Consumer Confidential: Google Music, iTunes Match, no-job majors

Here's your West-End-girls Wednesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Google has learned to sing. The searchmeister is entering the online music market with a new service that will let users store songs online and listen to tracks on multiple devices. Google has expanded into music, television and movies to bolster sales of devices running its Android mobile software. The company is also seeking rights for its Google+ social-network users to share music with each other. On the eve of the debut, Google reached an agreement with Sony’s music unit. Universal and EMI have already signed on. Songs will cost 99 cents to $1.29, though Google may offer discounts. (Bloomberg)

-- Not to be outdone, Apple has rolled out a new iTunes Match service. For $24.99, iTunes account holders can store their entire iTunes library, plus songs from their CDs, in the cloud that is the Internet. The library contents are then available to listen to on computers and iOS devices, including iPhones. The program differs from Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player because iTunes Match isn't based on uploading your music then listening to it via a Web-based player that streams your songs. Instead, it determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store, which boasts some 20 million songs. The program automatically adds these songs to iCloud. Songs that aren't in iTunes can be uploaded by the user. (Lifehacker)

-- Not all college majors are created equal -- at least when it comes to giving you a leg up in the job market. College majors with high unemployment rates include a variety of psychology degrees, fine arts and architecture, according to Census statistics. Here are the Top 10 majors (or should that be Bottom 10?) for not getting a job: Clinical psychology (19.5% unemployment rate), miscellaneous fine arts (16.2%), U.S. history (15.1%), library science (15%), military technologies (10.9%), educational psychology (10.9%), architecture (10.6%), industrial and organizational psychology (10.4%), miscellaneous psychology (10.3%), linguistics and comparative literature (10.2%). (MarketWatch)

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Google is launching a new music service to compete with Apple's iTunes. Credit: Ralph Orlowski / Getty Images

 

Groupon shares rise 31% in first day of trading

The initial public offering of daily-deals site Groupon Inc. was a good deal for some of its investors.

Groupon shares jumped in their eagerly awaited stock-market debut Friday, rising almost 31% from their IPO price. But the stock closed below the $28 level at which trading opened and the $31.14 high of the day.

That meant big profits for professional investors who were lucky enough to get in early, but immediate losses of as much as 16% for many smaller investors who bought in during much of the day.

“It’s successful for the insiders, including the investment bankers, the company and the flippers” who sold at a quick profit, said Francis Gaskins of IPOdesktop.com in Marina del Rey. “The outsiders will probably get burned.”

Nevertheless, Groupon’s offering is likely to be viewed as success overall, thus setting the stage for a host of other offerings in coming months, including those expected from social-media behemoths Zynga Inc. and Facebook Inc.

“It’s really an astonishing first-day opening considering all the criticism it’s endured over the past couple of months,” said Lee Simmons, an IPO researcher at Dun & Bradstreet. “This signals that there’s really pent-up demand for these types of stocks.”

The stock, which was priced Thursday night at $20, closed at $26.11. Groupon raised $700 million in the offering, which valued the company at $12.7 billion. The stock trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol “GRPN.”

RELATED:

Groupon IPO: Shares surge on first day of trading

Groupon prices IPO at $20 a share

LinkedIn third-quarter loss disappoints investors

-- Walter Hamilton

Photo: The entrance to Groupon's headquarters in Chicago. Credit: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg

Scam Watch: Acne treatment, StubHub email, real estate loans

Acne-fighting app -- There are smartphone applications for just about anything -- programming your television’s DVR, researching cocktail recipes or finding a Yelp-approved Thai restaurant within a mile. But one company went too far by claiming its app could clear up acne, the Federal Trade Commission said. The FTC obtained a court order prohibiting AcneApp and AcnePwner from making acne-treatment claims. The mobile applications were sold on Apple’s iTunes store and the Android marketplace and claimed to treat acne with colored lights emitted from smartphones. The app sold for $1.99 on iTunes and 99 cents on the Android marketplace, the FTC said. Nearly 15,000 people paid for the app. Three people who marketed the apps settle a lawsuit with FTC by agreeing to no longer market the products.

