Marilyn Geewax

Comp time or cold cash: Which would you pick?

Marilyn Geewax — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:10:47 +0000

Overtime or comp time? Which one suits you best?

Both you and your boss may agree it would be best for you to work a sixth day when a big project is due in March, and then take off for a long weekend in June. No big deal.

But under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, private employers must pay time and a half to workers who put in more than 40 hours on the job in any one week.

In most cases, workers are eager to get that overtime pay.

Fiscal cliff calendar: What happens when

Marilyn Geewax — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 20:15:10 +0000

As weary as many Americans grew of campaign commercials last month, they may be getting even more annoyed this month by endless talk of the fiscal cliff, the massive collection of tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect at year's end.

It's easy to understand the urge to stick fingers in ears and loudly chant "la-la-la-la." The budget problems are indeed complicated, and the negotiations tedious.

But resolving the mess is extremely important: Without a solution, every person who gets a paycheck or has investments will see his or her taxes rise.

And if the stalemate were to ling

Hurricane Sandy's economic impact likely to be immense

Marilyn Geewax — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 22:06:59 +0000

Economists will need many days — maybe weeks or months — to assess the financial harm being done by Hurricane Sandy. But whatever the final figure, it will be huge, well into the tens of billions of dollars.

More than 60 million Americans are feeling the impact of the weather monster slamming New York, New Jersey, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and many other states.

5 questions 'real' people might ask at tonight's presidential debate

Marilyn Geewax — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:53:21 +0000

As this election year began, political pundits insisted the No. 1 issue would be the economy. They expected the candidates to offer voters detailed plans for encouraging job growth.

Now, with the election just three weeks away, many Americans are still scratching their heads, wondering what exactly President Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney would do to improve the economy.

During the first presidential debate, the moderator did little to nail down details on the topics that matter most to average people, such as home prices, gasoline, wages, exports and jobs.

Before the presidential debate, brush up on buzzwords

Marilyn Geewax — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:04:25 +0000

In their first debate Wednesday night, the two presidential candidates will explain their plans for fixing the U.S. economy.

Good luck.

The problems are complicated and long-standing, so the solutions may not be easy to spell out in the two minutes allowed for each answer under the debate rules.

But President Obama, the Democratic incumbent, and former Gov. Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger, will try, and about 60 million people are expected to tune in.

Pray for rain: Food prices heading higher

Marilyn Geewax — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 20:16:10 +0000

A fierce drought has been scorching crops this summer, but it's still too soon to know exactly how much of a hole it will burn in your wallet.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has just released its latest forecast for retail food prices.

Investors will get to friend Facebook by late spring

Marilyn Geewax — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:05:15 +0000

Facebook is about to find out just how many people like it.

The wildly popular social networking media company decided Wednesday to begin allowing its many "friends" in the public to buy its stock — likely in late spring.

The company, which has more than 800 million users, filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission saying it is going forward with an initial public offering.