NPR Audio - Business

This time last year, oil prices were at an all-time high of $140-a-barrel. These days prices are much lower but policymakers are still concerned about what's going on in the oil market. Sarah Ladislaw is an energy analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC. She talks with Renee Montagne about the volatility in the oil market.

Being tough on crime is tough on California's budget. From revolving-door parolees, to powerful unions to the three-strikes law, many challenges are facing the state's overburdened system.

When Congress passed a new law to give people up to $4,500 to junk their old cars and buy new, more efficient ones, the auto industry cheered. But some charities say they'll be the unintended victims of this program, and so will the low-income people they try to help.

The rest of Wall Street may still be reeling, but Goldman Sachs showed Tuesday that it is not only back, it is making money at a furious pace. Goldman reported earnings of more than $3.4 billion in the second quarter on record results in trading and stock underwriting. It's quite a turnaround from a year ago when it posted a loss.

The No. 1 problem entrepreneurs face is getting enough money to fund their ideas. Attracting capital during the worst recession in decades is even tougher. So, entrepreneurs with big ideas are increasingly turning to the entity that's still spending: the federal government.

A once-prominent Manhattan attorney was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison. Marc Dreier, 59, had pleaded guilty to a $400 million scheme that involved fake promissory notes.

Retail sales advanced in June by the largest amount in five months, led by a surge in gasoline prices and a slight rebound in the battered auto sector. And wholesale prices took a bigger-than-expected leap last month.

The nation's No. 1 lender to small and mid-sized U.S. businesses is struggling financially. CIT Group has said it is holding advanced talks with the government about receiving emergency federal assistance. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says he is monitoring developments.

Intelligence officials have long hoped that data mining — collecting vast amounts of personal information — would uncover some sort of discernable terrorist pattern. But as hopes for that outcome dim, analysts are turning to a system that searches through data to find common threads.

Law enforcement agencies vacuum up vast quantities of data in search of patterns that might suggest terrorist activity — raising fears that privacy may be violated in the process. New software helps track who is looking at what to enforce government accountability.

Many states are shutting down their interstate rest stops. Not Texas. The Lone Star state is upgrading its rest areas with Internet kiosks and WiFi access. States including Virginia, Vermont and Colorado are planning to close at least some of their rest areas.

As Rust Belt cities empty out, some locals want to shrink the cities to help save them, replacing abandoned houses and vacant lots with green spaces.

The state's budget is in such crisis that it is issuing IOUs instead of checks. One factor in the state's complicated mess is the many voter-approved initiatives. As sloppy as the proposition process is, Californians like holding the power.

The FDA will now require warning labels on Chantix and Zyban, two popular anti-smoking prescription drugs that it says could spark changes in a patient, including depression, hostility and suicidal thoughts.

Ohio is one state that's had a lot of trouble translating the money from President Obama's stimulus package into new jobs — and a poll indicates they're holding the President accountable.

From long-term care savings accounts to parks funding, revamping the health care system is about more than just new taxes and deals with hospitals and insurance companies.

The major banks in California have announced they will no longer be honoring the state's IOUs, leaving many companies and organizations across the state severely short on cash. Reporter Cyrus Farivar received his own IOU from California $82.30 — and got a lesson in buying and selling futures from online resellers.

Last month, small business owner Larry Harbour of Broken Bow, Neb., told NPR that health insurance was unaffordable because of the $24,000- to $40,000-a-year premiums. That sounded way off-base to a Nebraska insurance broker. So, he called Harbour himself.

For decades, troops who came to Fort Irwin, Calif., to train faced fellow soldiers in live combat drills. But the Iraq war has created new job opportunities for some Americans and Iraqis as actors, role-playing in the Army's war games.

This week, President Obama traveled to Russia, Europe and Africa, while back at home, political surprises and scandals keep politics bubbling.

How might the economy affect President Obama's popularity — and thus his policies? Abroad, his arms limitation agreement with the Russians may already have fallen apart.

Now that it's emerging from bankruptcy in record time, what's next for GM? Getting out of bankruptcy is one thing — building and selling millions of cars that consumers want may be a bigger challenge.

At a shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, a group of men reflect on their recent deportations. Many were sent back to Mexico after committing crimes in the United States. On top of that, the distressed economy is squeezing illegal workers out of their low-wage jobs.

Mark Malkoff is afraid of flying. Or, at least, he used to be. The comedian and writer just finished living on an airplane for a month. He shares his secret for conquering a fear of flying in 30 days.

Musician Dave Carroll's $3,500 guitar was damaged by United Airlines baggage handlers. He complained to the airline, but got nowhere so he decided to write a song about it. His song, "United Breaks Guitars," went viral on YouTube.

American International Group's plan to pay millions in retention bonuses to top executives caused a political firestorm a few months ago. Both the company and federal officials are hoping to avoid another fiasco. AIG has asked the Obama administration's new "compensation czar" to approve the bonuses to shield the company from a public backlash. The Treasury Department says the consultation process is just getting under way.

General Motors has emerged from bankruptcy with its eye on regaining the trust and the dollars of the American consumer. But Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman, says the automaker can only hope to break even in this economy.

The president's comments came shortly after G-8 leaders committed themselves to provide $15 billion in aid to help farmers in poor countries. The economic summit ended Friday.

Hoping to avoid a backlash over bonuses, American International Group is asking the federal government to weigh in on the insurer's plan to resume paying retention bonuses. Published reports say AIG has asked compensation czar Kenneth Feinberg to approve the payments.

The new General Motors will be far faster and more responsive to customers than the old one, and it will make money and repay government loans faster than required, CEO Fritz Henderson said Friday as the company emerged from bankruptcy protection.

International climate talks in Italy ended with few promises to cope with global warming. China and other developing countries continue to say they will not commit to stemming the flow of carbon dioxide from their smokestacks. These countries are first demanding dramatic action from the fully industrialized world.

Chef Garrett Brown shows a crowd at a Seattle farmers market how to make savory and sweet dishes with cherries — which Washington state grows more than any other place in the U.S. On the menu: cold cherry soup and pork tenderloin with cherry sauce.

The depressed economy has students lined up to enroll at community colleges. At any other time, surging enrollment would be seen as a boon, but the spike comes as state and local governments are cutting financial support for the schools.

An invite to a Facebook group led NPR's Margot Adler to take a closer look at the ads on her profile page. What she saw were pitches for smoothing wrinkles and weight loss. Then she decided to ignore them.

"Beyond Petroleum" has been a multimillion dollar ad campaign for British Petroleum. In it, the company spent the past several years touting its alternative energy plans. But now the oil giant is trimming back the division, according to Financial Times reporter Ed Crooks.

Google has surprised the tech world with an announcement that it will launch its own operating system, aimed initially at the cheap, portable computers known as netbooks. It's the first-time Google has ventured into operating systems, a market dominated by Microsoft.

The words discount, half-price and final sale can get you running to the mall or reaching for your credit card. But in her book called Cheap, author Ellen Ruppel Shell explains why bargain-hunting may come at a high price.

On Monday, Oscar G. Mayer, the retired chairman of his family's meat products company, died at the age of 95. He was the third Oscar Mayer in the family — the namesake of bologna, the patron saint of hot dogs, and the captain of the Weinermobile.

Economists say cheating on your spouse comes with its own cost-benefit analysis. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is paying for his affair in the form of rebuke from his own party. If philandering is so costly, why do so many people make that choice?