Dan Bobkoff

JPMorgan Chase Agrees To Pay $5.1 Billion To Feds

Melissa Block

JPMorgan Chase agreed pay $5.1 billion to settle litigation over mortgage assets sold during the housing bubble. The deal, announced late Friday afternoon, is to resolve claims the company misled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the housing market crashed. It is part of a tentative $13 billion deal the company is trying to reach with federal and state agencies over its mortgage liabilities.

IRS offices around the country, like this one in Brooklyn, N.Y., have been closed since the partial government shutdown began two weeks ago. While the agency continues to cash checks from payees, refunds, audits and most other operations are suspended.

The IRS Can't Take Your Questions. It Will Take Your Return

Dan Bobkoff

Tuesday is the deadline for taxpayers who requested an extension on their 2012 tax returns. With most of its staff currently furloughed, the Internal Revenue Service is not answering calls, issuing refunds or collecting audits. Even so, don't expect a filing reprieve; the midnight deadline is still in effect.

Three Americans Win Nobel Economics Prize

Dan Bobkoff

Three American professors won this year's Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their studies on asset prices.

JP Morgan Posts Loss Ahead Of Expected Fines

Dan Bobkoff

JP Morgan Chase reported something unusual today: a loss. The bank has been forced to set aside a huge cash reserve to cover expected fines and related legal costs. In the most recent quarter, the set-aside was so large — $9.1 billion — that it produced a net loss for the bank.

What Happens When Stores Let Customers Return Whatever They Want?

Dan Bobkoff

L.L. Bean has taken back a live Christmas wreath that had turned brown and a shirt ripped by a rescue crew after a car accident. Is that any way to run a business?

What Elevated Kale From Vegetable To Cultural Identifier?

Dan Bobkoff

Of all the healthy foods you could eat, what inspires some people to wear kale T-shirts and sport kale stickers? Why do some people see kale as a part of their identities?

Internet-Based TV Service May Not Change The Cable Market

Dan Bobkoff

The race to create a viable Internet-based TV service is on, and the contestants include the biggest names in computer technology: Apple, Microsoft, Intel and Google. Sony has apparently reached a deal — as preliminary — with Viacom to carry the company's cable channels on its planned web TV service.

The sun sets over the Manhattan skyline during a major power outage affecting a large part of the Northeastern United States and Canada on Aug. 14, 2003. Ten years later, some improvements have been made to the grid to prevent another large-scale blackout.

10 Years After The Blackout, How Has The Power Grid Changed?

Dan Bobkoff

Sagging power lines and computer glitches led to a power outage that left 50 million people across the Northeast U.S. and part of Canada in darkness on Aug. 14, 2003. New sensors have been installed, and operator training and computer systems have been upgraded. But is that enough to prevent another massive blackout?

Why Hasn't The Internet Blown Up Cable TV's Business Model?

Dan Bobkoff

The Internet has a history of blowing up business models. Now we buy music by the song, and who needs the newspaper for classifieds? But cable television hasn't budged much. You're still forced to buy a bundle of channels, whether you watch them or not.

Though you'd never see it listed on your monthly cable bill, nearly every channel you get has a secret price.

The History — And Future — Of Cable's Bundling

Dan Bobkoff

For Time Warner Cable customers in major cities, the battle for the future of television is playing out before their eyes as CBS and the cable giant fight over fees. You might not realize it, but between a third and half of your cable bill goes directly to pay for channels like CBS or ESPN.