Economy

Is A 500-Year-Old German Beer Law Heritage Worth Honoring?

8:56am December 18, 2013

by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

A German brewers association is seeking UNESCO World Heritage status for a 500-year-old law that dictates how to make beer. The brewers argue that the law ensures purity in German beers. But others say the law is from a bygone era.

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A 'Tale Of Two Cities' As Detroit Looks To 2014

8:13am December 18, 2013

by Sarah Hulett

It became the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy. Its former mayor was sentenced to 28 years in prison. And a TV personality compared it to Chernobyl. But a new year is on the horizon, and for some parts of Detroit, things are looking up. Really.

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Economy

Fed's Final 2013 Meeting Could Indicate Course For Early 2014

8:02am December 18, 2013

Federal Reserve officials end a two-day meeting on Wednesday amid signs that the U.S. economy is slowly mending. David Greene talks to David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, about the Fed's last meeting of the year.

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Protesters in San Francisco block a Google bus, which shuttles employees from the city to its location in Silicon Valley.

Economy

In A Divided San Francisco, Private Tech Buses Drive Tension

12:31am December 18, 2013

by Casey Miner

Some of the most heated protests in San Francisco have been over big, sleek buses — private shuttles that Silicon Valley tech companies like Google and Facebook use to get their city-living employees to work. They've become a symbol of the city's changing socioeconomic landscape.

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An auto worker tightens bolts on a Focus at a Ford plant in Michigan in October. Labor unions predicted in 1993 that NAFTA would send many U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico, and they continue to argue that the pact prompted a race to the bottom for worker

What Has NAFTA Meant For Workers? That Debate's Still Raging

12:31am December 18, 2013

by Don Gonyea

Two decades ago, labor unions warned that the North American Free Trade Agreement would drive away U.S. jobs and push wages down. Today, unions feel as strongly as ever that NAFTA was a mistake for U.S. workers, but quantifying the factors behind the decline in the middle class is no simple matter.

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On Tuesday, Federal Reserve policymakers begin a two-day meeting where many analysts expect they will announce a reduction in the central bank's $85 billion monthly stimulus.

Year In Numbers: The Federal Reserve's $85 Billion Question

12:30am December 18, 2013

by John Ydstie

As 2013 wraps up, NPR is looking at the numbers that tell this year's story. When it comes to the economy, $85 billion is a good candidate. That's the amount the Federal Reserve has been pumping into the financial system each month trying to stimulate growth and bring down unemployment. On Tuesday, Fed policymakers begin a two-day meeting at which they'll decide whether to dial back that stimulus.

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Attendees of a job fair in California in October fill out paperwork.

Economists, Unemployed Fret Over Long-Term Jobless Aid Lapse

12:30am December 18, 2013

by Yuki Noguchi

Democrats in Congress are promising to try to retroactively extend emergency unemployment benefits after the new year. The expiration of the benefits may satisfy some fiscal conservatives, but it has some economists and many desperate job-seekers concerned.

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One of several robots at the University of California, San Francisco's hospital pharmacy helps manage and track its drug inventory.

Economy

Is Silicon Valley Automating Our Obsolescence?

2:58pm December 17, 2013

by Steve Henn

Silicon Valley has created mind-boggling amounts of wealth. Entire industries have been invented here. Billionaires are minted annually, but inequality is rising rapidly and the middle class is thinning out. Could the same technology that's making so many so rich undermine the labor market?

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Co-workers at Denver's Galvanize, a tech hub in Colorado's capital.

How The Sharing Economy Is Changing The Places We Work

2:43pm December 17, 2013

by Elise Hu

The sharing economy is already changing several sectors: housing, transportation, retail. In some cities, it's changing the way we work. As more people start their own enterprises, they're shunning traditional offices and choosing to share space instead.

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Economy

How to Wisely Give Online

5:26pm December 16, 2013

Presents are not the only things being given this holiday season. Many people include their favorite charities on their Christmas list.