Corporate

The Twinkie, it turns out, was introduced way back in 1930. In our memories, however, the iconic snack will forever be identified with the 1950s, when Hostess popularized the brand by sponsoring “The Howdy Doody Show.” And the demise of Hostess has unleashed a wave of baby boomer nostalgia for a seemingly more innocent time.

Permira founder, Damon Buffini, explains why he wants to tackle social issues.

For many, CSR has become a glorified form of public relations, a chance for businesses to try to put a positive spin on their existence or distract from questionable activities elsewhere.

Damon Buffini is doing his bit to change that view. One of Britain’s best known private equity bosses and once voted Britain’s most powerful black male, the founder partner of Permira has in recent weeks stepped down as a full-time partner at the buy-out firm.

In the year since I stepped down as the special inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the sadly predictable consequences of the government’s disparate treatment of Wall Street and Main Street have only become worse. As the banks amass size and power, Main Street continues to get pummeled.

Reuters notes that Fidelity, the mutual fund and retail brokerage powerhouse, is working with "thousands" of customers to resolve issues related to the botched Facebook IPO.

Nearly a week after the deal was priced, "many investors have found that their orders for Facebook were not executed at the prices they thought, said advisers…"

The Boston-based company was not shy about placing the onus on the Nasdaq.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., which generated the most trading revenue among Wall Street firms last year, had the highest trading and counterparty losses of the biggest U.S. banks under the Federal Reserve’s stress scenario.

JPMorgan had an estimated $27.7 billion in projected losses from mark-to-market changes, credit valuation adjustments and counterparty default losses, according to the Fed results released today. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) had an estimated $27.1 billion of such losses in the testing.

"The whole perspective of how firms influence policy environments is a relatively new question to economists."

Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and other good governance groups sent letters to members of Congress urgingpassage of the “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act” (“STOCK Act”).   

Source: Common Cause | The venerable clean government organization, Common Cause, has an excellent, digestible report available on the politics—or the money in politics—concerning the “fracking” controversy. The report describes the problems with fracking:

An inside look at the real reasons for the once-beloved chain's demise

For the past decade and a half, Borders seems to have been in the business of making mistakes. Consider the company’s efforts to develop an online presence. Amazon was launched in 1995, and Barnes & Noble responded with its own website two years later.

The dream – or myth – of mobility was the glue that helped keep America together