Our Business News

Recently, many people affected by Superstorm Sandy had extensive water damage to their cars and were faced with car insurance claims in the thousands of dollars. While it may seem as if the best-case scenario is to have the auto insurance company deem the car a total loss and write a check, it actually may not be the smartest choice for those who own older cars.When you experience major damage to an older car, whether it is from a natural disaster, such as Superstorm Sandy, or a car accident, it’s easy for your insurance claim to be near or higher [...]

On China: Consumption booming On China: Growing resentment As China’s ranks of consumers swell — the number of middle class earners is estimated to grow 70% to 600 million by 2020 — so too rises the stakes for companies looking to cash into China’s growing consumer market.”It’s very important for the Western brands to not simply take an existing strategy or operations and try to take it into Chinese market,” said Janet Wang, director of international business development for “You always have to be very flexible, be reactive to consumers’ requirements and demands.”One company that’s done it right, Wang said, [...]

Volunteering can take many forms: companies are seeing the benefit of offering employees chances to work on social projects.Companies with strong sustainability programs seen as popularJobs that are ‘flexible’ and ‘meaningful’ increasingly attractive Opportunities to work for the greater good a benefit for companies and individuals Experts agree: employees want to work for the good guys. And if companies want to attract and keep top talent, corporate social responsibility (CSR) matters.But as it turns out, just working for one of the “good guys” is no longer enough; employees want to be good guys, too. Companies like Patagonia and Levi’s are [...]

NEW YORK Traders and investors were in agreement on one thing as voters cast their ballots in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election: The markets want a clear winner by Wednesday morning. U.S. equity markets rose on Tuesday, in part due to relief that the drawn-out campaign had reached its end. The final Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll on Monday showed a tight national race, with Democratic President Barack Obama up two points against his challenger, Republican Mitt Romney, at 48 percent to 46 percent. Polling averages also show Obama with small but critical leads in Ohio, Virginia and Iowa. Some market analysts forecast [...]

Microsoft (MSFT) began airing its debut Surface tablet commercial earlier this week and early responses have been mixed. I have seen some praise strewn about the Web, but the loudest responses to the ad seem to come from tech bloggers and pundits who have panned the colorful commercial because it doesn’t focus on showing us the Surface’s various functions or its benefits over Apple’s (AAPL) market-leading iPad. There have been a few valid points made amid the chatter, but most of these complaints are missing the big picture by a mile. This content was originally published on Windows 8 and [...]

Pinera outlines plans to boost Chilean economy despite global downturnPresident wants Chile to be part of the ‘First World’ by 2020Free-trade agreements are the key to boosting Chilean industries Editor’s note: Business Traveller is a monthly show about making the most of doing business on the road. Sebastián Piñera is a man on a mission. The Chilean President wants to transform his homeland into a developed nation by 2020.It’s a big challenge to undertake during a decade that’s already been marred by recession and global economic uncertainty. Yet Mr Piñera seems confident.”We have invested so much that I hope that [...]

SAN FRANCISCO Facebook Inc is testing a feature that lets users of the social network create “wishlists” of home furnishings, clothing and other retail products, laying the groundwork for what some believe could be an eventual push into e-commerce. Facebook said it is working with seven retailers, including Pottery Barn and Victoria’s Secret, to test the new feature that will allow certain users to flag images of desired products by clicking a special “want” button. “People will be able to engage with these collections and share things they are interested in with their friends. People can click through and buy [...]

VALLETTA France and Italy led a call by five euro zone member states for the European Union to press ahead toward setting up a single banking regulator by the end of the year to be running in 2013. The leaders of France, Malta, Spain, Italy, and Portugal met in Malta on Friday at a summit with North African countries as part of the 5+5 group of Mediterranean countries. The leaders in a joint statement said the next European Council on October 18-19 “must pave the way towards the establishment of a single European banking supervision system, to be decided before [...]

“The Boomer” is a column written for adults nearing retirement age and those already in their “golden years.” It will also promote reader interaction by posting e-mail responses and answering reader questions. E-mail your questions or topic ideas to thefoxboomer@gmail.com. With more than half of the voting population now over age 50, baby boomers hold a tremendous amount of power in November. The recession and its aftermath have left boomers’ retirement plans and prospects in flux (to put it nicely), and many of us are looking for more economic stability in both the labor and housing market. A new series [...]

There’s nothing like hearing this from someone to give me a furrowed brow: “I want to do what you do.” Hmmmmm. Does that mean you want to write? Write for a living? Have two columns a week published on a major network website? Come up with a constant stream of ideas to lend some inspiration and meaning to people’s lives? Or, put more simply and generally, to be absolutely exhilarated by what you do? Let’s go with the latter, but I’ll use examples from my own experiences along the way. Almost all of my clients and even those just inquiring [...]