Heineken turns a profit (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
Business
Banking on failures, Expensive beer hopping
The FDIC considers borrowing from the U.S. Treasury as more banks appear on its failure watch list. Heineken’s profit rises as people keep drinking premium beer. And clean energy’s dirty secret is that we can’t get it from Point A to Point B.
Best columns: Reversing mortgages, Giving credit
“The reverse mortgage sounds like a pretty sweet deal,” says Fortune’s Eugenia Levenson in CNNMoney.com, but it has some steep costs. Credit unions have “a kind of sleepy, backwater image,” says Brett Arends in The Wall Street Journal, but they offer “some surprisingly good deals.”
Good day, Bad day
Disappointing Barbie, Average Joe
The bottom line
ConocoPhillips is exiting the gas station business, selling its remaining 600 stations to Seattle-based PetroSun West LLC.
Housing hits the road, Asia’s oil race
The housing slump is giving a boost to mobile homes, along with a small assist from fashion. India’s ONGC is hoping to out-duel China for Russian oil fields. And the Rust Belt is being repainted green.
Best columns: Hi inflation, Traveling online
Double-digit inflation is back for the first time since the “bad old days of 1981,” says Irwin Kellner in MarketWatch, so “why are most pundits silent?” Consumers can still find online travel deals, says Sarah Nassauer in The Wall Street Journal, “if they are willing to spend the time looking.”
Good day, Bad day
Being healthy, wealthy, and wise; Safety in numbers
The bottom line
Temasek, Singapore’s $130 billion sovereign wealth fund, said that its full-year profit doubled, to a record $12.8 billion.
Olympic gold, Gas expansion
The Beijing Olympics turn out great for NBC, and mixed for China. Canada’s Precision Drilling buys U.S. gas driller Grey Wolf. And the FBI predicted the mortgage crisis, but did little else.
Best columns: Investor mentality, Consumer psychology
These are uncertain economic times, says James Surowiecki in The New Yorker, but “if investors are unsure about tomorrow, why are they acting so certain about today?” Current economic indicators are relatively positive, says Dan Ariely in the Los Angeles Times, so why are U.S. consumers “so gloomy?”
Good day, Bad day
A clean fight, The Man