StubHub email -- Email inboxes are filled with danger. Click on a link in an email and you could add malicious software to your computer. People down on their luck may find bogus emails announcing they've won foreign lotteries -- all they have to do is pay the taxes upfront. And now there’s this one: emails that appear to come from StubHub ticket marketplace, but actually are attempts to steal your credit card information. People who get the emails are asked to sign in to their StubHub accounts; anyone who does so gives away their user name and passwords, enabling third parties to begin making fraudulent charges to the credit cards, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent bulletin. Anyone who believes that they fell victim to this scam should immediately change their StubHub passwords, alert credit reporting agencies and contact StubHub at safety@stubhub.com.

Real estate loans -- A West Covina woman has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for running a fraudulent investment scheme that took in about $6.9 million from more than 150 victims. In addition to the prison term, Guadalupe Valencia was ordered to repay $5.2 million to victims. Valencia had pleaded guilty in December to mail fraud, wire fraud and tax fraud. Prosecutors said Valencia ran her scheme out of the Downey offices of Real Estate & Loan Consultants and R.E. Equity Group Inc.  from 2001 to 2009. She told investors that she would use their money to make real estate loans and loans to small businesses. But instead of making the investments, she used the money to make payments to early investors, prosecutors said.

RELATED:

Scam watch: Facebook lottery, unclaimed money, foreclosure rescue

Scam watch: Child identity theft, credit repair, investments

Scam Watch: Investments, seniors, credit cards

-- Stuart Pfeifer

Photo: Prototype of an Android phone. Credit: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg

L.A. class-action suit seeks $900 million from Full Tilt Poker

Add another lawsuit to Full Tilt Poker’s hand. The poker website that federal prosecutors last month called a “global Ponzi scheme” now faces a class-action complaint seeking $900 million in damages.

The newest suit, filed in federal court in California this week, accuses Full Tilt of fraud, unjust enrichment, “a pattern of racketeering,” “brazen money-laundering” and more.

Los Angeles residents Lary Kennedy and Greg Omotoy named a slew of defendants, including Full Tilt Chief Executive Raymond Bitar and board members Howard Lederer and Christopher Ferguson.

Also included: poker celebrities such as Phil Ivey and Gus Hansen, whom the complaint said helped promote the website and attract players.

The allegations resemble many of the ones made in an amended civil lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors last month against Full Tilt. Soon after, Ferguson’s lawyer, Ian Imrich, said in a statement that “under any reasonable interpretation, the worldwide operations of the online card room are not a so-called Ponzi scheme.”

Imrich is among the defendants named in this week’s complaint, which alleges that Full Tilt misappropriated funds from player accounts and fed it to the defendants. The site also illegally deducted “rakes” -– a small fraction of each winner’s pot -– according to the complaint.

Full Tilt “did not create financial reserves for amounts held on behalf of players, but instead distributed the money for operational expenses, marketing expenses, fees and losses arising from money laundering … and massive distributions to the individual defendants,” the complaint says.

If the suit reaches class-action status, it could include thousands of people across the country, according to the complaint. While the site owes Omotoy $10, it is $120,000 in debt to Kennedy, the suit alleges.

RELATED:

FBI shuts down Internet poker sites

PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker reopen -- but not for play

Federal prosecutors call Full Tilt Poker 'a global Ponzi scheme'

-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo credit: Robert Sullivan / Agence France-Presse 

Consumer Confidential: Cell bill shock. BlackBerry. iPhone sales.

Here's your mama-told-me-not-to-come Monday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- As my colleague Jim Puzzanghera reported in Monday's paper, wireless companies will finally make it easier for customers to avoid sky-high bills. AT&T, Verizon and other major cellphone providers have agreed with U.S. regulators to begin sending alerts to customers who are approaching monthly voice, text or data limits. The aim is to help them avoid hefty additional charges that cause what consumer advocates call bill shock. Under the voluntary industry guidelines, companies also will send alerts when customers exceed their plans' limits and are subject to overage charges. Customers traveling abroad will be warned that they are about to incur often pricey international roaming fees. The companies  agreed to be customer-friendly only after federal officials made clear that new regulations would be imposed if they didn't.

 -- Speaking of cellphones, BlackBerry customers are being offered some free apps to keep them from fleeing the service after nasty outages last week. Research in Motion says the apps, worth more than $100, will be made available over the coming weeks on BlackBerry App World. They include iSpeech Translator, Bejeweled and Texas Hold'em Poker 2. The offer runs until the end of the year. Research in Motion also will offer its enterprise customers a month of free technical support. Last week's blackout interrupted email and Internet services for tens of millions of users globally and left company leaders apologizing profusely.

