World’s richest man would still pick up a $100 bill

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) ― The world’s wealthiest man Bill Gates would still pick up a $100 bill on the street, but he has no tips about how to get by on less than $100,000 a year.Oh, and the 58-year-old Microsoft co-founder says he can still leap over a chair, if it is a small one.Those and other insights came as Gates fielded questions on Monday in an online chat session at social news website Reddit.com.Along with playful personal perspectives, Gates shared thoughts on philanthropy, government sno

Feb. 11, 2014

Japan’s current-account deficit widens

Japan’s current-account deficit widened to a record in December on soaring imports, adding to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s challenges as he tries to drive a recovery in the world’s third-biggest economy. The 638.6 billion yen ($6.2 billion) shortfall surpassed November’s gap of 592.8 billion yen, the finance ministry said in Tokyo Monday. The deficit was smaller than the 685.4 billion yen median forecast of 27 economists in a Bloomberg survey. Comparable data go back to 1985. The yen’s slide and

Feb. 10, 2014

Struggling cargo business dragging down Asian airlines

SINGAPORE (AFP) ― Top Asian airlines’s profit margins are being eroded by a struggling air cargo business, even as they capitalize on increasing passenger demand, industry executives said Sunday.Languid global economic growth and freight capacity oversupply brought on by new deep-bellied planes is hammering carriers with dedicated cargo businesses, the insiders said ahead of the Singapore Airshow.“The biggest worry of the airlines industry right now is probably cargo,” Tony Tyler, director-gener

Feb. 10, 2014

Barclays probes possible theft of data

Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s second-largest bank by assets, is speaking with regulators, customers and British authorities about a possible criminal leak of client account information. A Barclays probe into the leak suggests the data is from 2008 or earlier and is linked to a financial-planning unit that was shut in 2011, Carey Withey, a company spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement. London-based Barclays is taking “all necessary steps” to contact the clients affected, she said. As many as 27,00

Feb. 10, 2014

Google briefly tops Exxon as 2nd-most valuable U.S. firm

Google Inc. briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil Corp. as the second-most valuable company, trailing only Apple Inc. and underscoring the growing role of technology in the economy. Google, which became the world’s largest online advertiser through its dominant search engine, had a higher market capitalization during intraday trading Friday before falling back at the close in New York to a value of $395.4 billion compared to Exxon’s $395.7 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Apple had a ma

Feb. 9, 2014

Twitter says government info requests on the rise

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Government requests for Twitter user information are on the rise, the messaging service said as it released figures while pressing for more transparency.“Over the past 24 months, we’ve received a 66 percent increase in requests for account information coming from more than 45 different countries impacting over 6,400 accounts around the world,” Twitter’s global legal policy manager Jeremy Kessel said.“The majority of global government requests for account information still come

Feb. 9, 2014

[Newsmaker] Cloud computing chief to head Microsoft

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― As longtime Microsoft insider Satya Nadella becomes the company’s CEO, he is declaring a new focus on a “mobile-first, cloud-first world.” So far, he only has the latter half of the formula figured out.Microsoft is trying to catch rivals such as Apple, Google and Amazon, which are building a thriving ecosystem for mobile devices. At the same time, the company wants to expand its business as a provider of software and services over the Internet.Nadella, the Indian-born head of

Feb. 5, 2014

U.S. health care law may cut jobs

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Several million American workers will cut back their hours on the job or leave the nation’s workforce entirely because of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, congressional analysts said Tuesday, adding fresh fuel to the political fight over “Obamacare.”The workforce changes would mean nationwide losses equal to 2.3 million full-time jobs by 2021, in large part because people would opt to keep their income low to stay eligible for federal health care subsidies or Medi

Feb. 5, 2014

Morgan Stanley to pay $1.25b in mortgage settlement

Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $1.25 billion to settle a U.S. regulator’s claims the investment bank sold faulty mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that added to their losses in the financial crisis. Morgan Stanley took a $150 million charge, reducing fourth-quarter and full-year 2013 earnings by 5 cents a share, the New York-based bank said Tuesday in a regulatory filing. That would bring last year’s earnings per share to $1.36. The Federal Housing Finance Agency sued 18 ban

Feb. 5, 2014

Firms release NSA data requests

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Freed by a recent legal deal with government lawyers, major technology firms released new data Monday on how often they are ordered to turn over customer information for secret national security investigations ― figures that show that the government collected data on thousands of Americans. The publications disclosed by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn and Tumblr provided expanded details and some vented criticism about the government’s handling of customers’ Intern

Feb. 4, 2014

Mobile Asia holds key to Facebook’s future growth

MUMBAI (AFP) ― As Facebook celebrates its 10th birthday, one of its biggest challenges is to tap the mobile market in emerging Asian economies, where it can drive expansion after growth in the West tapers off.India is expected to overtake the United States as the country with most Facebook users in 2014, with its total number forecast to surge beyond the 150 million mark from the current 93 million level.But despite its rapid growth in parts of Asia, experts say Facebook cannot afford to be comp

Feb. 4, 2014

Frigid weather pulls U.S. auto sales down

DETROIT (AP) ― Auto sales slid 3 percent in January as bouts of snow, ice and frigid temperatures in much of the country kept buyers snug in their homes instead of venturing out to car dealers. People bought just over 1 million vehicles last month in the U.S., about 32,000 fewer than a year ago. It was the first year-over-year monthly sales drop since August of 2010, according to Ward’s Automotive ― but one that analysts said should be short-lived. General Motors, Toyota and Ford ― the top-selli

Feb. 4, 2014

BOE’s Carney seen raising rates before Yellen and Draghi

Investors are betting Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney will lead the charge out of record-low interest rates as central banks pivot from fighting stagnation to managing expansions. Economists at Citigroup Inc. and Nomura International Plc say the strongest growth since 2007 will prompt the U.K. to lift its benchmark from 0.5 percent as soon as this year. Money-market futures show an increase in early 2015. That’s at least three months before the contracts indicate Federal Reserve Chairman Janet

Feb. 4, 2014

Yellen sworn in as Bernanke joins Brookings

Janet Yellen was sworn in Monday as the chairman of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors in Washington, while her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, joined the Brookings Institution as a distinguished fellow in residence. The announcements completed a leadership transition, with Yellen becoming top policy maker as the Fed tries to wean financial markets off a bond purchase program that has pushed up central bank assets to $4.1 trillion. She is scheduled next week to report on monetary policy in semi

Feb. 4, 2014

Gates seen taking bigger products role at Microsoft

Even as Bill Gates gives up his title of chairman of Microsoft Corp., he’ll remain involved at the company he co-founded in an area of its deepest need: crafting must-have products. As the board prepares to appoint Satya Nadella as Microsoft’s next chief executive officer, it’s considering replacing Gates as board chairman, people with knowledge of the matter have said. Gates would remain a director and be involved in product development, focusing less on administration, the people said. He’s we

Feb. 3, 2014