Posted by Katharine Crnko
For Marketplace Morning Report, Wednesday June 16, 2011
Here are today’s top headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report and from around the web.
The bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Vice President Joe Biden will meet again today in Washington. There’s word the group wants to come up with a deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and cut spending by early July.
The Greek government is being reshuffled this morning as the debt crisis in that country again shakes world markets. Global shares are down on new fears that Greece won’t be able to pay its bills.
Oil’s trading at about $94 a barrel today. Saudi Arabia is moving ahead with plans in the near-term to increase supply and help keep prices in check. But a new report this morning says the longer-term answer to meeting global oil demand will not come from the Middle East. But rather, North America.
To St. Petersburg, Russia now where there’s a big economic forum going on today. It’s being called the Davos of Russia because of all the political and economic bigwigs that are showing up. The event is an opportunity for Russia to market itself for international investment and this year there’s a lot more focus on opportunities in the east than the west.
Here’s a number for you: 360,000. That’s how many credit card customers Citigroup now says had their account information stolen in the recent data breach. That’s twice the number Citi had initially reported.
A report out this week from the Natural Resources Defense Council says those HD DVR cable boxes consume more than half the energy of a new refrigerator. And much of that electricity is used when the boxes aren’t even being used.
As if the U.S. Postal Service needed any more problems. In Dutch harbor, Alaska two post office customers were attacked last week by bald eagles. Turns out a pair of the birds which can have an 8-foot wingspan are nesting near the post office. And they’re dive bombing customers to protect their chicks. Authorities say they have no plans to move the nest or change the post office logo. Which of course is a picture of a bald eagle.
Last week, Google famously paid tribute to the late guitar giant Les Paul’s birthday on its home page — transforming the word Google into musical strings that people could record into a song. Soon, versions of everything from Free Bird to Stairway to Heaven started popping up on YouTube. Well now, website Extreme Tech says all that music-making cost the world more than $268 million in lost productivity.
You can read the rest of today’s stories from the Marketplace Morning Report here.
Here are the songs we played:
- Looking Glass — Little DragonBuy
- Southbound — Blue ScholarsBuy
- Cosmosis — DragonsBuy
- Surprise Hotel — Fool’s GoldBuy
- The Weight of My Words — Kings of ConvenienceBuy
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