-- One last wireless news item (giving me the hat trick): Apple says it sold more than 4 million units of the new iPhone model in three days. It's selling more than twice as fast as the previous model did when it launched last year. Apple and its phone company partners started selling the iPhone 4S on Friday in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Britain. That's two more launch countries than last year. There are also more phone companies selling the phone. In the U.S., Sprint Nextel is the new carrier. When Apple launched the iPhone 4 last year, it sold 1.7 million in the first three days.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Cellphone "bill shock" could be become less frequent. Credit: Randi Lynn Beach / For The Times

 

Podcast: Insider Trading, Job Creation and Fighting Cancer

A federal judge in Manhattan this week imposed the longest insider-trading sentence ever in the United States.

In a conversation on the new Weekend Business podcast, Peter Lattman, who covered the sentencing of the hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam in the case, says the government argues that it will have a powerful deterrent effect.

Mr. Lattman said that it contrasts, however, with a comparative lack of prosecutions, convictions and long sentences for executives whose firms may share responsibility for the financial crisis that began in 2007.

In a separate conversation, Robert Shiller, the Yale economics professor, discusses the argument he makes in the Economic View column in Sunday Business that the government should put people to work in large-scale infrastructure projects. The proposal was included in President Obama’s American Jobs Act, which was blocked at least in its full form by the Senate last week.

Natasha Singer talks to David Gillen in the podcast about her Sunday Business cover article on the “pinking of America” — the rise of a marketing powerhouse in the fight against breast cancer.

And Steve Lohr discusses the importance of default choices on the Internet and in other parts of contemporary life. As he says in the Unboxed column in Sunday Business, much of the Internet is wide open, but the design of Web sites and the order of Web searches helps to determine what consumers actually see and select.

In the news portion of the podcast, I discuss the Nobel prize in economics, which has been labeled a “Non-Keynesian Nobel.” In my Strategies column in Sunday Business, Professor Christopher Sims of Princeton, one of the new Nobel laureates, makes it clear that he actually places his research within the Keynesian tradition.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: the insider trading case (30:23); news headlines (23:50); fighting breast cancer (21:23); Robert Shiller (11:55); designing for the Web (7:36); the week ahead (1:48).

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Consumer Confidential: BlackBerry back; fat passengers on AirTran

Here's your things-that-make-you-go-hmmm Thursday roundup of consumner news from around the Web:

-- Peace in our time. BlackBerry services buzzed back to life across the world after a three-day outage that interrupted email messages and Internet services for millions of customers. Research In Motion, the maker of the phones, says the system was back to normal early Thursday. Some phones that have been out of touch for a long time may need to have their batteries pulled out and put back in to regain a connection to the network. A crucial link in BlackBerry's European network failed Monday, and a backup also failed. That immediately cut off service for most users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Chile, Brazil and Argentina.

-- Flying fat will soon cost you more on AirTran. The carrier's new owner, Southwest Airlines, will bring its policy for large passengers to AirTran Airways starting in March. The new policy will require those passengers -- whom Southwest calls "customers of size" -- to buy a second seat if they are flying in AirTran's coach section. As of March 1, AirTran will require the purchase of more than one seat for a passenger who, "in the carrier's sole discretion," can't sit in just one seat with the armrest lowered. According to SeatGuru.com, AirTran's seats are 18 inches wide in coach class and 22 inches wide in business class.

-- Do you live in a cool neighborhood? Now you can find out. MapQuest is launching a website that ranks thousands of neighborhoods on quality-of-life measures, including restaurants and bars, shopping and how easy it is to get around on foot. The company says the site, mqVibe, uses algorithms to produce real-time rankings of 50,000 neighborhoods in 27,000 U.S. cities. It also lists the best-ranked places for dining, shopping, beauty and spas, health, lodging and other services. Rankings are based on user votes and what the company describes as interactions on MapQuest.com and external data. That sounds like a really scientific way of taking a best guess.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: BlackBerry users, rejoice! Service is retored. Credit: Oliver Lang / Associated Press

 

Consumer Confidential: Wireless devices, rich shoppers, stroller recall

 
Here's your be-true-to-your-school Tuesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- You know how New Zealand is supposed to have more sheep than people? Well, there are now more wireless devices being used in the United States than there are Americans, and we've doubled the amount of Internet data traffic we generate on smartphones, according to the trade group CTIA. The number of mobile devices rose 9% in the first six months of 2011 to 327.6 million -- more than the 315 million people living in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Wireless network data traffic rose 111% during the same period. How is this possible? Many adults have more than one wireless device. Beam me up, Scotty.

