Music

Pages

Business
5:29 am
Fri June 1, 2012

Business News

Originally published on Fri June 1, 2012 9:04 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with a new, multibillion-dollar chemical plant.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GREENE: Exxon Mobil plans to build a huge chemical facility in Baytown, Texas. It reverses a company statement last year that said it has no plans for new chemical factories in the United States. According to Reuters, decades-low natural gas prices made the move too enticing to pass over. Natural gas is a key fuel in chemical production. By using its own natural gas, Exxon Mobil can run a chemical plant relatively cheaply.

Read more
Politics
5:29 am
Fri June 1, 2012

Recall Election Polarizes Wisconsin Voters

Originally published on Fri June 1, 2012 9:04 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's been more than a year since Wisconsin Democrats began talking about recalling the state's governor, Scott Walker. Next week they'll get their chance to do it. Last night, Walker and his Democratic challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, traded barbs in their final debate before Tuesday's vote. Turnout is expected to be very high, as the recall is sharply dividing voters in Wisconsin, so much so, some have just stopped talking to each other. NPR's David Schaper has the latest from Milwaukee.

Read more
Law
5:29 am
Fri June 1, 2012

'Call Of Duty' Creators Settle Lawsuit Against Activision

Originally published on Fri June 1, 2012 9:04 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And now to an even bigger battle that's been playing in the world of video games.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME)

Read more
Around the Nation
5:29 am
Fri June 1, 2012

Komen Donations Down After Planned Parenthood Dispute

Originally published on Fri June 1, 2012 9:04 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure takes place tomorrow here in the nation's capital. It's one of the breast cancer charity's biggest fundraisers. But this year, participation is way down. That follows Komen's controversial decision in February to stop funding Planned Parenthood programs. The decision was quickly reversed, but Komen's supporters worry about the long-term impact, as NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

Read more
Business
5:29 am
Fri June 1, 2012

The Last Word In Business

Originally published on Thu June 7, 2012 1:24 pm

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

OK, let's turn now to personal wealth. Today's last word in business is disappearing millions.

The number of millionaire households in this country declined in 2011. That's according to this year's Global Wealth Study from the Boston Consulting Group. It found the number of American households with a million dollars of investable assets shrunk by 2.5 percent.

The U.S. still leads the world in millionaires, but developing countries are gaining ground. Other countries added nearly 200,000 millionaire households in 2011.

Read more
Planet Money
5:03 am
Fri June 1, 2012

Three Years Of An Awful Recovery

Credit Lam Thuy Vo / NPR

Originally published on Mon June 4, 2012 12:25 pm

The recession ended and the recovery began in June, 2009. It's an ugly third birthday for the labor market

More than 7 million U.S. jobs disappeared during the recession. Fewer than 3 million have been added in the recovery. And the rate of job growth has been falling lately; in May, the economy added just 69,000 jobs. That's not even enough to keep up with population growth.

Read more
Iraq
3:00 am
Fri June 1, 2012

Ignoring Critics, Iraq's Leader Consolidates Power

Credit Marwan Ibrahim / AFP/Getty Images
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (center) arrives on May 8 at Kirkuk airport in northern Iraq, on his first visit to the multi-ethnic city since taking office.

Originally published on Fri June 1, 2012 10:30 pm

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently held one of his traveling Cabinet meetings in the disputed city of Kirkuk in an effort to show Iraqi Arabs on the edge of the Kurdish-controlled north that he's working on their behalf, too.

But the fact that he felt obliged to bring in large numbers of heavily armed troops for the event illustrated the tension plaguing Iraqi politics.

Read more
Planet Money
2:59 am
Fri June 1, 2012

A Front-Row Seat At A Bank Run

Credit Petros Giannakouris / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published on Fri June 1, 2012 9:04 am

A decade ago, investors thought Greece would flourish on the euro. Money poured in, and banks started lending it out. Thefilos Papacostakis, a bank teller at Alpha Bank in Thessaloniki, got to hand out a lot of that money.

Last month, Thefilos says, his bosses called him in for a meeting. They told him things were about to get worse. When countries are in this kind of trouble, the bosses said, people panic and pull their money out of banks.

Read more
NPR Story
12:03 am
Fri June 1, 2012

The Creative Process

Credit Nat Al-Tahhan for TED2012
Thomas Edison once said, "Genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration." In this episode, we take a closer look at where that one percent comes from.

How are we inspired? How do we get from an initial inkling of idea to a fully formed work of art? It's often challenging to describe the creative process. In this hour we'll hear from some TED speakers — a poet, a novelist, and a singer/songwriter — who explore their craft and the daily challenge of nurturing creativity.

Read more
Movie Interviews
12:03 am
Fri June 1, 2012

Andrew Garfield, Disappearing Into Spidey's Suit

Originally published on Fri June 1, 2012 9:04 am

Andrew Garfield is an actor on the verge of superstardom — and he's only 28 years old.

Although Garfield may be best known to American audiences for playing Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network, Garfield started acting in England, where he grew up. There, Garfield made notable turns in the critically acclaimed Red Riding Trilogy as well as in Never Let Me Go, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Read more

Pages