Struggles, Skirmishes and Glitches Galore

Laura Shin

Posted on Jun 8, 2012

It’s summertime, and the livin’ ain’t easy.

Although anemic job numbers were released last Friday, Fed Chief Ben Bernanke questioned the significance and accuracy of the numbers and said it may not mean the economy was slowing and gave no indication he planned to take special action to revive it.  In fact, a week later, unemployment claims were shown to have dipped.

A deal is in the works to aid Spain’s struggling banks, but Europe’s fourth-largest economy is pushing back against any deal terms that are too onerous–and it can: The country is too big to fail and too big to bully, giving it leverage in the talks. Meanwhile, in order to stimulate its lagging economy, China cut its interest rate–making it easier for people to borrow money and spend.

Nasdaq announced it would set aside $40 million to appease investors angered over technical glitches that confused investors during the Facebook IPO.  And speaking of glitches, professional networking site LinkedIn had a major security breach, compromising 6.5 million passwords. (Check here to see if your password was among them.)

In other tech skirmishes, Apple requested a ban on sales of Samsung’s new Galaxy S III smartphone, accusing the Korean electronics maker of infringing on patent rights. Google expanded its mapping service in anticipation of competition from Apple. And Foursquare announced a Yelp-like service that will allow users to make recommendations.

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