-- At least someone is shopping. Wealthy families with discretionary income of at least $250,000 plan to boost holiday shopping by 7% from last year to an average $2,708, according to a survey by Hanson Group and American Express. Those pulling down less than a quarter-million bucks plan to scale back their purchases, the survey finds. But the rich are clearly feeling flush. Maybe they'll want a few more wireless devices.

-- Heads up: Hundreds of thousands of popular B.O.B. jogging strollers are being recalled because of choking concerns. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says the backing on an embroidered logo patch on the stroller's canopy can come loose. CPSC says the firm has received six reports of children mouthing a detached patch backing. Two cases involved choking and gagging. Consumers need to remove the patch before they can use the stroller. The recall involves more than 411,000 single and double jogging strollers in the United States and 27,000 in Canada.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: The ubiquity of cellphones means there are now more wireless devices in the U.S. than people. Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

 

Consumer Confidential: Netflix says oops; iPhone orders

 
Here's your misfit-toys Monday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Give Netflix points for knowing it was wrong. The company says it will drop plans to split its mail-order DVD and Internet-streaming services. The change is an acknowledgment of the anger that Netflix triggered in subscribers, first with Chief Executive Reed Hastings’ plan to raise prices and the subsequent Sept. 18 announcement detailing the split of the services. Customers will be able to access the streaming and mail-order services from Netflix.com, with one account and password, the company says. Netflix on Sept. 18 said people who wanted DVDs would have to sign up for a new service called Qwikster, requiring a separate account and billing. Now if the company could just do something about getting more up-to-date movies.

-- Dr Pepper prefers hanging out with guys. That's apparently the idea behind Dr Pepper Ten, a 10-calorie soft drink Dr Pepper Snapple Group is rolling out with a macho ad campaign that proclaims, "It's not for women." The soft drink was developed after the company's research found that men shy away from diet drinks that aren't perceived as "manly" enough. To appeal to men, Dr Pepper made its Ten drink 180 degrees different from Diet Dr Pepper. It has calories and sugar, unlike its diet counterpart. Instead of the dainty tan bubbles on the diet can, Ten will be wrapped in gunmetal grey packaging with silver bullets. And while Diet Dr Pepper's marketing is women-friendly, the ad campaign for Ten goes out of its way to eschew women. So there.

-- Apple took some heat for not unveiling an iPhone 5 but, instead, debuting an upgraded iPhone 4S. But apparently the company knew what it was doing. Apple says first-day preorders of the iPhone 4S topped 1 million, breaking the record set by last year's model. Apple and various phone companies started taking orders for the phone last Friday. It hits stores this Friday. First-day orders for the iPhone 4 were 600,000 when it launched last year. It was then sold in the U.S. only by AT&T. The iPhone 4S is also sold by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel. The base model of the iPhone 4S costs $200 with a two-year contract. It has a faster processor and an improved camera compared to last year's model.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Netflix is dropping plans for a Qwikster service. Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press

 

Consumer Confidential: Shoplifting on rise, Google scam, rotary engines

Here's your full-frontal Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Consumer spending may be on the ropes, but not shoplifting. The retail Industry Leaders Assn. says there's been an increase this year in thefts from retail stores and pharmacies. It blames a growing black market for stolen goods in these troubled economic times. More than half of retailers surveyed by the organization said shoplifting by individuals and organized bands of thieves is on the rise. Nearly two-thirds said they see their stuff being resold on the Internet. An association official says the group is disappointed but not surprised by the increase in five-finger discounts.

-- Speaking of theft, there's a new scam online targeting cyber-merchants. The email appears to have been sent by Google asking AdWords users to update their payment information. It provides a link to an official-looking page where you can resubmit your name, address and credit card number. Needless to say, the email isn't really from Google. It's from scammers that want to go on a shopping spree with your plastic. AdWords is one of Google's online advertising services. According to Google's actual AdWords support page: "Please remember that Google's AdWords team will never send an unsolicited message asking for you to provide your password or other sensitive information by email or through a link."

