Make your vacation pals cough up their fair share

(CNNMoney)

"Resentment over money is one of the biggest issues that ruin vacations," says Nadine Davidson, author of Travel With Others Without Wishing They'd Stayed Home.

So before you book this summer's big trip, air your expectations about who will pay for what and how luxuriously (or not) you'll travel. That way, your time together can be all about having fun.

The Ground Rules

Keep it light. Work the topic into a larger discussion about the good times you're going to have, says Patricia Rossi, author of Everyday Etiquette.

Put it in writing. Outline the costs in black and white after your discussion, or have the whole conversation via e-mail if that feels easier.

Prepay separately when you can. Can you each send in half the condo deposit? Buy your own plane tickets? Doing so will prevent headaches later. Or opt for an all-inclusive resort -- you'll have fewer bills to square up.

When You're Face to Face...

1. Opening gambit: "We're so excited to be going to Disney with you. We love the Mickey Mouse theme restaurant. Are there any places you want to try?"

Why it works: Talking about specific activities -- and even eateries -- offers insight into how your pal or relative intends to divvy up his vacation dollars. "Even if someone's in your tax bracket, it doesn't mean they like to spend their travel money the same way," says Davidson.

2. Suggest a split. "Unless you hit the lottery next month, I assume we'll be dividing everything fifty-fifty."

Why it works: Stating upfront how you expect to share costs sets the tone for the whole trip. Be sure to discuss when the money is needed, the deadline for refunds, and what happens if one party has to cancel. Infuse this with humor to make people feel at ease, says Rossi.

3. Take on the burden. "I know the hotel prices in Chicago are outrageous. Why don't I research some cost-effective options?"

Related: How to ask a pal or relative to pay you back

Why it works: Taking the reins can help you avoid the awkwardness that might ensue when, say, your spendy pals suggest the Ritz or your cheap friends pick the Fleabag Inn. Your travel mates are likely to be more receptive to different options if they know it won't create a hassle for them, says Marblehead, Mass., etiquette consultant Jodi R.R. Smith.

4. Propose a practical plan. "Since we're eating lunches at the condo, how about each family sets aside $100 for grocery store runs?"

Why it works: Putting a system in place ensures that no one winds up footing the whole bill, says Lynn O'Rourke Hayes, editor of FamilyTravel.com. Create a communal account or put receipts in a specific place to be tallied up later. Also address how you'll pay for booze, since differences in consumption can cause tension.

5. Ask for alone time. "Seafood isn't really our thing. When you guys go to the surf-and-turf place, we'll head to our favorite taco stand."

Why it works: Making some separate plans allows each party to look forward to things that cater to its budget and tastes. After all, says Smith, "part of the fun of a vacation is the anticipation."

First Published: May 8, 2013: 6:51 PM ET

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Homebuyers clueless about mortgages

One-third of respondents believe lenders are required by law to charge the same fees to all clients. That's wrong. Fees vary and can often be negotiated.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

When it comes to mortgages, homebuyers answered basic questions about terms, how to choose a lender and financing wrong nearly one-third of the time, according to an April survey of more than 1,000 current and prospective homeowners by real estate website Zillow.

Among the survey's findings, 31% of buyers don't think it's possible to get a mortgage for less than 5% down; 34% don't know what the term "annual percentage rate" (APR) means and one in four believe you must close with the lender that pre-approves your mortgage.

Related: Tips for buying a home

"All too often buyers focus on negotiating a lower home price and ignore the importance of finding the right loan," said Erin Lantz, director of mortgages for Zillow. "Buyers should always shop multiple lenders and compare rates and fees and read lender reviews in order to find the best loan for their situation."

One example: 34% of respondents believe lenders are required by law to charge the same fees to all clients for credit reports, appraisals and the like. That's wrong. Fees vary from bank to bank and can often be negotiated.

Related: 5 best markets to buy a home

But it's hard to compare those deals if you don't understand what mortgage terms, like "annual percentage rate," mean. The APR factors into fees, upfront points, origination and underwriting fees and other costs that borrowers use to compare the actual cost of loans.

Such knowledge gaps can have long-term consequences. About 34% of first-time homebuyers think they need a down payment of at least 5% to make a home purchase, but loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration can require as little as 3.5% down.

Related: How much house can you afford?

And 24% of buyers believe the best mortgage deals are available through the banks where they currently have their savings and checking accounts, but often competing lenders can undercut those banks by large margins.

"If a homebuyer can lower their interest rate by even half a percentage point, they can not only increase their purchasing power, but save thousands of dollars over the life of the loan," said Lantz.

For every $100,000 borrowed, a half percentage point lower rate would reduce payments by $28 a month on a 30-year, fixed rate loan. That adds up to more than $10,000 over 30 years. Or borrowers could choose to add that $28 savings to each monthly payment. That would shorten the term of the mortgage from 30 years to just over 27 and save $6,500 in interest paid.

Related: Was my home a good investment?

Another costly mistake: Many house hunters go shopping with financing in place because it enables them to act more quickly if they see a home they want. But 26% of buyers believe that once they're pre-approved, they're obligated to close the deal with those loans, according to the survey. In reality, there's no obligation. If buyers see better terms available they should take them.

Existing homeowners can also be guilty of ignorance. Some 20% of homeowners surveyed didn't know that underwater mortgages -- those in which borrowers owe more than their homes are worth -- can be refinanced into lower rate loans.

Related: Boomerang buyers return to market after foreclosure

Finally, the survey found that nearly a third of homeowners are unaware that if they go through a foreclosure or short sale, they may not have to wait the full seven years it takes for their credit score to recover and they can buy a home again.

In reality, some homeowners who do short sales can obtain financing to buy another home in as little as two years.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is hoping to make it easier for homebuyers with simplified mortgage forms that help them compare terms and costs and by creating new rules that will protect homeowners from getting into loans they can't afford.

First Published: May 9, 2013: 12:24 AM ET

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Current deficit plunges 32%

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

A major reason: A big jump in tax revenue.

Tax collections rose by $220 billion -- or 16% -- between the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1 through April 30. Individual and payroll taxes accounted for $184 billion of that increase.

The tax haul rose sharply primarily because wages and salaries were higher, the payroll tax cut of the past two years expired on Jan. 1 and the fiscal cliff deal brokered over New Year's raised tax rates on high earners.

Spending, meanwhile, fell 1.9% year over year, the CBO estimated.

The biggest percentage drop occurred in the payment of unemployment benefits, which were down nearly 25%, or $15 billion. Defense spending fell 5.3%, or $20 billion, and "other activities" -- primarily spending on nondefense programs -- fell 8.6%, or $58 billion.

Related: Deficits are falling. For now.

Less was spent, for instance, on housing assistance, energy programs and international assistance, along with the TARP bank bailout and on mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Spending in some categories, however, was higher. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security outlays combined rose by $50 billion, or between 6% and 7%.

While the country has still racked up an estimated $489 billion deficit in the first seven months of this year, that's about a third less than the $720 billion recorded for the same period last year.

Higher than expected revenue and lower spending has pushed back the real deadline for when Congress must raise the debt ceiling until as late as October.

And it's easing pressure on Congress to cut a big debt deal anytime soon.

Later this month, the CBO is expected to publish its revised estimates for spending, taxes and deficits over the next 10 years. Earlier this year, it estimated an annual deficit for 2013 of $845 billion, but some budget observers have said they expect the deficit for this year will come in lower than that.

First Published: May 7, 2013: 5:55 PM ET

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Whole Foods shares surge as growth continues

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Shares of the grocery chain surged 8% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the firm posted quarterly earnings that beat expectations and increased its earnings guidance.

Revenue this past quarter increased 13% versus a year prior, while same-store sales increased 6.6%. The company also announced a two-for-one stock split that will increase the total shares of common stock outstanding from roughly 185 million to 370 million.

Whole Foods (WFM, Fortune 500) focuses on healthy and upscale products, competing with chains like Trader Joe's and Fairway.

