When Expanding Abroad, Mind the Gaffe

If you're a business owner who thinks smiling will win over Russian clients, you may be in need of one of the growing number of firms offering crash courses in international business etiquette. American firms have been stepping up overseas expansion despite the recession, but misunderstandings—like not realizing the Russians prefer somber business settings—can complicate an already tricky process, cultural coaches say.

The cost of cultural blunders can run into seven figures for firms like AlertDriving, a producer of online driving courses that failed to take differences in local driving habits into consideration when expanding into more than 20 countries. The reluctance of some cultures to give negative feedback means the errors took years to spot and more than $1 million to fix, the firm's chief executive tells the Wall Street Journal.

10 Best Cities to Get a Job

Washington, DC is the easiest city in the country to land a job, says job-search site Juju.com, which ranked cities by comparing the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ figures on unemployed workers to the number of job postings on Juju itself. The site finds 1.87 “unemployed individuals per advertised job” in the District.

The rest of the top 10:
San Jose, Calif.
Baltimore, Md.
Boston, Mass.
New York, NY
Salt Lake City, Utah
Hartford, Conn.
Denver, Colo.
San Antonio, Texas
Austin, Texas

How to Make $96K as a Travel Blogger

Matt Kepnes is a 28-year-old Bostonian who's turned his passion for travel into a blogging gig that earns him up to $8,000 a month. He explains how in a New York Times interview. (Good publicity helps: His site, NomadicMatt.com, is down temporarily because of a traffic surge from the interview.) Some highlights:

Who pays him: "It’s a combination of Google AdSense, affiliate sales (insurance, backpacks, guidebooks), private advertising people coming to me. ('Hey, we want to put ads up on this site.')" The site itself earns about $3,000 a month, and he also now has a book for beginners.
Traffic: "Probably close to 800 to 1,000 visitors a day would get you enough traffic to generate a good-size income."
Getting started: He paid $250 for his domain name and a computer at a hosting company. Friends showed him how to use HTML to create his site. He began about a year and a half ago, with traffic increasing gradually.
Epiphany: "About a year ago, when I had gotten big enough that some advertisers started asking to put ads on my site, and I thought, 'Hey, this isn’t too bad—I just made $1,000!' And then another advertiser came and I made a little bit more money." This has been his full-time job since April.

Temp Hiring Is on the Rise

With the economy on an upswing, employers are feeling a tad more confident—enough to bring on more temporary workers, who can easily be let go if things go south again. Temp hiring has risen for 4 months—longer than the aftermath of previous recessions, when employers started hiring permanent workers after just 2 or 3 months, the New York Times reports.

Though temp workers don’t receive many of the benefits of permanent employment, the government considers them wage-earning workers, helping to bring down the unemployment rate in 36 states last month. “I’ve never seen the job market this horrible,” said one new temp who lost his job 14 months ago. He now makes $25 an hour—“a long way down from the $135,000 a year I once made," he notes.

Dreamliner's Upgrades Good for Passengers, Too

There’s plenty for airlines to like about Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner (it goes farther, faster, on less fuel), but you might not have heard about the upgrades it holds for passengers. Via the Christian Science Monitor:

Windows aren’t just 65% larger, but passengers can adjust the tint from transparent to opaque rather than pulling a shade.
Larger overhead bins.
Better air-filtration system.
Composite fuselage allows not only for the cabin to be pressurized at a more comfortable level, but also at higher humidity.
The wings on the 787—of which 840 have been ordered, by55 airlines—can respond to turbulence, meaning a smoother flight.
With less noise from the engine, exhaust and ventilation, Boeing says the cabin will be quieter, and less subject to vibration.

Help Wanted: No Madoffs Need Apply

Add his former employees to the list of of Bernard Madoff's victims—and that includes his sons. Wherever it appears, the Madoff name on a résumé is toxic for those trying to continue to work in finance, experts say. Mark Madoff, who worked for his father for 20 years, is reportedly trying to find a job in trading. Fat chance, one employer tells the Wall Street Journal: “He's untouchable in any firm that deals with the public.”

Family members aren’t the only ones touched by the noxious name. “I'll never get a job in finance,” says a former Madoff secretary and budding hairdresser. Still, she has perspective. “I'm one of the lucky ones.” Case in point: Another former employee is trying to recover $200,000 she invested with Madoff, but the hurdles are higher for insiders. And she’s job-hunting. “I need someone who doesn't care about Madoff,” she says. Good luck.