-- It used to be that the big selling point for Mazda vehicles was the rotary engine, which commercials told us was better than those clunky piston engines. But the days of the rotary engine are ending. Mazda will stop making cars with its signature rotary engines after a 45-year production run. Poor sales and the high costs of meeting modern emissions standards have made rotary engines uneconomical to produce. The Japanese automaker introduced its first rotary engine car in 1967 and is the only automaker in the world that makes rotary engine vehicles. Such engines have fewer moving parts and are quieter than comparable piston engines but are more expensive to manufacture and consume more fuel.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Retailers say they're being overrun by shoplifters. Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty Images

 

BofA says website working properly again

 
Bank of America Corp.'s woebegone website appears to have perked up again after six days of sporadic outages and slowdowns.

"We're taking it day by day," spokeswoman Tara Burke said, characterizing the system as operating normally Thursday.

"It's getting better," Burke said, a statement affirmed by a dozen BofA customers who said the problems with the website had been corrected.

The nation's biggest bank, with 29 million online customers, has been getting ready to introduce new features and had switched many users to a new system in September, Burke said.

She said that process, combined with an end-of-the-month flood of payroll deposits and bill payments, caused widespread malfunctions beginning last Friday and continuing until Wednesday.

The foul-ups added to the headaches of BofA Chief Executive Brian Moynihan, who touched off fireworks of protest last week with his plan to charge customers $5 a month to make purchases using their debit cards.

That plan hit the news Friday just before the online banking hit the skids, prompting waves of speculation that hackers had retaliated against the bank for the fee. BofA has consistently denied that its systems were compromised by outsiders, blaming itself for the problems.

Bank of America stock closed Thursday up 51 cents, or 8.8%, at $6.28 but was still down by more than 50% for the year.

RELATED:

Bank of America's website (and stock) are down again

Consumer confidential: Bank of America woes

BofA: Online banking outage was unrelated to debit fee uproar

-- E. Scott Reckard

Photo: Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan's headaches include website woes. Credit: Bloomberg / Jeff Kowalsky

Consumer Confidential: BofA woes, Ivory upgrade, reader privacy

Here's your whoa-nellie Wednesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Bank of America just can't catch a break. After taking it on the chin over a new $5 monthly debit card fee, the bank has been struggling to keep its website up and running. The company had said Friday that the troubles had been fully resolved, but some customers still had difficulty accessing their accounts through the weekend. A message on the bank's homepage Tuesday noted that customers can still access their accounts at ATMs or at one of the company's nearly 6,000 branches. It also suggested that customers try logging back on during a "non-peak time." BofA is the largest U.S. bank and has 29 million online customers.

--Ivory soap is getting a facelift. Procter & Gamble is updating its 132-year-old Ivory brand with colorful, eye-catching packages, a remade logo and a new marketing campaign. But the soap itself isn't changing. The remake is part of an effort by the Cincinnati-based company to breathe new life into Ivory. It comes at a time when Americans are scaling back on spending but are looking for little, cheap ways to pamper themselves, by, say, taking a long, hot shower. As P&G has focused on bigger, faster-growing brands, the white bar of soap has lagged behind its rival Dove and faced increasing competition from the likes of Dial and Irish Spring.

--You are what you read. And thanks to a new California law, readers' privacy has new safeguards. Gov. Jerry Brown has signed the Reader Privacy Act, updating state privacy laws to cover new technologies such as electronic books and online book services as well as local bookstores. The Reader Privacy Act will become law on Jan. 1 and will establish privacy protections for book purchases similar to long-established privacy laws for library records. In other words, your online book browsing, buying and reading won't be revealed to marketers, lawyers and others. Not that we have anything to hide, of course.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: BofA is having technical troubles. Credit: Andrew Gombert / EPA

 

Consumer Confidential: Self-checkouts, online videos, free checking

Here's your mystic-pizza Monday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Do you find self-checkouts at the supermarket to be more hassle than they're worth? So do some supermarkets. Big Y Foods, which has 61 locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts, recently became one of the latest to announce it was phasing out the self-serve lanes. Some other regional chains and major players, including some Albertsons locations, have also reduced their unstaffed lanes and added more clerks to traditional lanes. Studies cited by the Food Marketing Institute found only 16% of supermarket transactions in 2010 were done at self-checkout lanes in stores that provided the option. That's down from a high of 22% three years ago. Clearly most shoppers still favor the human touch.