The company has booked sales growth of better than 10% in the past few years, and expects sales to increase 13.6% in the 2013 fiscal year. It currently has 349 locations and is in the process of expanding, with plans to open three more stores this quarter and 12 in the upcoming quarter.

Whole Foods co-founder and co-CEO John Mackey said in a statement that the company believes it will "continue to gain market share as we accelerate our new store openings."

Whole Foods says that over the long term, it sees the possibility of 1,000 stores in the United States, as "consumer demand for natural and organic products continues to increase." The chain said it also sees "great promise" in Canada and the U.K.

First Published: May 7, 2013: 6:24 PM ET

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Oil companies target America for investment

The domestic oil boom is prompting U.S. oil firms to sell assets overseas and invest the money in American projects.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Last year ConocoPhillips (COP, Fortune 500) announced plans to sell its stake in Kazakhstan's Kashagan oil field -- the largest energy project in the world -- for $5 billion. It was just one of at least six major foreign sales last year for Conoco, which totaled nearly $11 billion, according to industry data provider PLS.

Much of that money is being redirected to investments Conoco has in Texas' Eagle Ford Shale and North Dakota's Bakken Shale, according to PLS Managing Director Brian Lidsky. Conoco did not return a call seeking comment.

American oil firm Hess (HES, Fortune 500) did something similar, selling over $4 billion of assets in the U.K., Azerbaijan and Russia. A company spokesman said that money went to a number of different initiatives, including paying down debt and building up the company's balance sheet. The spokesman said Hess invested $3.1 billion in North Dakota in 2012, where the company boosted its oil production by 55%.

U.S. oil companies Devon (DVN, Fortune 500), Marathon (MARA), Anadarko (APC, Fortune 500), Murphy (MUR, Fortune 500) and Noble Energy (NBL) have all sold overseas assets in the last couple of years. In addition to Texas and North Dakota, PLS said the money has gone, at least in part, to Colorado's Niobrara and Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale.

"Everyone is looking to increase their presence in the United States," said Joe Stanislaw, an independent senior energy adviser at the consulting firm Deloitte.

Related story: America has an energy boom. Now what?

The reason is pretty straightforward: It's generally easier to do business in the United States than in many other places.

Unlike Libya, Iraq and other places that take 90% or more of a company's profits, taxes and royalties in the United States seldom exceed 50%. The geology is better known. The rule of law is strong. Workers are skilled and infrastructure is available. There's little risk of violence.

"The political risk in the United States is they may try to shut you down," Stanislaw said. "They're not going to blow up your camp."

The energy boom in the United States -- made possible by new drilling technology and techniques -- has been well-documented. The country is on track to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world's leading oil producer by 2020.

The expansion certainly comes with environmental risks. The widespread use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to crack the shale rock and allow oil and gas to flow has raised concerns over water contamination and earth quakes. Air pollution, congestion, and other problems plague energy boom towns.

But the boom has brought jobs -- a trend that's likely to accelerate.

More than $5 trillion is expected to be invested in U.S. shale and other "unconventional" energy developments by 2035, according to the consultancy IHS. The money is coming from both U.S. companies and foreign firms eager to get in on the boom.

Some 1.7 million people currently work in or around these new energy plays. By 2035, IHS expects the energy boom to directly or indirectly support 3.5 million American jobs. Around 700,000 of those jobs are expected to materialize within the next two years.

"That's a sizable number of jobs in an economy with a fairly slack labor market," said IHS economist John Larson.

The benefits will ripple beyond states sitting on top of the shale formations, Larson said.

One out of every four jobs already created has taken place in a state that's not seeing any new drilling, by IHS's estimate. The tally includes ancillary hiring such as real estate professionals in New York, insurance agents in Boston or heavy equipment makers in Illinois that are all benefiting, one way or another, from the country's energy boom.

First Published: May 8, 2013: 12:35 AM ET

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Term life insurance prices rising amid low interest rates

Premiums for term life insurance can vary widely. Search online for comparison pricing.

(Money Magazine)

Following a decade in which prices fell to all-time lows, premiums for new term policies last year rose an average of 3%, says online agency IntelliQuote, which forecasts more increases this year.

The culprit? Sickly yields on bonds, in which insurers invest most of customers' premiums.

Hit hardest are policies longer than the standard 20-year term; top firms Genworth and ING have stopped selling 30-year term, and rates are up about 5% among remaining carriers, says Byron Udell of term life agency AccuQuote.

Related: Strategies for buying life insurance

Despite the general increase, premiums can vary widely. To nab a low-priced policy, start your search online with either IntelliQuote or AccuQuote.

Stick with insurers rated A or better for financial strength by A.M. Best. And should you want coverage beyond your guaranteed term, screen for policies giving you until age 60 to convert to permanent insurance without a physical -- a big plus if health changes make you uninsurable.

Highs and lows

Prices for term insurance range widely.

Annual premium for a $500,000 policy for 40-year-old healthy male
Low	$355
Median	415
High	565

Note: Based on March 2013 quotes for a 20-year level term policy from 11 insurers with an A.M. Best rating of A or better. Source: AccuQuote

First Published: May 6, 2013: 4:45 PM ET

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Senate approves Internet sales tax proposal

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The so-called Marketplace Fairness Act would allow the 45 states (and the District of Columbia) that currently charge sales taxes to require large online retailers to collect tax on purchases made by their residents. The law would only apply to online sellers that have sales of at least $1 million in states where they don't have physical operations, like a store or a warehouse.

The Senate voted 69 to 27 to approve the bill, which enjoyed bipartisan support. But before it can become law, it must be approved by the House, where Republicans are split on the issue.

Some House Republicans have already expressed support for the bill, arguing that it would level the playing field for small brick-and-mortar retailers. They say it would not create a new tax, but rather enforce the collection of taxes already charged at traditional retailers. But other House Republicans still view that as a tax increase on consumers or say it would overburden Internet businesses in their states.

The Obama administration has endorsed the bill, so if it can gain approval in the House, it is likely to become law.

Related: What an Internet sales tax would cost you

If the bill is enacted, academic studies estimate more than $12 billion in additional sales taxes will be collected from online purchases each year.

Big brick-and-mortar retailers with an online presence, such as Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), already charge sales tax for web purchases. But in many states, you can still shop tax-free at Internet-only retailers like Amazon or Overstock (OSTK).

That's because under current law, online sellers are only required to collect tax in states where they have a physical presence. And while most states require shoppers to pay a so-called "use tax" when a sales tax wasn't collected at online checkout, few people actually follow through.

CNN Radio: Is it fair to tax Internet purchases?

"This collection disparity has tilted the competitive landscape against local stores, creating a crisis for brick-and-mortar retailers around the country and in your state," David French, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation, one of the bill's loudest supporters, said in a letter to Senate members.

Close to 30% of online shoppers surveyed by advisory firm AlixPartners recently said they would shop more at brick-and-mortar retailers if the tax became reality. Nearly half, though, said that an Internet sales tax would have no effect on their online shopping habits, according to the survey of about 2,500 consumers.

Related: Internet Sales Tax: What you need to know

After years of battling individual state efforts, Internet giant Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) is supporting the bill, in part because the company is already collecting sales tax in nine states where it has warehouses.

Many other online retailers remain opposed to the legislation, saying that the sales tax would hurt business and create an administrative nightmare because they would have to determine tax rates for different states and localities at checkout.

Anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform has also come out strongly against the legislation, which it says "can only be viewed as a tax increase." It did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) is lobbying for a $10 million exemption for small businesses.

First Published: May 6, 2013: 7:06 PM ET

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Nintendo's big problem

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The company sold only 3.45 million of the Wii U video game consoles during the first quarter, badly missing its own target of 4 million. The hand-held 3DS gaming device has also been a disappointment outside of Japan.

Making matters worse, Nintendo's solution to the problem is a head-scratcher: CEO Satoru Iwata last week announced his support for in-game transactions and subscription-based payment models.

