From the category archives:

Business

Two Very Different Takes on Credit Card Reform

by RichFebruary 28, 2010

The more you try to reform the broken system, the more you realize that even the process the government uses to reform the system is broken as well. President Obama signed legislation back in May of last year that forces credit card companies to not only be much more transparent about how much they’re screwing [...]

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Muckmakers Proudly Presents the 2010 Muckmaker Awards!

by RichFebruary 19, 2010
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It’s the awards show you’ve all been waiting for…no, not the Oscars. That’s next month. No, not the MTV Movie Awards. Let’s be honest – even the Golden Globes are more watchable than that crap. It’s the 2010 Muckmaker Awards, where we dishonor the worst people, organizations, businesses, and ideologies of 2009 by awarding them [...]

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Operation Main Street

by IanAugust 7, 2009
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Via: Chicago Tribune
In the continued flailings of the Starbucks chain, here’s a new one: the stealth Starbucks store.
A Seattle outlet of the 16,000-store coffee behemoth is being rebranded without visible Starbucks identifiers, as 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.
Two other stores in Starbucks’ native Seattle will follow suit, each getting its own name to make it [...]

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Follow-Up: Government Grant Scams Are Still Alive and Well

by RichJuly 14, 2009
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Back in February, we warned our readers about the “Obama stimulus grant” scam, which was basically a bunch of poorly constructed websites promising people free money that didn’t exist. The money from the last bailout went to companies, not citizens, but these pages claimed that if you applied for certain government grants, you’d be sent [...]

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20% of Genes are Patented

by IanMay 19, 2009
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This had me a bit confused this morning, though certainly not surprised. Apparently, one can patent a human gene. A gene… the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. Patented, and “owned” by someone. The mind boggles.
After I heard this, my initial thought was, “What good is that?”
Oh, ho – it’s plenty good.
As it [...]

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Follow-Up: Wal-Mart Settles Trampling Case, Avoids Criminal Charges

by RichMay 14, 2009

Back in November, we did a little write-up about the Wal-Mart employee who was trampled to death as the doors to the store opened on Black Friday. The case was finally settled in court last week…
Wal-Mart agreed Wednesday to pay nearly $2 million and improve safety at its 92 New York stores as part of [...]

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You and Your Debit Card

by IanMarch 31, 2009

Via: MSNBC
Would you pay $38 for a cup of coffee? Clifford Phillips of Spokane, Wash., did. He used his debit card to pay for a latte, not knowing there wasn’t enough money in his checking account to cover it. The bank could have declined the transaction for insufficient funds. Instead it approved the electronic payment [...]

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Madoff Claims Wife’s Money Not Fraudulent, Causes More Heads To Explode than Jihad

by RichMarch 5, 2009

It appears that Bernie Madoff, who was our pick for Worst Businessman in the 2009 Muckmaker Awards, is vying for a spot on our 2010 list. While kids caught with a bag of weed serve sentences that are stiffer than their cellmates’ cocks in their asses, the guy who stole $50 billion and dealt a [...]

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