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America's Top 20 Growing And Disappearing Jobs (492 diggs) Most of the growing job opportunities are at the non-specialist, or unskilled, end of the field, though they run the full gamut of wage levels. The disappearing jobs are concentrated in the lower third of the pay range, though the field work was done before the onset of the credit crisis, so it precedes recent job losses in the housing and ...

Contest of the Titans: China and the US in Africa [chart] (587 diggs) Graph showing the skyrocketing and increasingly fierce competition between the PRC and USA for African trade. Something that has largely gone unnoticed by the world at large, but will exert a profound effect on the economics and geopolitics of the 21st century.

Utah adopts 4-day workweek to save energy (1,098 diggs) Starting next month, thousands of government employees will only work 4 days per week, in an effort aimed at reducing energy costs and commuters' gasoline expenses.

What to Do With $5,000? (623 diggs) OK, so you have $5,000 burning a hole in your pocket, and you're itching to do something with it. Here are some ideas.

Geek Squad Backs Up Your Desktop Shortcut Instead Of Data (1,716 diggs) "...5 days later he got his computer and his external hard drive back — mostly empty, except for the shortcut to the folder where the data was stored."

July 1st, Record-Setting Drop in Student Loan Interest Rates (751 diggs) Both new and current student loan borrowers of certain federal Stafford student loans saw two interest-rate drops go into effect yesterday that could save them significant amounts of money on these fixed- and variable-rate student loans.

Pricey perks for tech execs [Slideshow] (403 diggs) Network executives rake in more than just stock options and big bonuses. Check out these extras -- like $1.7 million for home security, a $2 million relocation expense and $400,000 for personal travel on company aircraft. It's good to be CEO!

Ron Paul on Fox Business News 7/02/08 (1,223 diggs) Ron Paul on Your World with Neil Cavuto * On The Current Economy *

Newspapers, reeling from slumping ads, slash jobs (389 diggs) Even for an industry awash in bad news, the newspaper business went through one of its most severe retrenchments in recent memory last week, with talk of slashing payrolls, outsourcing printing and selling iconic headquarter buildings.

Bored at the Office? Four Ways to Pretend You're Working (761 diggs) Let’s face it, work sucks. Supervisors and managers prowl about the office floor, on the hunt for slackers and people who don ’t put in their hours of work. As much as you’d like to be Employee of the Month and contribute your share to office productivity, there are just those days that you simply can’t work.

AT&T’s Text Messages Cost $1,310 per Megabyte (2,659 diggs) Today is basic math day at CrunchGear where we discovered that if 160 bytes of SMS data costs twenty cents then 1MB (1,048,576 bytes) of data would cost 131,072 cents, or $1,310.72.

Judge finds Wal-Mart violated Minnesota labor laws (895 diggs) A Minnesota judge has ruled that Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) violated state wage and hour laws, requiring employees to work off the clock, and the discount retailer could now face more than $2 billion in possible fines.

Starbucks to cut up to 12,000 jobs, close 600 stores (1,116 diggs) By Lisa Baertlein LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp said on Tuesday it plans to close 600 underperforming stores and eliminate as many as 12,000 full- and part-time positions, lifting shares nearly 6 percent. The company, which has been...

Housing crisis worse, Congress takes vacation (687 diggs) If you ’re taking some well-deserved rest for the Fourth of July, you are probably getting at best a day or two off around the actual holiday itself. Only in Congress could a break for the “Fourth” become a vacation spanning more than a week.

JPMorgan Chase Breaks into Home, Steals Everything (2,096 diggs) Bobo and Joy Dickson bought a house had been headed for foreclosure, but JPMorgan Chase apparently didn't get the message that the former owners had moved out and the new owners were in residence. So, naturally, they hired a firm to drill the Dickson's locks and take everything they owned, including their food.

[BREAKING] Starbucks To close 600 Stores!! Economy Sucks Ass (3,117 diggs) Starbucks Corp. has announced it's closing 600 underperforming stores in the United States.

Dark Days in the Home of Fireworks (340 diggs) China's fireworks industry provides 98 percent of America's overall needs, and 80 percent of the pyrotechnics needed for professional displays. But the U.S. fireworks business stands to lose $25 million to $30 million this year because of lost orders.

Service Lets Drivers Lock In Gasoline Prices (583 diggs) A recently introduced service called MyGallons.com allows drivers to fill up their tanks sometime in the future but at current prices, using a debit-like card which banks gallons rather than dollars.

Asian Wind-Power Upstarts Stumble (367 diggs) Supply chain bottlenecks are causing waiting lists for wind turbines in the U.S. to stretch into 2010. China and India are eager to fill the void in the world ’s windmill market—as they did with everything from cheap footwear to IT. But as the trials and tribulations at India’s Suzlon Energy show, it isn’t that easy.

Detroit's mood grim as automakers face the brink (638 diggs) Choices line up from bad to worse for many Detroit auto workers hit by a one-two punch from a housing slump and shrinking auto sales

Mini-Laptops look like the Next Big Electronics Change (801 diggs) Will Mini Laptops push Dell and HP to the brink if the become the acceptable home and/or office computer?

Is it a Recession or Not (556 diggs) Business week James Cooper provides a good overview.

AT&T - Warrantless Wiretapping As Sick Marketing Joke (2,330 diggs) "Meet Ms. Suspicious, a member of the "Online Liberation Movement." According to AT&T, Ms. Suspicious "has nothing to hide," so she certainly won't mind when AT&T and their traitorous telecom buddies trash the Constitution and violate her right to privacy!"

Embrace the Internet Ad Monster: Middle Man Marketing (304 diggs) In the money circus we call the global economy; there are a lot of big, successful consumer market businesses. However, there are only a select few that have really excellent and powerful brands. The truth of the matter is whenever somebody is trying to sell you something; it is human nature to become skeptical. It is natural to fear...

Greenspan Attacks Bush in New Book (752 diggs) In his 531-page book, the former Fed chairman sharply criticizes President Bush for not vetoing bloated spending bills and for continuing to focus on issues, such as adding prescription drug benefits to Medicare even though the budget surplus of just a few years ago had disappeared and deficits were mounting.