Car Buying, Reenvisioned: More Like Shopping for Apple Gadgets, Ice Cream, or a Date
Buying a new car is an awful experience. The sentiment has been expressed by many people, in many colorful ways. A few examples: In 2009, John Krafcik, CEO of Hyundai Motor America, addressed a crowd of auto insiders with refreshing honesty when he admitted that the entire industry was “viewed with contempt,” and that “we have reached the point where, frankly, Americans would rather go to the dentist than visit a car dealer.” The traditional back-and-forth games at car dealerships is “a process designed for the village idiot,” according to the CEO of the nation’s largest car dealership chain, quoted in a recent Wall Street Journal piece. “Buying a car sucks,” Scott Painter flatly told NPR. Painter is the founder and CEO of TrueCar, a service that’s supposed to help consumers buy cars at a decent price—and theoretically makes the experience less sucky. (MORE: How Car Buying Is Becoming Less Awful — Or At Least Less Time-Consuming) Does it have to be this way? The NPR ...
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SEC Official Elisse Walter Chosen to Lead Agency
(WASHINGTON) — President Barack Obama has chosen Elisse Walter, one of five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to become chairman of the agency. Chairman Mary Schapiro will leave next month after a tumultuous tenure in which she helped lead the government’s regulatory response to the 2008 financial crisis. Walter will take over at a critical time for the SEC, which is finalizing new rules in response to the 2008 financial crisis. She can serve through 2013 without Senate approval because she’s already been confirmed to the commission. Obama will need to nominate a permanent successor before Walter’s term ends. News reports have suggested that Mary John Miller, a top Treasury Department official, is among those mentioned as a potential candidate. (MORE: Obama Selects Three Financial Regulators) Walter, who is a Democrat, was appointed to the SEC in 2008 by President George W. Bush. Earlier, she was a senior official at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the ...
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Mary Schapiro Stepping Down as SEC Chair
(WASHINGTON) — Mary Schapiro will step down as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission next month after a tumultuous tenure in which she helped lead the U.S. government’s regulatory response to the 2008 financial crisis. President Barack Obama designated Elisse Walter, an SEC commissioner, to replace Schapiro. Schapiro will leave Dec. 14, the SEC said Monday. She was appointed by Obama in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. She took over after the agency failed to detect the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. (MORE: Obama Selects Three Financial Regulators) Schapiro is credited with helping reshape the SEC after it was accused of failing to detect reckless investments by many of Wall Street’s largest financial institutions before the crisis. And she led an agency that brought civil charges against the nation’s largest banks. But critics argued that she failed to act aggressively to charge leading individuals at those banks who may have contributed ...
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South Korea mall says 'Hello shopper, nice to see you'
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 - 04:36 Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images People walk through a mall in Seoul's Gangnam District in Seoul, South Korea. Here's an idea: Put kiosks throughout a mall armed with facial recognition cameras that figure out a shopper's gender and age. The Wall Street Journal says it's happening now at the International Finance Center Mall in Seoul, South Korea. The system then makes shopping recommendations and will soon generate customized ads. The demographic data is being gathered, but the company involved says there's no personal information. Chester Wisniewski, at the online security firm Sophos, "The creepy factor to it all is that the technology being used isn’t really all that different than the technology that could be used to more pinpoint who you actually are or potentially record you." He says it's not much a leap between tech that recognizes you in the mall to tech that links that with your social media profile. Which is happening now in the U.S. although ...
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The haves and the have-nots? Not in Country Knolls
Monday, September 24, 2012 - 12:05 Tracey Samuelson The income equality in Country Knolls manifests itself in the 'sameness' of the community's houses. "Stepford Wives," says one resident. Nestled in the rolling hills of Saratoga County, N.Y. (about 30 minutes north of Albany), the development of Country Knolls is dotted with traditional colonial homes and long, low ranch-style houses. Its winding roads are lined with soaring maples and pines. There’s a busy community pool and an 80-acre woodland reserve through which a local boy scout troop cut a series of trails. It is the is the place with the greatest income equality in the nation., according to the Census Bureau. As concern about growing income inequality has found outlets in the Occupy Wall Street protests and made its way onto the presidential campaign trail, this community doesn’t have to worry about a daunting wage gap. The median income is a comfortable $107,000 a year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. No one in Country ...
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