Earth Day Deals: The Best Offers and Freebies This Weekend

Filed under: Green, Fantastic Freebies, Shopping, Deals

Monday is Earth Day, and retailers are celebrating with various freebies and deals. Here are some of the offers that caught our eye, with a few on offer this weekend and a few on Earth Day itself.

FreeStuffTimes points us to a few grocery stores that are giving out free reusable tote bags. On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the first 300 people to bring in plastic bags to their local Wegman's will get a free reusable bag. On Sunday, you can get a free reusable bag from Target starting at 10 a.m., and some lucky shoppers will find samples of "sustainable products" in their bags. And on Monday you can get a free Earth Day bag from H-E-B when you bring in five plastic bags from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. In all cases, the bags are only available while supplies last.

DealNews passes along word that Kiehl's will give you a complimentary tube of lip balm with the code EARTHDAY, but only if you spend on your purchase. It's good through April 29.

Amazon is offering a bunch of deals in its Earth Day store. They include a few products aimed at reducing bottled-water waste, such as 15% off select Brita water pitchers and 20% off select Thermos brand travel mugs and bottles. There are also coupons for Seventh Generation brand products.

FreebieFindingMom notes that Pottery Barn Kids is giving away free packets of seeds for kids to plant at home. The giveaway is happening through Monday, or while supplies last at your local store.

Matt Brownell is the consumer and retail reporter for DailyFinance. You can reach him at Matt.Brownell@teamaol.com, and follow him on Twitter at @Brownellorama.

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Online Store Razer Accidentally Posts 90%-Off Coupon -- and Honors It

Filed under: Shopping, Coupons, Computers, Spending

It's a story we've heard before: A retailer posts a coupon or markdown that seems too good to be true, then quickly pulls it when it realizes its mistake.

Usually, the story ends with the retailer announcing that it won't honor the erroneous coupon, and voiding the transactions of any customers who managed to snag those once-in-a-lifetime deals. But one video game company bucked that trend by agreeing to honor an incredible 90%-off coupon code that was mistakenly circulated earlier this week.




Razer is an online retailer of video game hardware peripherals like controllers, keyboards and headphones. The coupon code, which spread rapidly in social media, was good on purchases at its U.K. Razerzone site. Razer quickly moved to disable the code, but not before many eager gamers snatched up heavily discounted hardware.

On Friday, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan took to Facebook to explain that the code was accidentally made active by a third party that was attempting to test the website's shopping cart. Nevertheless, he went on to announce that the company would honor the code for customers who bought "single products for their own use." That means that opportunists who used the code to buy large amounts of merchandise with the intention of reselling it on eBay and elsewhere may yet have their orders voided. Still, it's an incredibly consumer-friendly move by Razer, especially when you consider how much money honoring the transactions with cost. The CEO said in his statement that "thousands of orders" were placed in a matter of hours, resulting in "an insane amount of losses."

And Razer would be well within its rights to void those orders. A couple years ago, for instance, the Sears (SHLD) website accidentally offered the iPad 2 for , but quickly took the down the offer and canceled the orders of anyone who had purchase it at that price. More recently, Best Buy (BBY) forgot to exclude gift cards from a 50%-off coupon, resulting in many customers snatching up Amazon gift cards at half-price. It soon realized its mistake and replaced it with a revised coupon.

Razer could have gone the same route and saved itself a lot of money, but the consumer-friendly move is winning the company plaudits on blogs and in social media. No doubt the company hopes that the long-term PR benefits balance out the revenue losses it incurred this week. But even if its choice was based solely on business considerations, it's still a classy move.

Matt Brownell is the consumer and retail reporter for DailyFinance. You can reach him at Matt.Brownell@teamaol.com, and follow him on Twitter at @Brownellorama.

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FAA to Approve Resumption of Boeing Dreamliner Flights

Filed under: Transportation, U.S. Government, Aerospace & Defense, Travel Industry, Stocks

By JOAN LOWY

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Aviation Administration has accepted Boeing's revamped battery system for its beleaguered 787 Dreamliners and agreed to lift its grounding order, according to a congressional official.

