2004-04-09 OPEC and Oil Prices
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to reduce oil production by about four percent starting…
2004-04-02 Fortune 500 List
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. For fifty years, the business magazine Fortune has published a list of the five-hundred biggest companies in the United…
2004-03-26 EU Fines Microsoft for Anti-Competitive Actions
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The European Union’s Commission on Competition ruled Wednesday that the Microsoft Corporation has used its powerful market position illegally.…
2004-03-19 Current Account Deficit
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The United States recently reported a record deficit in its current account balance. The current account is a measure…
2004-03-12 Jury Finds Martha Stewart Guilty; Michael Eisner Faces Investors’ Judgment
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last Friday, a jury in New York found that businesswoman Martha Stewart lied and tried to interfere with a…
2004-03-05 Outsourcing of Jobs
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Companies often give work to an outside business that can do the job for less money than their own…
2004-02-27 Wal-Mart
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Discount stores sell goods at low prices. They succeed only if they sell a lot of goods and keep…
2004-02-20 Comcast Tries to Buy Disney
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Takeovers are a common part of business. One company offers to buy a controlling share of stock in another.…
2004-02-13 Business Organizations, Part 2
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, we discussed ways that many small businesses are organized. This week, we examine the structure of big…
2004-02-06 Business Organizations, Part 1
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Businesses are structured to meet different needs. One basic difference involves who is responsible for the business. Another involves…
2004-01-30 Enron Officials in Court
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The large American energy services company, Enron, failed two years ago. It had been the seventh largest company in…
2004-01-23 Parmalat’s Problems
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. In December, the Italian food company Parmalat admitted that almost five-thousand-million dollars the company said it had in a…
2004-01-16 IMF Report on American Financial Policy
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. A new report warns that the rising United States budget deficit and trade imbalance threaten world economic security and…
2004-01-09 Franchises
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Success does not come easily to a small business. The United States Small Business Administration says fifty percent fail…
2004-01-02 The Falling Value of the Dollar
This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The falling value of the dollar has become a major story in international finance. The value of a country’s…