--There's more scrambling afoot in the online-video world. Netflix has inked a pact with DreamWorks Animation SKG giving it exclusive pay-TV distribution rights for first-run films starting with the studio's 2013 lineup, while Amazon.com landed a deal with 20th Century Fox to provide movies and TV shows to bring its Amazon Prime streaming service to more than 11,000 titles. Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed. Netflix is struggling to retain subscribers after raising prices and splitting the company into two separate services. Last week, satellite-TV provider Dish Network resurrected its Blockbuster brand as a streaming service.

--Free checking has become an endangered species. But it's still out there. A new study by Bankrate.com finds that only 45% of checking accounts are free this year. That's down sharply from 65% last year and 76% two years ago. But the study also found that most banks are willing to waive monthly fees when customers meet certain conditions. For example, customers may have to set up direct deposit or maintain a certain balance. The study also found that the average cost for using an out-of-network ATM rose slightly to $3.81. That's including the fees charged by the customer's own bank and the ATM operator.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Supermarket shoppers go through the traditional checkout. Credit: Damon Winter / Los Angeles Times

 

Consumer Confidential: Blockbuster, man caves, zodiac salaries

Here's your feelin'-groovy Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Heads up, Netflix. Dish Network is announcing an Internet video service that will try to woo away subscribers. The service will be offered through Blockbuster, the video-store chain that Dish Network bought out of bankruptcy court for $321 million five months ago. Netflix's success as a subscription service that mails rented DVDs and streams video over high-speed Internet connections played a pivotal role in Blockbuster's downfall. Now Dish and Blockbuster are apparently hoping for a little payback as Netflix faces a customer backlash triggered by changes to its prices and format. Dish says its Blockbuster service will be "a stream come true." We'll see.

--Good news, guys: A man cave in the basement won't detract from the resale value of your home. "As long as you don't make it too specific, there tends to be a resale market for man caves," said Stephanie Rauterkus, a professor of accounting and finance at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. "No matter how crazy you get, there tends to be at least one or two other people in the world who have that same kind of craziness." Still, she says there are some rules to follow if you want your man cave to be a true real-estate asset: First, stay sane with the cost. Only spend what you can afford. Second, stay sane with the decor -- in case you move or your team preferences change. Finally, stay sane with the decision. Sleep on it as you would for all major purchases.

--Which zodiac signs rake in the biggest bucks? A new survey by CareerBuilder finds that Virgos, Aries and Scorpios tend to score six-figure salaries, while Capricorns and Leos are often vice presidents or higher (although at the highest levels, Capricorns edge them out). Middle management is filled with Aries, while those who fall into the Aquarius category tend to swim at the bottom in entry-level positions. Libras and those born under Taurus are more satisfied on the job than others. Also, first-borns and only children tend to pull in bigger paychecks, and middle children are more likely to hold low-level jobs. Is there anything to this? Post your comments.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Will Blockbuster get a little payback from Netflix? Credit: Rick Wilking / Reuters

Consumer Confidential: Rude workers, holiday sales, PETA porn

Here's your which-way-did-they-go Wednesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--What's the top consumer complaint? Well, take your pick. But very high on many people's lists are rude employees. In fact, about one-third of consumers say they get treated rudely an average of once a month and that such episodes of uncivil behavior make them less likely to patronize those businesses, according to researchers from USC and Georgetown University. The researchers surveyed 244 consumers and found that incivility is widespread. Consumers recalled incidents involving an uncivil employee in many industries, and particularly in restaurants and retailing. Furthermore, managers may not be aware of how frequently their customers witness an employee behaving uncivilly because consumers seldom report the behavior to employers. Bottom line: Be nice to your customers. It's just good business.

 --Retailers are still waiting to see whether there's any ho-ho-ho this holiday season. A new forecast indicates that sales growth will likely not be as high as last year and that shoppers won't be hitting the stores as much. Retail sales for the November and December period are expected to rise 3% during what is traditionally the most critical period of the year for retailers, according to the research firm ShopperTrak. That would be below last year's 4.1% sales growth. Shoppers have been cautious about spending through 2011, faced with uncertain economic conditions, rising gas prices and high unemployment. Expect retailers to roll out plenty of sales to attract attention to their stores.