As secondary concepts these are fine, but if Nintendo thinks this is what gamers really want from a modern console, it has lost touch with reality.

For decades now, it has been this type of thinking that has plagued Nintendo: The company is cognizant of the latest trends and shifts in gaming, but it chooses to disregard them in the name of simplicity, or family-friendly gaming. Instead, Nintendo frequently opts to develop its own warped, counterintuitive take on the latest trends.

Since the launch of the Gamecube in 2001, Nintendo has shied away from online gaming and entertainment-based features that were popular on rival consoles, such as the Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) Xbox or Sony (SNE) PlayStation. When it did finally offer some of these features, they were often half-baked (see: Nintendo's "Wi-Fi Connection" online gaming service). Others were largely unavailable to the masses (see the Panasonic Q, the Gamecube with the DVD player that only came out in Japan).

Sometimes Nintendo's push to be different has paid off, most notably when it released the paradigm-shifting Wii console. But the negative effects of that tendency have never been so evident as now, with the sluggish sales of its latest console, the Wii U.

With Microsoft and Sony turning the gaming console into full-blown living room computers, Nintendo is being dragged along, kicking and screaming, refusing to fully acknowledge times have changed.

The Wii U was Nintendo's attempt to expand on its innovative gameplay ideas. But the impact hasn't been nearly the same as the Wii. Some new Wii U features, like the touchscreen-equipped controller feel convoluted, and less innovative compared to technologies like Microsoft's Kinect camera. Nintendo games that actually take proper advantage of the motion gaming tech aren't coming from third-party developers, and Nintendo's own titles -- which are excellent more often than not -- aren't coming anytime soon.

Nintendo figurehead Shigeru Miyamoto has told the world to be patient for more games to come out, but this time around, simply pumping out its usual top notch games won't be enough.

Yes, the Wii U has improved upon its online gaming service, and given its console more content and features which integrate with your TV. The company said last week it will focus more on what it can do with digital distribution of Wii U games. That's a good thing -- even if Nintendo is five years behind. But the company still is treating that as an added bonus, and not a pillar of its business strategy.

And considering that Nintendo has long said that it cares more about game play than graphics, it seems strange that it hasn't put more time and effort into building out its WiiWare platform for indie developers looking to put out original titles. WiiWare started out promisingly enough in 2008, as the initial home to titles such as World of Goo and Mega Man 9, but since then it has mostly devolved into a den of cheap and generic mini-games. Since 2012, less than 25 titles have seen release through the platform.

Then there's the elephant in the room that nobody wants to acknowledge: smartphone gaming. Nintendo is adamant that it won't release its games for smartphones, despite the fact that they'd likely be instant top sellers.

It's understandable that Nintendo wouldn't want to release some of its newer games on a competing mobile platform, for fear of cannibalization, but looking at the success that companies like Square Enix have had reissuing its Final Fantasy titles on the iPhone, what real harm is there in offering games like Super Mario Brothers? Nobody is going to buy a Nintendo 3DS just to download that from the eStore.

Since the days of the Nintendo 64, it's always been pretty easy to see when, where and why Nintendo was going to stumble as a company. And more often than not, it was because of their own stubborn thinking. The buildup of their past oversights has added up and left them lagging far behind their peers in present times.

You have to wonder how many free-thinking aces Nintendo has left up its sleeve in order to save itself once again.

First Published: May 7, 2013: 12:20 AM ET

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Stock market momentum continues

Click the chart for more stock market data.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Small investors, who missed the stock market rally of the past few years, are being drawn in by the record highs and returning in droves. The new money could stoke more stock buying and send indexes higher again.

This week, investors will have to digest economic reports on the U.S. consumer and manufacturing.

The consumer credit report due out on Tuesday will give investors a sense of how keen Americans are to reach into their pocket books.

Last week's jobs report gave an indication that consumers are feeling fine. Retail and food services experienced some of the strongest job growth in April's jobs report, adding 29,000 and 38,000 positions respectively.

Experts say this shows that households are more willing and able to go out and spend, which drives job growth.

Related: CNNMoney's Fear & Greed Index

The manufacturing sector will also be in play, with a report on wholesale inventories on tap for Thursday.

On the corporate front, several companies will report financial results this week, including Toyota (TM), News Corp. (NWS), Macy's (M, Fortune 500), Nissan (NSANF) and BAE Systems.

Stocks rallied last week, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly above 15,000 for the first time on Friday. For the week, the Dow rose 1.8%; the S&P 500 gained 2% and the Nasdaq added 3%.

April was a strong month, with the S&P 500 advancing for the sixth consecutive month.

First Published: May 5, 2013: 12:24 PM ET

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Senate to vote on proposed Internet sales tax law

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The legislation would allow the 45 states (and the District of Columbia) that currently charge sales taxes to require large online retailers to collect tax on purchases made by their residents. The law would only apply to online sellers that have sales of at least $1 million in states where they don't have physical operations, like a store or a warehouse.

The bill has a good chance of becoming law. It already received broad support in the Senate during earlier procedural votes, and now must pass Senate muster a final time. After that, however, it will need to be approved by the Republican-controlled House. Proponents argue that the proposal would not create a new tax, but rather enforce the collection of taxes already charged at brick-and-mortar retailers. Some House Republicans may view that as a tax increase.

If the bill is enacted, academic studies estimate that more than $12 billion in additional sales taxes will be collected from online purchases each year.

Related: What an Internet sales tax would cost you

Under current law, online sellers are only required to collect tax in states where they have a physical presence. Otherwise, consumers who shop online and don't pay a sales tax at the time of purchase are supposed to pay the tax to their home state. But estimates are that only about 1% of buyers comply with those widely unenforced laws.

"We think this will help level the playing field," said Stephen Schatz, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, one of the bill's largest supporters.

Close to 30% of online shoppers surveyed by advisory firm AlixPartners recently said they would shop more at brick-and-mortar retailers if the tax became reality. Nearly half, though, said that an Internet sales tax would have no effect on their online shopping habits, according to the survey of about 2,500 consumers.

Related: Internet Sales Tax: What you need to know

After years of opposition, Internet giant Amazon.com (AMZN, Fortune 500) is also supporting the bill, in part because the company is already collecting sales tax in nine of the states where it has warehouses.

Many other online retailers remain opposed to the legislation, saying that the sales tax would hurt business and create an administrative nightmare because they would have to determine tax rates for different states and localities at checkout. Anti-tax group, Americans for Tax Reform, has also come out strongly against the legislation, which it says "can only be viewed as a tax increase."

Meanwhile, eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500), which has loudly opposed the tax, is lobbying for a broader exemption for small businesses.

"The solution is simple," CEO John Donahoe said in a letter to eBay users. "If Congress passes online sales tax legislation, we believe small businesses with less than 50 employees or less than $10 million in annual out-of-state sales should be exempt from the burden of collecting sales taxes nationwide."

First Published: May 5, 2013: 3:55 PM ET

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Best states for retirement aren't what you may think

Not exactly retiree hot spots, chillier states, including North and South Dakota, made Bankrate's list of the top 10 states for retirement.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Instead, Tennessee and Louisiana topped Bankrate's list of the 10 most retiree-friendly states, which equally weighted cost of living, taxes, access to healthcare, crime rates and climate.

Some chillier spots, including Nebraska and North and South Dakota also made the list. They may not be dream retirement destinations, but these states are actually ideal for retirees because of their lower taxes and cost of living and lack of crime, according to Bankrate, a financial information website.

"If you can bear [South Dakota's] temperatures, it's a pretty good place to live on a fixed income," said Chris Kahn, an analyst at Bankrate.

Florida, meanwhile, is notably absent from the top 10. While it boasts warm weather and reasonable state and local tax rates, a relatively high cost of living and crime rate sunk the "Sunshine State" to nineteenth place, Kahn said.

Related: 25 best places to retire

These 10 states, however, offer a better balance between affordability and quality of life in retirement, according to Bankrate.