The order gives Boeing the go ahead to begin retrofitting planes with an enhanced lithium-ion battery system although the root cause of battery failures that caused a fire on one of the planes and smoke on another is still unknown.

Boeing Co. (BA) intends to work on the retrofits over the weekend, and flights could resume within days to a week, the official said. The official requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly before the FAA's announcement.

The FAA gave Boeing permission last month to test the revamped system, which includes additional insulation around each of the battery's eight cells to prevent a short circuit or fire in one of the cells from spreading to the others. The new system also includes enhanced venting of smoke and gas from inside the battery to outside the plane. A strengthened box to hold the battery is an effort to ensure that if a fire were to occur, it wouldn't escape to the rest of the plane. Boeing has completed 20 separate tests of the new system, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told Congress earlier this week.

The FAA's action directly affects United Airlines (UAL), which is the only U.S. airline with 787s in its fleet. But aviation authorities in other countries are expected to swiftly follow suit. Boeing had delivered 50 planes to eight airlines in seven countries when a fire erupted in a battery aboard a Japan Airlines 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport on Jan. 7. The FAA and other authorities grounded the entire fleet after a second incident nine days later led to an emergency landing by an All Nippon Airways 787 in Japan.

Boeing has recently been readying replacement battery systems for installation in anticipation that the grounding order would soon be rescinded.

"We are primarily bound by EASA decisions, and we need to have their permission to end the grounding," said Marek Klucinski, a spokesman for Polish national carrier LOT, referring to the European Aviation Safety Agency. "If the [Boeing] decision is today, we can expect a permission to fly in the middle of next week." LOT has two of the planes: One in Warsaw, and one that was en route to Chicago when the grounding order was issued and has remained there.

Technologically Advanced

The 787 is Boeing's newest and most technologically advanced plane. It is the world's first airliner made mostly from lightweight composite materials. It also relies on electronic systems rather than hydraulic or mechanical systems to a greater degree than any other airliner. And it is the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium-ion batteries, which are lighter, recharge faster and can hold more energy than other types of batteries.

Boeing has billed the plane to its customers as 20 percent more fuel efficient than other midsized airliners. That's a big selling point, since fuel is the biggest expense for most airlines

The plane's grounding on Jan. 16, an enormous black eye for Boeing, marked the first time since 1979 that FAA had ordered every plane of a particular type to stay out of the air for safety reasons.

UBS analyst David Strauss estimated last month that the 787 will cost Boeing billion this year. Besides the battery problems, the plane already costs more to build than it brings in from customers.

United has six Dreamliners, plus another 44 on order. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines (DAL) have also ordered 787s. Boeing has orders for more than 800 of the planes from airlines around the globe.

The 787 has two identical lithium-ion batteries, one of which is located toward the front of the plane and powers cockpit electrical systems, the other toward the rear and used to start an auxiliary power unit while the plane is on the ground, among other functions. It was the battery toward the rear that caught fire and gushed smoke on the plane in Boston, which had recently landed after an overseas flight. It was the other battery toward the front that failed on the plane in Japan.

Every item that is part of an airplane, down to its nuts and bolts, must be certified as safe before FAA approves that type of plane as safe for flight. The two events have raised questions about why the FAA and Boeing didn't uncover problems with the batteries before the FAA certified the plane as safe for flight in 2011. In recent years, the FAA has relied to a greater extent on designated employees of aircraft makers to conduct the safety testing necessary of certification. Some aviation safety experts have questioned whether FAA has the in-house expertise to oversee the safety of cutting-edge technologies that haven't been in planes before.

Lithium batteries are much more likely to experience uncontrolled high temperatures that can lead to fires if they are damaged, exposed to excessive heat, overcharged or have manufacturing flaws. Despite their safety risks, they are increasingly attractive to aircraft makers as a way to cut weight and thus improve fuel efficiency.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the Boston battery fire and the process by which the FAA certified the 787's batteries were certified as safe. The board has scheduled a two-day hearing beginning Tuesday at which FAA and Boeing officials are slated to testify.