--PETA is mixing its animal-rights message with porn. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it will launch a pornographic website to promote its stance. The group has already applied for the peta.xxx domain. PETA says the site will feature "tantalizing" videos and photographs, which will lead viewers into animal-rights messages. The idea is to reach a broader audience, by any means possible. The site could be up and running by November, although critics are already saying that by resorting to porn, PETA is alienating itself from a large swath of the population that might otherwise be sympathetic to its cause.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Consumers hate it when employees are rude. Credit: American Movie Classics

 

Podcast: The European Crisis, the Guggenheim Family and Online Privacy

The European financial crisis has already roiled markets around the world, but it’s likely that worse is yet to come.

That’s the view of Gretchen Morgenson, who analyzes the effects of the European crisis on the United States financial system and economy in the new Weekend Business podcast, and in her column in Sunday Business.

While central banks and political leaders are trying to ameliorate the crisis, a default by Greece is quite probable, she says, and that is likely to be felt in the United States in two main ways. Credit default swaps insuring against a default will entangle some as- yet- unknown American counterparties, she says, and the shock could lead to another full-blown credit crisis, which would inflict harm on the markets and the economy.

The fundamental mechanism underlying world markets is the focus of Robert Frank’s new book, “The Darwin Economy,” an adaptation of which appears in Sunday Business. In a podcast conversation, he argues that Charles Darwin, the naturalist, was a greater economist than Adam Smith. Darwin’s theory of evolution explains why markets sometimes produce socially unacceptable results — and the reason, Professor Frank says, is intrinsic to competition. Unlike Smith’s “invisible hand” theory, Darwin’s theory says that group and individual interests sometimes conflict, in which case, individual interests trump. Government sometimes needs to step in to correct matters, he says.

In another conversation, Graham Bowley tells David Gillen about the history of the Guggenheim family, and of individuals who are accused of trying to swindle investors running a swindle based on the false claim that they, too, are members of that illustrious clan. The saga of the Guggenheims and would-be Guggenheims is the subject of Mr. Bowley’s article on the cover of Sunday Business.

And, finally, Natasha Singer discusses online ID systems that, she says, may threaten individual privacy. She elaborates on this theme in the Slipstream column in Sunday Business.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Gretchen Morgenson (34:29); news summary (27:03); Graham Bowley (24:38); Natasha Singer (17:32); Robert Frank (10:11); the week ahead (2:06).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Consumer Confidential: Mortgage rates, slower mail, Netflix

Here's your three-coins-in-the-fountain Thursday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--There's a fire sale on mortgages. Fixed mortgage rates fell to the lowest level in six decades for the second straight week. But few Americans can take advantage of the historically low rates. Freddie Mac says the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.09% this week, down from 4.12%. That's the lowest rate seen since 1951. The average rate on the 15-year mortgage, a popular refinancing option, fell to 3.30% from 3.33%. Economists say it is likely the lowest rate on the 15-year ever. Still, cheap mortgage rates haven't helped home sales. Sales of new homes are on pace for the worst year on records dating back a half-century. The pace of resales is shaping up to be the worst in 14 years. Many Americans are in no position to buy or refinance. High unemployment, scant wage gains and large debt loads have kept them away.

-- The U.S. Postal Service is cooking up new ways to save a buck, and they won't get the mail to your home any faster. The agency says it may close more than half of its 487 mail processing facilities, eliminate 35,000 positions and slow mail delivery service in an effort to return to profitability. To process mail with fewer facilities, first-class delivery would slow to two to three days, so that mail would no longer necessarily arrive the day after being mailed. The Postal Service would lose some 35,000 mail-processing jobs out of a total 151,000 positions currently. It hopes to avoid layoffs and rely on retirements. The plan comes on top of additional plans, such as delivering mail only five days a week instead of six. Congress must write laws for the Postal Service to cut back on deliveries.