1. Tennessee: Not only does it have a Florida-like climate, but Tennessee also boasts the second lowest cost of living in the country. Combined with a low tax burden and great access to medical care, Tennessee is ideal for retirees living on fixed incomes, Kahn said. The only downside: the state has one of the country's highest crime rates.

One of the state's oldest towns, Sevierville, Tenn., provides close access to a national park where retirees can picnic, hike and fish, and it's an easy drive to Knoxville.

2. Louisiana: Another balmy locale, the state has an average temperature of 66.7 degrees -- behind only Hawaii and Florida for warmest average climate. Louisiana residents also enjoy low taxes, above-average access to medical care and a relatively cheap cost of living. Like Tennessee, though, it suffers from a crime rate that is among the nation's highest.

3. South Dakota: It may not be a retirement hot spot, but Bankrate says it should be. The state has the country's lowest crime rate, and an estimated state and local tax burden of just 7.6% -- lower than every state but Alaska. The downside: with an average temperature of 46 degrees over the past 30 years, it's pretty darn cold there.

For small town lovers, Aberdeen, S.D. holds a renowned film festival and has a historic downtown that plays host to farmers markets, haunted walking tours and holiday parades.

4. Kentucky: The Bluegrass State is one of many Appalachian states to dominate Bankrate's top 10. While it may not have Florida's sunny beaches, it does boast an extremely low cost of living, warmer-than-average temperatures and a below-average crime rate.

In Louisville, retirees can stay active by walking or biking on the Louisville Loop, a pedestrian path set to eventually cover more than 100 miles. The smaller town of Danville, Ky. meanwhile, is ideal for horse lovers.

5. Mississippi: Beyond its warm weather, Mississippi also provides cheap living costs and a lower tax burden. But retirees may want to choose where they live carefully: the state has a high crime rate and subpar access to medical care. It has only 178 doctors per every 100,000 residents -- almost 100 less than the national average.

6. Virginia: This coastal state came in above average for most factors that Bankrate analyzed, including climate, access to healthcare and cost of living. Its crime rate is one of the lowest in the country, with only 2,446 property and violent crimes per 100,000 people.

An affordable college town, Lynchburg, Va. offers the beauty of the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, as well as historic Civil War sites.

7. West Virginia: Another Appalachian state, West Virginia is boosted onto the list by low crime, a cheaper cost of living and above-average access to medical care. Still, it has a colder climate than some of the other states.

Quiz: Where's your dream retirement?

8. Alabama: Warm temperatures, low state and local taxes and a relatively low cost of living all pushed Alabama into the top 10. Yet it suffers from below-average access to medical care and a relatively high crime rate, with 4,026 crimes per 100,000 people -- almost double that of Virginia.

Home to the University of Alabama, Huntsville, Ala. offers botanical gardens and nature preserves and 19th century architecture. Near the Georgia border, Fort Payne, Ala. is a quintessential small town with activities that include an annual fiddling convention and a stop at the "world's largest yard sale."

9. Nebraska: Beyond its cornfields, Nebraska offers excellent access to hospital care, a below-average crime rate and living costs among the country's cheapest. But with a lower than average temperature, it's another state for retirees who don't mind the cold.

10. North Dakota: Like neighboring South Dakota, this state is not for retirees looking for warm weather. But it does have the second lowest crime rate in the nation, a mild estimated tax burden of 8.9% and 5 hospital beds available for every 1,000 residents.

Money 101: Planning for retirement

To compile the list, Bankrate analysts ranked climate using average temperatures over 30 years (1981-2010) and valued cost of living with statistics from the Council for Community and Economic Research. Taxes were ranked using the Tax Foundation's analysis of state and local tax burdens. Access to healthcare was based on hospital beds per 1,000 residents and doctors per 100,000 residents from the Kaiser Family Foundation and U.S. Census Bureau, while crime rates were ranked using violent and property crimes per 100,000 people from the 2011 FBI Uniform Crime Report.

First Published: May 6, 2013: 12:18 AM ET

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How construction can lose jobs in middle of home building rebound

Cuts in government spending on construction projects led to the drop in April's construction employment.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The sector lost about 6,000 jobs overall, according to the Labor Department's jobs report. This was largely due to a decline in hiring for non-residential buildings or public works projects like roads or sewer plants. Combined, these two areas lost 19,700 jobs.

Meanwhile, home builders and their subcontractors added 13,300 workers, even more than in March.

A big part of the sector's pullback is due to a drop in government-funded construction projects, a trend that has been going on for about two years.

Federal construction spending is down 28% since peaking in August 2011, when stimulus spending was still going strong, according to Ken Simonson, chief economist of the Associated General Contractors of America, an industry trade group. Local governments, particularly school districts, have also been pulling back on construction spending after building a rush of new ones during the housing boom.

"You don't need to open a new school every month if people aren't coming," he said.

Related: April jobs report - Hiring picks up

Additionally, many builders are having a hard time finding skilled construction workers.

David Crowe, chief economist with the National Association of Home Builders, said residential construction hiring likely would have been even higher in April if not for the shortage of skilled workers in some markets. He said a survey of his trade group's members found about half couldn't find workers with the necessary skills.

Simonson and other experts say the cutback in federal spending -- known as the sequester -- that went into effect March 1 hasn't halted work on any construction projects already underway. But they said federal agencies knew the sequester was looming and did scale back new construction contracts earlier this year.

Record low mortgage rates, a rebound in home prices and strong new home sales prompted the fastest pace of home building in nearly five years in March, according to a separate government report.

First Published: May 3, 2013: 12:54 PM ET

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My First Rifle: The business of selling guns for kids

Chipmunk, a subsidiary of Keystone, sells guns designed for children, along with its sibling subsidiary, Crickett.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The gun used in the recent shooting in Kentucky was a Crickett .22-caliber rifle, marketed with the slogan "My First Rifle," from Keystone Sporting Arms in Milton, Pa. The single-shot rifle uses the smallest caliber available and is sold by major retailers, including Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), Cabela's (CAB) and Gander Mountain.

The Crickett website was down Friday due to "difficulties," according to John Renzulli, an attorney representing Keystone . But the site for Chipmunk, another Keystone brand, exhibited "quality firearms for America's youth" on its site, including .22-caliber rifles and pistols, with photos of children shooting them. The site includes a "kids corner" section.

Renzulli insisted that the company is not marketing firearms to children.

"No one's marketing to children," he said. "They're marketing to parents who would buy guns for children."

On its website, Wal-Mart markets the Crickett as a "youth rifle," while Gander Mountain's site describes it as a "great beginner's gun."

"All are lightweight and easy for youngsters to carry at the range and in the woods," reads the Crickett description on Cabela's site, which describes it as "a fun firearm to get your young shooter started with."

Wal-Mart did not immediately comment on whether their policy on sales of guns for children would change. Gander Mountain said it would not comment on potential policy changes, but added that it has launched a responsibility campaign aimed at keeping firearms away from "the underaged, untrained and unauthorized." Cabela's did not return a request for comment.

Related: Remington jobs rule the Rust Belt

Lawrence Keane, vice president and spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry group, described the youth firearm market as a relatively small slice of the gun industry, though large enough to have plenty of participants.

"A number of manufacturers make youth models of firearms for parents to purchase to introduce their children to adult-supervised target shooting," said Keane. "Millions of families all across America participate in the shooting sports as a family recreational activity. Children cannot purchase firearms from licensed dealers, of course."

Keane said safety has improved in recent years, saying data show that accidental fatalities involving firearms and children younger than 14 dropped by more than half over two decades to about 600 in 2009, the most recent year for available data.

Related: Gun and ammo sales fuel jobs boom

Brian Rafn, gun industry analyst and director of research at Morgan Dempsey Capital Management, described the youth gun segment as a small enough portion of the $4 billion industry to call it a "ghost market." He added that most states won't issue a hunting license to children younger than 10.

