insiders could sell shares that they bought during the electric carmaker’s initial public offering six months ago. Get the full story »
The Rogers International Commodity Index will cut its Chicago Board of Trade wheat holdings while boosting its investment in rice in January.
Rogers will reduce the weight of CBOT wheat in its index to 4.75 percent from 6 percent, it said in a statement released on Monday morning. Its rice weighting will rise to 0.75 percent from 0.50 percent. Get the full story »
A blizzard blanketing the East Coast this weekend has left thousands of fliers stranded at various airports across the country, including some at O’Hare International and Midway airports this morning.
As of 7:35 a.m., 130 flights at O’Hare had been canceled due to the East Coast weather, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. At Midway, there were 20 flight cancellations.
Today’s cancellations came on top of the 150 flights grounded yesterday at the two airports.
Sony Corp. said Monday that it plans to invest about $1.21 billion to double its production of image sensors used in digital cameras and smart phones, as the popularity of those devices continues to rise worldwide.
The investment includes the electronics giant’s planned repurchase of a factory that it sold to Toshiba Corp. in 2007 for 90 billion yen. Until now, the factory has primarily been used to make processors for Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console. But Tokyo-based Sony said it will refurbish the facility so that it can meet growing demand for imaging sensors. The company hopes to double capacity to 50,000 wafers per month by the end of March 2012. Get the full story »
A move by China to slow the pace of its economic growth is having a minimal impact on the U.S. bond market.
Bond prices are mostly flat on a day when the remnants of a blizzard in the Northeast disrupted much of the financial industry. Stock and bond markets are seeing little trading volume during a week that has traditionally been one of the quietest of the year. Get the full story »
