A rare and major outage of Amazon’s cloud-based Web service on Thursday took down a plethora of other online sites, including Reddit, HootSuite, Foursquare and Quora. The outages began Thursday morning just before 5 a.m. ET and were still ongoing more than 24 hours later. In a series of running updates on its Web services [...]
For the first time in more than three years, consumers say they are happier with their banks. No, this isn’t a joke. While you can find stories every day about new fees popping up, and credit card interest rates rising as banks squirm under new regulations, consumers have actually become more satisfied with their banking experiences this [...]
Airlines again are seeking to boost round-trip ticket prices $10 on many domestic routes, while quietly offering huge limited-time discounts between other U.S. cities. US Airways on Thursday raised most of its domestic round-trip fares by $10, and three competing airlines — Delta, American and Continental — matched the increase Thursday and Friday. It was [...]
Just when it seemed like it couldn’t get much worse on the price front – how can you top $4 a gallon gasoline? – comes news the cherished summer barbecue is about to get more expensive. Contracts for future deliveries of corn, soybeans and wheat prices surged to the most permitted by the Chicago Board [...]
If your palms are sweaty, you’ve got heart palpitations and you can’t concentrate, it means one of two things: You’re in love, or you owe money to the IRS. Those who fall into the latter category have about two weeks to come up with the cash. Failure to pay by the deadline could trigger a [...]
Chips are disappearing from bags, candy from boxes and vegetables from cans. As an expected increase in the cost of raw materials looms for late summer, consumers are beginning to encounter shrinking food packages. With unemployment still high, companies in recent months have tried to camouflage price increases by selling their products in tiny and [...]
Proposed federal funding for alcohol-detection devices could make them available as a new car option within 10 years, but some hope — and others fret — it will speed installation in every car. “What we’d like to see is it used as much as possible,” says Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). [...]
Pennsylvania’s growing gambling industry could surpass struggling Atlantic City, N.J., to become the nation’s second-largest gambling market sometime next year, an analyst told a gambling forum Tuesday. Casino operators, financial analysts and government officials met for the second day of the Pennsylvania Gaming Congress and Mid-Atlantic Racing Forum at a downtown hotel, discussing the state’s [...]
Food prices rose 3.9% last month, marking the biggest jump in 36 years, which is certain to affect the groceries people buy and the restaurants they dine at. The Labor Department’sProducer Price Index for February rose 1.6% — the largest increase since June 2009. About 70% of the rise in food prices is from higher prices [...]
In the wake of Japan’s quake crisis, many Americans are eager to help. But they must be aware of scammers seeking to take advantage of them. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said they are already investigating one potential scheme where fraudsters misrepresent themselves as the British Red Cross and seek donations in the form of [...]