"I don't know of any state, and I've been hunting for 30 years, that would allow an armed five-year-old out in the woods during hunting season," he said. "In Wisconsin where I go hunting, if you were found out in the woods with a five-year-old with a gun, the game warden would have you in cuffs."

First Published: May 3, 2013: 2:44 PM ET

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Buffett's Berkshire blows past estimates

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA, Fortune 500) handily beat analyst estimates with its first-quarter earnings on Friday, booking strong gains in its investments and insurance business.

Excluding certain investment gains, Berkshire reported earnings of $3.8 billion, or $2,302 per Class A share, blowing past the prediction of $1,995.50 per share from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Including investment gains, Berkshire's earnings hit $4.89 billion, rising more than 50% versus a year prior.

Berkshire is a broad-based investment conglomerate whose holdings include everything from Geico insurance to Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad to Dairy Queen. It also has stakes in a variety of other large firms.

Earlier this year, Berkshire was part of a consortium along with private equity firm 3G Capital that purchased ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co for $28 billion.

Berkshire earned $901 million in the first quarter from its insurance underwriting business, up from just $54 million in the first quarter of 2012. The company said its gains came from the lack of significant catastrophe losses in the first three months of the year.

Related: Buffett is worried about Fed policy

On the investment side, Berkshire has substantial holdings in derivatives that serve as bets on the value of global stock indexes like the S&P 500. Berkshire's position improves when these index values rally.

Berkshire earned more than $1.1 billion from investment and derivative gains in the first quarter, up from $580 million a year ago.

With stakes in several large banks and homebuilders, Berkshire also has significant exposure to the housing market, which appears in the midst of a solid recovery. Earlier this week, the S&P Case-Shiller index of home prices showed a 9.3% rise over the past 12 months, the biggest gain since near the height of the housing bubble.

The aging Buffett has not publicly revealed a succession plan, but says he has informed Berkshire's board about his preferred candidates. He underwent radiation treatment last year for prostate cancer, though he said the illness was "not remotely life-threatening."

Investors will descend on Buffett's hometown of Omaha this weekend for Berkshire's annual meeting, where he and business partner Charlie Munger typically hold forth on their business and the state of the U.S. economy.

You don't have to be in Nebraska to get real-time updates on Buffett's thinking, however; the 82-year-old joined Twitter this week.

First Published: May 3, 2013: 6:00 PM ET

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How construction can lose jobs in middle of home building rebound

Cuts in government spending on construction projects led to the drop in April's construction employment.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The sector lost about 6,000 jobs overall, according to the Labor Department's jobs report. This was largely due to a decline in hiring for non-residential buildings or public works projects like roads or sewer plants. Combined, these two areas lost 19,700 jobs.

Meanwhile, home builders and their subcontractors added 13,300 workers, even more than in March.

A big part of the sector's pullback is due to a drop in government-funded construction projects, a trend that has been going on for about two years.

Federal construction spending is down 28% since peaking in August 2011, when stimulus spending was still going strong, according to Ken Simonson, chief economist of the Associated General Contractors of America, an industry trade group. Local governments, particularly school districts, have also been pulling back on construction spending after building a rush of new ones during the housing boom.

"You don't need to open a new school every month if people aren't coming," he said.

Related: April jobs report - Hiring picks up

Additionally, many builders are having a hard time finding skilled construction workers.

David Crowe, chief economist with the National Association of Home Builders, said residential construction hiring likely would have been even higher in April if not for the shortage of skilled workers in some markets. He said a survey of his trade group's members found about half couldn't find workers with the necessary skills.

Simonson and other experts say the cutback in federal spending -- known as the sequester -- that went into effect March 1 hasn't halted work on any construction projects already underway. But they said federal agencies knew the sequester was looming and did scale back new construction contracts earlier this year.

Record low mortgage rates, a rebound in home prices and strong new home sales prompted the fastest pace of home building in nearly five years in March, according to a separate government report.

First Published: May 3, 2013: 12:54 PM ET

14.44 | 0 komentar | Read More

My First Rifle: The business of selling guns for kids

Chipmunk, a subsidiary of Keystone, sells guns designed for children, along with its sibling subsidiary, Crickett.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The gun used in the recent shooting in Kentucky was a Crickett .22-caliber rifle, marketed with the slogan "My First Rifle," from Keystone Sporting Arms in Milton, Pa. The single-shot rifle uses the smallest caliber available and is sold by major retailers, including Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), Cabela's (CAB) and Gander Mountain.

The Crickett website was down Friday due to "difficulties," according to John Renzulli, an attorney representing Keystone . But the site for Chipmunk, another Keystone brand, exhibited "quality firearms for America's youth" on its site, including .22-caliber rifles and pistols, with photos of children shooting them. The site includes a "kids corner" section.

Renzulli insisted that the company is not marketing firearms to children.

"No one's marketing to children," he said. "They're marketing to parents who would buy guns for children."

On its website, Wal-Mart markets the Crickett as a "youth rifle," while Gander Mountain's site describes it as a "great beginner's gun."

"All are lightweight and easy for youngsters to carry at the range and in the woods," reads the Crickett description on Cabela's site, which describes it as "a fun firearm to get your young shooter started with."

Wal-Mart did not immediately comment on whether their policy on sales of guns for children would change. Gander Mountain said it would not comment on potential policy changes, but added that it has launched a responsibility campaign aimed at keeping firearms away from "the underaged, untrained and unauthorized." Cabela's did not return a request for comment.

Related: Remington jobs rule the Rust Belt

Lawrence Keane, vice president and spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry group, described the youth firearm market as a relatively small slice of the gun industry, though large enough to have plenty of participants.

"A number of manufacturers make youth models of firearms for parents to purchase to introduce their children to adult-supervised target shooting," said Keane. "Millions of families all across America participate in the shooting sports as a family recreational activity. Children cannot purchase firearms from licensed dealers, of course."

Keane said safety has improved in recent years, saying data show that accidental fatalities involving firearms and children younger than 14 dropped by more than half over two decades to about 600 in 2009, the most recent year for available data.

Related: Gun and ammo sales fuel jobs boom

Brian Rafn, gun industry analyst and director of research at Morgan Dempsey Capital Management, described the youth gun segment as a small enough portion of the $4 billion industry to call it a "ghost market." He added that most states won't issue a hunting license to children younger than 10.

"I don't know of any state, and I've been hunting for 30 years, that would allow an armed five-year-old out in the woods during hunting season," he said. "In Wisconsin where I go hunting, if you were found out in the woods with a five-year-old with a gun, the game warden would have you in cuffs."

First Published: May 3, 2013: 2:44 PM ET

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Buffett's Berkshire blows past estimates

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA, Fortune 500) handily beat analyst estimates with its first-quarter earnings on Friday, booking strong gains in its investments and insurance business.

Excluding certain investment gains, Berkshire reported earnings of $3.8 billion, or $2,302 per Class A share, blowing past the prediction of $1,995.50 per share from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Including investment gains, Berkshire's earnings hit $4.89 billion, rising more than 50% versus a year prior.

Berkshire is a broad-based investment conglomerate whose holdings include everything from Geico insurance to Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad to Dairy Queen. It also has stakes in a variety of other large firms.

Earlier this year, Berkshire was part of a consortium along with private equity firm 3G Capital that purchased ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co for $28 billion.

Berkshire earned $901 million in the first quarter from its insurance underwriting business, up from just $54 million in the first quarter of 2012. The company said its gains came from the lack of significant catastrophe losses in the first three months of the year.

Related: Buffett is worried about Fed policy

On the investment side, Berkshire has substantial holdings in derivatives that serve as bets on the value of global stock indexes like the S&P 500. Berkshire's position improves when these index values rally.

Berkshire earned more than $1.1 billion from investment and derivative gains in the first quarter, up from $580 million a year ago.

With stakes in several large banks and homebuilders, Berkshire also has significant exposure to the housing market, which appears in the midst of a solid recovery. Earlier this week, the S&P Case-Shiller index of home prices showed a 9.3% rise over the past 12 months, the biggest gain since near the height of the housing bubble.