-- Netflix is bleeding ... subscribers, that is. The company, which split its streaming and DVD-by-mail services two months ago, now expects a total of 24 million subscribers in the third quarter, down from the 25 million it forecast in July. It expects 21.8 million people to subscribe to its streaming service, either with or without also getting DVDs in the mail. That's down from an expected 22 million it forecast earlier. And Netflix expects 14.2 million people to subscribe to the mail-order DVD rental service, with or without streaming. That's down from its July forecast of 15 million. The plan split, which went into effect Sept. 1 for existing subscribers, means people who want both mailed DVDs and streamed Internet videos are paying more. Turns out people don't like that sort of thing.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Mortgage rates are at 60-year lows -- not that that's boosting home sales. Credit: Joshua Lott/Reuters

 

Wall Street: Dow up, gold down, Citigroup-SEC talks, rogue trader

  

Gold: Trading at $1,790.50, down $36. Dow Jones industrial average: Up 72.58 points to 11,319.31.

Citigroup talks. The Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly is negotiating with Citigroup Inc. on a potential settlement calling for the bank to pay more than $200 million for questionable mortgage-bond deals.

Rogue trader. Investment bank UBS warned that an employee's unauthorized trading could cost it more than $2 billion.

Groupon IPO. The daily deals site is proceeding with its delayed initial public offering, which now may take place in late October or early November.

Solyndra battle. Washington lawmakers are fighting an increasingly heated battle over the Fremont, Calif., solar equipment maker that failed after getting a federal loan.

-- Walter Hamilton

Photo: On Wall Street. Credit: Stan Honda / Getty Images

UPS customized service gives alerts, delivery window

With Cyber Monday and the holiday shopping season fast approaching, UPS wants customers to receive their packages on the first try.

The parcel delivery company unveiled its new online alert system, UPS My Choice, to keep residential customers in the know.

The day before the item is arrives, regular users can receive phone, email or text messages offering a four-hour window for delivery. There’s an electronic signature release so packages can be left at the door and for $5, users can reroute the parcel to another location.

Premium members can shell out $40 a year to get a two-hour delivery window.

Making shipping more reliable could persuade even more consumers to spend. Last year’s holiday retail season, according to research company ComScore, broke records with $32.6 billion in online spending. Cyber Monday alone pulled in $1 billion.

RELATED:

Amazon may deliver packages to 7-Eleven lockers

More than 100 post offices in state slated for possible closure

--  Tiffany Hsu

Credit: Stephen Chernin / Getty Images

Consumer Confidential: Target down, Whole Foods discount, minivan probe

Here's your to-hell-and-back Tuesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Apparently Target shoppers can't get enough of designer Angela Missoni. Target's website crashed on the same day that the retailer launched a new fashion line called "Missoni for Target." The company's Twitter account has been apologizing to customers for hours for the difficulties with its website. Target has been working with Italian luxury knitwear design house Missoni for the past year to develop the line of 400 items. Missoni's hallmark, colorful zigzag stripes, appear on everything from melamine appetizer plates (starting at $2.99) to a four-piece sectional furniture set ($599.99.) Most items are less than $40 and include knit dresses, tights, cardigans, rain boots, bedding, luggage, dinner ware, even iPad and iPod covers.

--Meanwhile, over at the LivingSocial site, people are flocking to a sweet offer from Whole Foods. The high-end grocer is offering 50% off, giving LivingSocial users $20 worth of groceries for $10. As part of the deal, 5% of proceeds will go to the Whole Kids Foundation, which supports schools and aims to inspire families to improve children's nutrition and wellness. There's a limit of one voucher per person. This is the highest-profile deal on LivingSocial to date following a similar discount with Amazon earlier in the year. The Whole Foods deal is poised to surpass the more than 1 million vouchers it sold for the Amazon deal. Anything that makes shopping at Whole Foods cheaper is OK by me.

--Heads up: Auto-safety regulators are opening an investigation into complaints that Chrysler minivan headlights can go out unexpectedly. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received more than 1,500 complaints from consumers about the problem, including two reports of crashes, one of which caused a minor injury. Drivers have reported that the headlights turn off and stay off indefinitely. Toggling the headlight switch can sometimes get them to come back on, but not always. Additionally, vehicle owners have complained that the lights sometimes blink and flicker. Vehicles included in the investigation are the Chrysler Town and Country, the Chrysler Voyager, the Dodge Caravan and the Dodge Grand Caravan.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Target's website is having a dog day. Credit: Jose Carlos Fajardo/MCT