How to Revive American Innovation

Pessimism about America's future role in the world economy is spreading even as the economy stabilizes, but there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful, writes David Brooks in the New York Times. America's economy still has incredible potential, Brooks writes, and the government can revive innovation and stay competitive through a few steps that both parties should be able to agree on:

Push through President Obama's education reforms and improve America's human capital.
Raise federal research spending and boost overall R&D spending back to the 3% of GDP it received in the '60s.
Rebuild the nation's infrastructure, with spending decisions being made by National Infrastructure Bank instead of "pork-seeking politicians."
Rein in the deficit by having a commission create a roadmap back to fiscal responibility and letting Congress vote on it.
Use diplomacy to correct global imbalances such as China's artificially weak currency.
Loosen visa quotas and allow more skilled immigrants in.
Encourage innovation hotspots, rather than at a national level.
Lower corporate tax to international standards
Finally, "don't be stupid," by doing things like picking trade fights with other countries or getting carried away with gimmicks like research taxes.

Obama Summit Tackles Jobs

The Obama administration will hold a much-hyped jobs summit today, bringing 130 guests—including labor leaders and a host of big-name CEOs—to brainstorm ideas for tackling unemployment. The event also just happens to coincide with the release of November’s unemployment figures, which aren’t expected to be pretty—ADP estimates that 169,000 jobs were lost last month.

With federal deficits dizzyingly high, Obama’s hoping for ideas that require minimal government outlays—like giving homeowners incentives to retrofit their homes for greater energy efficiency or tax credits for businesses that hire new employees. That hasn’t stopped labor leaders from dreaming big—the AFL-CIO is coming with a wide-ranging $400 billion to $500 billion proposal, the Wall Street Journal reports. Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, is hosting a competing summit that will advocate cutting back on regulations, taxes, and the deficit.

Rare Pink Diamond Scores Dazzling $2.2M a Carat

A pricey pink diamond smashed records today in Hong Kong when it sold for a glittery $2.2 million a carat—and $10.8 million overall. The 5-carat “vivid pink” wonder, which is near-perfect but not flawless, trumps the sale 15 years ago of a 19.66 carat specimen that went for a measly $7.4 million. “No stone has ever been sold for $2 million a carat,” a Christie’s exec says. Yet, it’s “probably one of the rarest stones I’ve ever seen.”

Employers Offer More OT, Fewer New Jobs

Manufacturers skeptical about economic improvement are hedging their bets and forgoing hiring in favor of scheduling overtime work to fill welcome new orders. The tactic may be working for now—employees surely aren’t complaining—but the phenomenon is likely to be short-lived. “Overtime is more costly,” an analyst tells the Wall Street Journal. “There comes a point that it makes sense to take on new workers."

In the last recession, manufacturing firms started taking on new workers 18 months after boosting overtime to meet increased demand. One owner says 10% overtime for 2 months is feasible, but after that it makes more sense to hire. Companies must balance the increased payout against the costs of recruiting and training new hires, but extra hours have their pluses. “Production is attitude,” a business owner says, and “pockets of overtime” can improve performance.

Unemployment to Stay High for Years

Unemployment will remain higher than normal for years to come, Fed officials predicted today. Even at the end of 2012, the rate is forecast to be between 6.8% and 7.5%—a decent turnaround from the current 10.2% but still about 2 points higher than the figure in healthy times. Even though the economy is technically in recovery, it will take "about five or six years" for the labor market to right itself, the officials said.

Today's projections echo details released from the last Fed meeting, in which the central bank signaled it will leave interest rates low for a while, reports the Washington Post. The main reason: concerns that we're in a jobless recovery. "Business contacts reported that they would be cautious in their hiring and would continue to aggressively seek cost savings," the minutes said.

Vulgar Online Comment Costs Man His Job

Commenters, beware. A St. Louis man who posted a vulgarity at a newspaper website soon found himself out of a job. When the St. Louis Post-Dispatch asked readers to weigh in with the strangest thing they've ever eaten, one guy responded with what the paper describes as a "vulgar expression for a part of a woman’s anatomy." The single-word post was quickly deleted, but just as quickly reposted. When website editor Kurt Greenbaum noticed in a WordPress email alert that the IP address came from a local school, he forwarded the info to officials there.

"About six hours later, I heard from the school’s headmaster," writes Greenbaum. "The school’s IT director took a shine to the challenge. Long story short: Using the time-frame of the comments, our website location, and the IP addresses in the WordPress e-mail, he tracked it back to a specific computer. The headmaster confronted the employee, who resigned on the spot."

YouTube Launches Citizen Journo Channel

A new YouTube service aims to make it easier for citizen journalists filming everything from celebrity antics to natural disasters to connect with news outlets. The YouTube Direct service allows news outlets to request, verify, and rebroadcast video from YouTube users. NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Politico were among the news outlets on board as the service was unveiled today, Reuters reports.

"News organizations always want to verify the content they use," said YouTube's head of news. The service, he said, isn't about making money for YouTube or its users. "It's an incentive to upload great video, because of the recognition you'll get from legitimate news organizations," he said.