The aging Buffett has not publicly revealed a succession plan, but says he has informed Berkshire's board about his preferred candidates. He underwent radiation treatment last year for prostate cancer, though he said the illness was "not remotely life-threatening."

Investors will descend on Buffett's hometown of Omaha this weekend for Berkshire's annual meeting, where he and business partner Charlie Munger typically hold forth on their business and the state of the U.S. economy.

You don't have to be in Nebraska to get real-time updates on Buffett's thinking, however; the 82-year-old joined Twitter this week.

First Published: May 3, 2013: 6:00 PM ET

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Disney pulls out of Bangladesh factories

The Walt Disney Company told licensees and vendors to halt production in "highest-risk countries" like Bangladesh and Pakistan.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The company sent a letter in March to vendors and licensees to transition production out of the "highest-risk countries," like Bangladesh, in order to bolster safety standards in its supply chain.

Disney will also halt production in four other countries: Ecuador, Venezuela, Belarus and Pakistan, by April 2014.

The decision was made before last week's devastating collapse of a factory building in Bangladesh that left more than 400 people dead. It was prompted by the November fire at the Tazreen Fashions Factory in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka that killed 112 people, and another fire in Pakistan that killed 262 garment workers last September.

"After much thought and discussion we felt this was the most responsible way to manage the challenges associated with our supply chain," said Bob Chapek, president of Disney Consumer Products.

Related: Shoppers face tough choices over Bangladesh

While Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) is the first brand to completely halt production in Bangladesh after the tragedies, it's a small chunk of what the company sources. Less than 1% of the factories that Disney sources from are located in Bangladesh. Even less are made in the four other counties, according to Disney spokeswoman Tasia Filippatos.

The company said its decision was based on a report from the World Bank that assesses how countries are governed, using metrics like accountability, corruption and violence, among others. The five countries from which Disney pulled production had the lowest scores on those measures.

Disney said it will continue to source from some countries, like Haiti and Cambodia, that didn't get high marks in the World Bank report, but only with factories that partner with the Better Work program run by the International Labor Organization and the International Finance Corporation. The group works to control health and safety conditions.

The company will consider permitting production in Bangladesh in the future if factories agree to partner with the Better Work program, according to Disney's Filippatos.

Disney isn't the only company snapping into action after the latest tragedy.

Earlier this week, a group of retailers, including H&M, Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) and Gap (GPS, Fortune 500), met with nongovernmental organizations and labor rights advocates in Frankfurt to discuss health and safety issues in the 4,500 garment factories in Bangladesh.

Related: "Shame on you," customers tell retailers

On Monday, a trade association representing stores, the Retail Council of Canada, called an urgent meeting to discuss how to address the situation. Joe Fresh and Wal-Mart confirmed that they were participating in the meeting. The companies haven't said if they are taking any concrete action.

The British retailer Primark on Monday said it will compensate victims who worked for its supplier, by providing long-term aid for children who lost parents, financial aid for those injured and payments to families of the deceased. A spokesman for the company said it has also partnered with a local aid group to dole out emergency food to families.

Other companies like J.C. Penney (JCP, Fortune 500), Benetton, and Sears (SHLD, Fortune 500) -- all of which source clothes from Bangladesh -- have reaffirmed their support for worker safety and monitoring conditions in the country.

The corporate reactions come as people are expressing outrage on companies' Facebook (FB) pages over the working conditions that retailers are willing to tolerate in order to sell clothes at cut rate prices.

"Until companies like yours control the working situation and pay decent wages, it will happen again. And again," Linda Bowser Fallis posted on Joe Fresh's Facebook page.

First Published: May 2, 2013: 1:14 PM ET

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LinkedIn slumps on disappointing outlook

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

LinkedIn again beat expectations in its first-quarter earnings report late Thursday, but the company's guidance for the second quarter came in lower than analysts were expecting.

Shares fell a whopping 12% in after-hours trading, after reaching an all-time intraday high above $202 in regular trading on Thursday.

The record high comes after an incredible 73% run-up so far in 2013. When a stock is that hot, any spot of bad news tends to pop the bubble of excitement.

For LinkedIn (LNKD), it was the company's outlook. The business networking site expects revenue for the current quarter to come in between $342 million and $347 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were predicting revenue of around $359 million.

Investors clearly chose to focus on that outlook, rather than LinkedIn's first-quarter earnings. The company earned $52.4 million during the quarter, excluding one-time items, on sales of nearly $325 million. Both figures beat Thomson Reuters estimates.

Facebook (FB), with its 1 billion-plus user base, tends to get most of the social-tech-stock press. But Facebook is heavily reliant on advertising, which made up 85% of its sales last quarter. LinkedIn has three distinct revenue streams, a diversified mixed that appeals to investors.

Related story: Facebook sales jump 38%, with mobile boost

All of those revenue streams were up significantly last quarter, but how important they are to LinkedIn's overall sales shuffled a bit.

Revenue from "talent solutions," which lets companies post jobs and helps recruiters contact potential candidates, totaled $184 million. That's 57% of LinkedIn's total revenue for the quarter, up from 54% from the same period in 2012.

Talent solutions stole a few percentage points from the marketing sector. Revenue from marketing products came in at nearly $75 million, which represents 23% of LinkedIn's total revenue. That's a slight slip from 25% a year ago. Some analysts have expressed concern about how the shift to mobile will affect sites like LinkedIn and Facebook -- smaller screens mean less space on which to put ads.

LinkedIn's third product, paid subscriptions, came in around $67 million. Those "premium subscriptions" represented 20% of total sales last quarter, consistent with the first quarter of 2012.

First Published: May 2, 2013: 5:04 PM ET

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How porn links and Ben Bernanke snuck into Bitcoin's code

The code on the left records a bitcoin transaction from July 2011. Converted into text, it generates a portrait of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Bitcoin, a four-year-old digital currency developed by a hacker who still remains anonymous, is a favorite plaything of libertarians and cryptography geeks. It burst into the mainstream this year when investors took note of its wild price swings. One bitcoin is now worth around $112, down from a record high of $266 last month, but up from $5 a year ago.

At the core of the bitcoin network is a database recording every single transaction.

Bitcoin enthusiasts have long known about a technical loophole that allows people to inject coded messages into the database. The trick is typically used for pranks or harmless notes, but Bitcoin discussion boards lit up on Monday with the news that someone took advantage of it for a nastier purpose: adding encoded links that claim to lead to porn sites, some featuring children. (CNNMoney verified that the links exist in Bitcoin's database, but did not check to see if they actually went to child porn sites.)

A technical analysis posted on BitcoinTalk.org delves into the details. There doesn't seem to be much danger for the casual bitcoin user. The porn links are concealed in hexadecimal code, and a decoder is needed to translate them into English. In other words, you'd really have to be looking for it.

But once a message makes it into the Bitcoin ledger, it can't be removed.

"There are very large ramifications to filtering out transactions, even ones that are obviously data spam," Jeff Garzik, a developer who works on Bitcoin's core software, wrote in a blog post responding to the porn discovery.

People have been sneaking messages into the ledger for years. Bitcoin's creator put a coded note into the very first recorded transaction, and in 2011, a crafty hacker embedded a tribute to a recently deceased friend, along with a rather accurate, pixelated image of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Religious tracts, spam and random pronouncements like "I LIKE TURTLES" are some of the notes that turned up in 2012 file showing some of the encoded text. Last month, someone dropped in a large stash of Wikileaks cables.

But all this monkeying with the ledger is posing a problem for the pioneering currency, just as it's beginning to gain wider attention. Bitcoin advocates have worried for years about what would happen if someone tried to store illegal content in the ledger -- like, say, child porn, which is a U.S. federal crime to possess. That once-hypothetical threat is now real.

The porn: Every bitcoin user interacts with a portion of the currency's database, and many power users run software that stores the entire thing. Legally, bitcoin users who have the part of the ledger with the porn links seem to be in the clear. They are, after all, just words and text links -- not actual child porn images.

The U.S. Justice Department wouldn't comment on this specific case, but an agency spokesman pointed CNNMoney to the exact wording of the law, which states that the issue becomes a crime when a person "knowingly possesses, or knowingly accesses with intent to view" child porn. It doesn't appear that an unsuspecting user with these coded links sitting on their hard drive has much to worry about.

So is this a big deal or not? The Bitcoin community is divided.

Some think the links are being blown way out of proportion. They liken the coded messages in Bitcoin's ledger to graffiti, and say it's inevitable that someone would eventually inject something unsavory.

"All tech can be abused for weird stuff," Dan Kaminsky, the hacker who pulled off the Bernanke stunt in 2011, told CNNMoney.

Others would like Bitcoin's core developers to take action. "This is actually a big issue," one commenter wrote in a discussion thread on Hacker News. "I don't think we should avoid it."

Related story: 'I lost $50,000 in Bitcoin crash'

Bitcoin's backers appear to be taking this seriously.

"It is an awful situation," the developer Garzik told CNNMoney. "The problem goes to the core of digital currency storage."

Because bitcoin transactions are anonymous, it's difficult to trace a malicious transaction back to its source. Theories about why someone would put the porn links in run the gamut. Perhaps it's anti-child porn activists who want the authorities to take more action. Perhaps it's people trying to shut down Bitcoin, or a group hoping to make money off a crash in the currency. It might just be pranksters looking for trouble.

Most of Bitcoin's users don't think it's actual pedophiles trying to distribute their contraband. There are better, more secure ways to store information, and injecting the porn links cost the perpetrator $50 or $60 in transaction fees.

Already, new versions of Bitcoin's core software are being developed that allow historical transactions to eventually be deleted.

"Once people get the idea that it's not a way to force lots of people to store your data forever, interest in it will go away," said Mike Hearn, a Bitcoin developer. "There might be occasional graffitis here or there, but we can tolerate that."

Another way to head off problems like this would be to increase the fees charged by bitcoin transaction processors, since these "data spam" interludes generally require dozens or hundreds of small transactions to complete. Or Bitcoin's network could start weeding out people who are making a rapid series of tiny transactions.

But both these options diminish some of Bitcoin's biggest selling points to begin with: its low transaction fees and lack of central authority.

"The answer is very complex," Garzik wrote in his blog post, "with implications that travel to the heart of Bitcoin's value."

First Published: May 2, 2013: 6:31 PM ET

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Facebook sales jump 38%, with mobile boost

Click to check out Facebook's important Q1 stats.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Investors are laser-focused on mobile, which Facebook has said is the key to its future success. Mobile ad sales accounted for 30% of Facebook's total ad revenue in the first quarter of the year -- up sharply from the previous two quarters and from essentially zero just a year ago.

Facebook began working ads into its mobile products only several quarters ago, most notably when it released a new Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) iOS app in August.

That mobile ad boost has helped increase revenue, but the growth in monthly active users on Facebook's mobile site and apps is slowing. It jumped 54% over the year to 751 million, which is slightly below the fourth quarter's 57% year-over-year jump, and the 61% annual increase in the third quarter.

That growth rate will likely continue to shrink as mobile users come into parity with total users. Facebook reported that overall monthly active users jumped to 1.11 billion in the first quarter, 751 million of whom accessed Facebook on their phones and tablets.

Facebook (FB) shares were essentially flat in after-hours trading following the report.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent a lot of time on the post-earnings conference call talking about advertising, and how the company plans to continue integrating ads without alienating users.

"Over the long term, the thing that's going to drive the business is the ads that are very high quality ... things people are interested in," Zuckerberg said.

Starting with ads in users news feeds last year "was a valuable step," he added. "Anywhere someone is getting content from Facebook, the business model is following naturally." Facebook plans to continue that philosophy as it rolls out new ad products.

COO Sheryl Sandberg said she feels "pretty good" about Facebook's ad formats, but she thinks "there's a lot of room to improve our ads" in terms of quality.

Ad sales helped propel the social network's overall revenue to $1.5 billion in the quarter -- a solid performance in what's generally a soft quarter for ad revenue at most companies. Brands typically spend heavily to market to holiday shoppers in the fourth quarter and ease off at the beginning of the year.

Earnings rose 7% over the year to $219 million, despite being crunched by massive expenses.

Costs jumped 60% over the year to $1.08 billion. Facebook executives had warned during last quarter's earnings call that the company expects expenses to rise by about half this year. Facebook is spending cash on both infrastructure and headcount, and it's putting that money to work: In 2013 so far, the company has already released four major new products.

Graph Search and a News Feed revamp came in the first quarter, while the third and fourth products came too late to be included in Wednesday's results.

Earlier this month brought Facebook Home, a custom startup screen for Android smartphones that will eventually include ads. A week later, Facebook announced "Partner Categories," which lets advertisers target specific users based on their past buying history -- even if the purchases happened offline.

Facebook also revealed that photo-sharing app Instagram reached 100 million monthly active users in the first quarter.

Rival social network LinkedIn (LNKD) is set to report its quarterly finances Thursday after the market closes.

First Published: May 1, 2013: 4:48 PM ET

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Shoppers lash out at stores over Bangladesh

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Dozens of consumers took to social networks after more than 400 workers were killed when a garment factory building in Bangladesh collapsed last Wednesday.

The message from shoppers like Judy Caulfield had for retailers: Shame on you.

"Do the people running this company sleep at night knowing that they are partly responsible for the deaths of so many people?" she asked on the Joe Fresh page.

While some wondered how retailers could tolerate such conditions at factories they buy from, others threatened that they would stop shopping at stores connected to the collapse.

"I have a Joe Fresh gift card and was going to go shopping there. Now I'm not so sure," Linda Bowser Fallis posted on Joe Fresh's Facebook (FB)page. "Until companies like yours control the working situation and pay decent wages, it will happen again. And again."

The building that collapsed housed a factory that made goods for Joe Fresh, some of which were destined for J.C. Penney (JCP, Fortune 500) stores, since the brand has a partnership with the department store.

The factories in the collapsed building had, at some point or another, made items for The Children's Place (PLCE), Dress Barn, Benetton and British retailer Primark. One factory, Ether Tex, listed Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) as one of its buyers, though the retailer said it had no authorized production in the building.

Related: Shoppers face tough choices over Bangladesh

People also unleashed their anger at retailers that didn't have any connections to that specific building, but are known to source from factories located in Bangladesh, like H&M.

One H&M shopper posted that he will start shopping there if the retailer stops "using slave labor in [its] clothing production."

Many of the comments pointed out how little people around the world knew about where their clothes come from, and just how much they cared to know.

"Just wanted to ask if you import any of your clothing from Bangladesh...and if so have [you] done anything to fund...safety programs," Jonathan Gottleib posted on the J.C. Penney Facebook page. "I need to know from each corporation before I decide if I want to buy anything from them."

Jackie Lynch, a Benetton shopper posting from Melbourne, asked how many of the retailer's clothing lines come from Bangladesh and if it can reassure customers that its garments are made in safe factories.

The confusion stems from the fact that companies often aren't transparent about how they monitor production overseas.

Many large companies monitor suppliers and have guidelines on health and safety standards, but experts say that the results of these audits aren't made public. That makes it difficult for any consumer who wants to check if a company is actually conducting the audits or terminating relationships with suppliers who don't meet standards.

Joe Fresh, H&M, Benetton and J.C. Penney didn't respond to questions on what they plan to do about their customers speaking out.

First Published: May 1, 2013: 10:20 PM ET

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ECB meets under pressure to cut rates

Most economists expect the ECB to cut interest rates at its meeting in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Thursday.

LONDON (CNNMoney)

The bank's governing council, meeting in the Slovak capital Bratislava, is under intense pressure to cut interest rates for the first time in 10 months as the prospects of economic recovery in the eurozone this year begin to fade.