This Year's Thanksgiving Dinner: $42.91

The cost of a traditional Thanksgiving meal—enough turkey and trimmings to feed 10—comes in at $42.91 this year. That's down nearly 4%, or about $1.70, from last year and the biggest drop in price since 2000, says the American Farm Bureau survey. The biggest factors are the costs of a gallon of milk, down 92 cents to $2.86, and a 16-pound turkey, down 44 cents to $18.65, notes Bloomberg.

“Consumers are benefiting at the grocery store from significantly lower energy prices,” says an economist at the bureau.

Free Holiday Airport WiFi From Google, Microsoft

There’s a new public option in town: free wireless from Google for the holidays. The search giant has partnered to provide WiFi gratis in 47 airports nationwide from now until the middle of January; the generosity even extends to in-flight access on continental Virgin flights, PC World reports. Google would probably like to spread its beneficence across the entire nation, but its partnership with the likes of Time Warner and Boingo doesn’t allow universal coverage.

That’s all well and good, but careful readers note that some pretty important national hubs—New York, DC, Chicago—fall outside Google’s range. Enter Microsoft. The software giant and Google nemesis is also in the free-holiday-wireless business, teaming with JiWire to cover an estimated 70% of airports, according to the Atlantic. All you have to do is perform one Bing search for the goodies. Give a hand to the rivals for turning even snow delays into an ad war.

Feds' Lone Dog-Mushing Job Opens Up

Love dogs? Pristine Alaska wilderness? Then you’ll be pleased to learn that the lone federal dog-mushing job is open. The position at Denali National Park pays up to $66,542 (plus cost-of-living adjustment), but it’s not all easy sledding. The kennel manager is in charge of 31 dogs, and all the shots, poop and bureaucracy-mandated paperwork that comes with them.

It’s “a great job,” the outgoing musher tells the Anchorage Daily News. “There’s really nothing that quite compares to being out on the trail in the middle of winter. It’s beautiful, it’s completely silent.” Karen Fortier says helping out researchers is cool, too, and there are summertime tours for park visitors. But, she sighs, “you think it’s going to be this glory job, but so much is managing the operation behind the scenes.”

Go to Harvard, Study The Wire

The Wire is about to get an Ivy League makeover. Harvard plans to offer a course on the HBO series about life in Baltimore's ghettos, the New York Post reports. The show "has done more to enhance our understanding of the challenges of urban life and the problems of urban inequality, more than any other media event or scholarly publication," said William J. Wilson, the well-known African-American history professor—and huge fan of The Wire—who will teach the class.

But the move isn't quite as ground-breaking as the show, notes the Post: Duke and Middlebury have also offered courses on the series.

Manage Like a Marine

Marine officers Timothy Saint and Nicholas Smith "learned a lot about leadership and management that we wish someone had told us as boot lieutenants" during their service in Iraq, and most of it applies to young managers in the corporate world. They provide some guidance on Business Insider:

Listen and show respect: "If your subordinate's way is 60% as good as your way, and the person who has to execute it is the subordinate, let him have his way." Why? "He will execute his plan twice as well as yours simply because it is his."
"Inspect what you expect": "Our favorite Marine Corps catchphrase." It shows that you care about the work. Plus, "the good ones like being inspected and the bad ones need it. This has to be true everywhere."
"Get over yourself": "Nobody gives a crap about your MBA or anything else you've done." Learn the ropes and show competence before you try to get a reputation "for being a brilliant innovator and bold reformer."
Stick to your guns: "If a new plan or policy is unpopular or a major change to the status quo, people will be testing your will," Saint and Smith write. "Is this going to be like the last fifteen bullshit initiatives that died after a month?"

US GDP Jump Hollow if Unemployment Keeps Rising

News that the US gross domestic product jumped 3.5% in the third quarter cheered investors and others, but the cheers will ring hollow if unemployment keeps rising, John Authers writes. Consumer spending rose even as disposable income fell—“ not a pattern that can be sustained for long, and it is inconsistent with the need for US families to pay down their debts,” he notes in the Financial Times.

Authers credits Cash for Clunkers and other government programs for sparking higher consumption—programs that won’t continue much longer. And while consumer optimism may be buoyed by the news, other data out today show that though the unemployment rate is rising more slowly, it’s still rising faster than before the recession began.

Wal-Mart Enters Coffin Biz

America's leading big-box store is now also a pine box store. Wal-Mart has started selling a range of discount coffins on its website and plans to expand its death products to include pet urns and memorial jewelry. Prices start at just $895 for a steel coffin. Funeral home owners say they're not too worried about the competition. Wal-Mart will never be able to replace the human touch funeral home directors offer, the head of an industry group tells AP.