Unemployment across the 17 eurozone states hit a new record just above 12% in March, inflation fell sharply in April and recent surveys suggest the German economy may be slowing, dragged back by the deep recession that is leaving its scars across southern Europe.

European stocks have rallied and yields on government bonds have fallen since mid-April as investors bet on the ECB cutting its main refinancing rate to a new record low of 0.5%. The bank has held the rate at 0.75% since July 2012.

Related story: Federal Reserve sticks with stimulus

More bad news came Tuesday when Spain, the eurozone's fourth largest economy, reported a seventh consecutive quarter of recession. The annual pace of contraction accelerated in the first three months of this year to 2%.

Global growth concerns are also bolstering the case for a rate cut, even if it has little more than a symbolic impact.

Related story: Fed will struggle to unwind its giant trade

Analysts say a cut will provide only marginal relief for the weakest eurozone economies because it will do little to reassure banks that are restricting lending to small and medium-sized firms.

Some ECB watchers expect President Mario Draghi to unveil other measures to improve financing conditions. But even if he does, they're unlikely to include the kind of huge bond-buying programs that have been used by other major central banks to support markets and growth.

And while there have been signs that EU leaders may be prepared to ease up on the pace of austerity, the eurozone is not about to imitate Japan and embark on a new round of short-term borrowing to generate growth. So the ECB is still the only game in town.

First Published: May 2, 2013: 12:28 AM ET

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Manufacturing growth falters in China

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

China's official purchasing managers' index posted a decline in April, falling to 50.6 from 50.9 the previous month, according to the national statistics agency. A reading above 50 signals expansion in the manufacturing sector.

The disappointing result comes just days after global bank HSBC said its "flash" index of purchasing managers' sentiment fell to 50.5 in April from March's final reading of 51.6.

HSBC will release its final reading on Thursday.

"PMI dropped despite a favorable seasonal factor," wrote Zhiwei Zhang, an economist at Nomura, "and reinforces our view that growth will likely weaken in the second quarter."

The strength of manufacturing in China is considered a barometer of the global economy because of the nation's role as a powerhouse exporter. Because it makes up a large part of China's economy, manufacturing plays an important role in shaping domestic policy.

Related story: China cracks down on military use of luxury cars

China's economy has averaged growth of around 10% a year for the past three decades, allowing the nation to rocket past competitors.

While the growth slowed in 2012 to 7.8%, that figure topped government targets and analyst expectations, signaling an exit to the slowdown that had worried economists.

But China's new leadership -- President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang -- inherits a country facing challenges over the environment, the rule of law and economic inequities.

The path forward, most analysts agree, requires China to move toward an economy in which consumption drives growth -- no easy task.

Local party officials have long depended on investment spending to maintain clout -- a pattern that reform would undercut. The shift could also undermine the breakneck pace of economic expansion to which China has grown accustomed, at least in the short term.

First Published: April 30, 2013: 11:26 PM ET

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Peter Thiel: Twitter will outlast the New York Times

BEVERLY HILLS (CNNMoney)

In a debate with Andreessen at the Milken Institute Global Conference Monday, Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, said he expects that Twitter's roughly 1,000 employees will have jobs a decade from now.

The business case for Twitter is solid, Thiel said.

Related: Marissa Mayer's first-year pay is $6 million

He contrasted the future of Twitter with that of The New York Times, a print media vanguard that he says is not guaranteed a future in the digital age. Employees of the paper, Thiel cautioned, should be worried about the longevity of their jobs.

Andreessen, creator of the Netscape browser, has a vested interest in Twitter's future. His venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz -- or @a16z in Twitter parlance -- spent a reported $80 million on a stake in Twitter in early 2011 when the social media company was valued at around $4 billion.

Twitter is expected to go public within the next two years. Thiel, who doesn't tweet or own shares of the company, said the company's estimated $10 billion current valuation was fair.

Yet Thiel bemoaned what Twitter's success says about the current state of innovation. The slogan of Thiel's investment fund Founder's Fund is "we were promised flying cars, and instead what we got was 140 characters," a reference to the length of a tweet.

Twitter, Thiel said, shows that current innovative technologies haven't fundamentally reshaped the lives of individuals or caused a major change to life expectancy or the overall economy.

Related: Alibaba takes stake in 'China's Twitter'

"New technologies are being used to send pictures of your cat halfway around the world," Thiel said. "We've talked ourselves into thinking that throwing cats at birds is the best we can do. We can do more than that."

Andreessen disagreed, comparing Twitter to the printing press and claiming the technology is a fundamental breakthrough in how humans communicate. "Twitter is instant global public messaging for free," he said.

Andreessen told CNNMoney that he's been encouraging the companies in his portfolio to wait as long as possible before going public, but said Twitter is one of the few that will be ready in 2014 or 2015.

If Twitter does go public, it's expected to be the largest offering since Facebook. With Facebook's (FB) stock down 29% from its IPO nearly a year later, investors might prove wary of the next big social media IPO.

Andreessen admitted on his panel with Thiel that he feels a bit of schadenfreude seeing the recent struggles of the New York Times as the Internet cuts down on its print profits. Andreessen said that during the 1990s, the publication often dismissed the Internet as a technology that had little chance of widespread adoption.

"It causes me a certain amount of pleasure today watching the New York Times Company try to cope with the consequences of the technology they laughed at," Andreessen said.

Those of you laughing at the cat pictures on Twitter, watch out.

First Published: May 1, 2013: 12:00 AM ET

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Americans face tough choices over Bangladesh

Many of the world's largest retailers have clothes made in Bangladesh.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

That's because just about all, or 98%, of clothes sold in the U.S. are made overseas, according to the Apparel and Footwear Association. Also, companies don't tell consumers if any of their suppliers violate safety standards.

The recent spate of deadly accidents in garment factories in Bangladesh has caught international attention. Last week, nearly 400 workers were killed when a garment factory building collapsed. The tragedy follows two more factory fires in November that killed and injured more than 100 workers.

A very large portion of U.S. apparel imports comes from Bangladesh. Many companies have been shifting orders there, because labor costs in the country are so low. Bangladesh is on track to surpass China within the next seven years as the largest apparel manufacturer in the world.

It is already the third biggest exporter of apparel to the US., behind China and Vietnam. The value of clothing imported from Bangladesh into the U.S. has quadrupled over the last decade to $4.5 billion annually, according to the apparel group.

Related: Cheap clothes lead to danger and tragedy in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has about 4,500 garment factories that make clothes for global retailers, including Gap (GPS, Fortune 500), H&M, Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), J.C. Penney (JCP, Fortune 500) and Sears (SHLD, Fortune 500), as well as smaller retailers like Benetton, The Children's Place (PLCE) and Joe Fresh.

Many large companies, including Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney and Sears, have supplier guidelines on health and safety standards. They set expectations for working and building safety conditions, wages and labor practices that their suppliers must meet. The retailers claim they conduct audits to ensure their suppliers are complying with standards.

Experts say the problem is that the results of these audits aren't made public, so it's hard to hold the stores accountable. There is no way for a consumer to know if a company is actually conducting the audits or terminating relationships with suppliers who don't meet standards.

"In terms of the factory and the factory conditions where an item is made, the consumer has no information, the audits are never made public and that's how retailers want it," said Scott Nova, the Workers' Rights Consortium's executive director.

This is also true for retailers who invest money and publicize what they do to monitor suppliers. Wal-Mart made a big public push earlier this year for its compliance program, saying it conducts thousands of audits each year and that factories will have to pass audits before they are allowed to do business with the retailer.

But last week, Wal-Mart would not say if any of the factories in the collapsed building had been audited.

"Companies don't want consumers to understand the reality of what's going on -- the labor abuses, the low wages -- that make products for the U.S. market," Nova said. "Customers do care, but they don't have enough information about where and how products are made to react."

First Published: May 1, 2013: 12:14 AM ET

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