NTSB officials have said the Boston battery fire began with a short circuit in one of the battery's eight cells, leading to uncontrolled temperatures and short-circuits in the rest of the battery's cells. Firefighters who responded to the incident reported dense clouds of white smoke and two small flames on the outside of the box that contained the battery cells.

---

Associated Press writer Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.

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Midday Report: IBM's Earnings a Rare Miss, Warning Sign for S&P

Filed under: IBM, Earnings, Market News

Big Blue shares are deep in the red: IBM's (IBM) rare miss with its quarterly earnings has sent its stock tumbling.

In early afternoon trading, the stock was down more than a share, a drop of almost 7.5 percent - and that's weighing on the broader market.

It also carries a warning for already nervous investors about the direction of the broader market. The research group Bespoke notes there's a strong correlation between the movement of IBM's stock immediately after its earnings and the direction of the S&P 500 for the following five weeks.

As for the numbers: IBM's earnings edged slightly lower in the first quarter, while total revenue fell 5 percent. And it's the revenue number that has analysts worried.

This is the first miss for IBM in eight years, which makes the numbers even more shocking.

All of the company's major segments reported that revenue fell in the first quarter. That includes a four percent drop in the services unit, which accounts for more than half of the IBM's total revenue. Its software and hardware divisions also declined.

The company blames a number of factors, including economic unrest overseas, as well as the failure of its sales division to close on several large contracts.

IBM is making some immediate moves to turn things around.

Company officials say they will speed up plans to cut its workforce, and it may sell some businesses.

There are reports that IBM is near a deal to sell its low-end server business to Lenovo. That sale could worth as much as .5 billion dollars. Lenovo is the same China-based company that bought IBM's personal computer business back in 2004.

Going forward, IBM says it expects to post improved second quarter results, helped by the closing of those deals that it was unable to complete in the first quarter. The company also says it remains on track to meet its full-year and long-term targets.

The research firm Zacks says a strong order backlog will boost revenue. But IBM remains a company in transition, and it could take some time recover.

-Produced by Drew Trachtenberg

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5 Winners and Losers of the Week in Business

Filed under: Company News, Starbucks, Earnings, Restaurants, Travel Industry

Companies always think their latest move is going to a brilliant one, but there plenty of times when things don't work out quite as planned. And the usual share of wonders and blunders took place in the business world this week, from the well-timed announcement of a new bar-raising cruise ship to an airline that had to cancel nearly 1,000 flights after a computer outage. Let's review:

Royal Caribbean (RCL) -- Winner

Royal Caribbean introduced the latest addition to its fleet on Tuesday. Quantum of the Seas features some intriguing entertainment options that have never before been available on a cruise ship. Bumper cars, a wind tunnel skydiving simulator, and an observation capsule that takes passengers over the side of the ship as high as 300 feet are some of the ship's unique features.

The ship's initial home port will be in New Jersey, and sailings will commence starting in November of next year.
It may be merely a lucky coincidence, but Royal Caribbean is going public with plans for its new ship at a time when its larger rival -- Carnival (CCL) -- has suffered some horrific and embarrassing incidents.

Royal Caribbean is being opportunistic, and there's nothing wrong with that.

American Airlines -- Loser

Tuesday was a bad day to fly American as a computer network outage resulted in the carrier cancelling 978 flights.

There's never a good time to let down your customers, but American Airlines' mishap comes just as its parent company AMR is wiggling its way out of bankruptcy reorganization with plans to complete its merger with US Airways Group next quarter.

Passengers can't be feeling too confident about their next American Airlines flight, even though the company's CEO says he's confident that the problem won't be repeated.

Starbucks (SBUX) -- Winner

You don't have to be a coffee lover to visit your friendly neighborhood Starbucks. The beverage chain is testing carbonated sodas at some of its Seattle stores. We're not talking about phoning it in with ordinary cola or orange soda. Starbucks is offering spiced root beer, ginger ale, and lemon ale -- and making the fizzy beverages as they're ordered. Starbucks is also offering iced tea and its fruity Refresher energy drink in carbonated form at the test stores.

Some may argue that sugary drinks aren't good for you or that offering handcrafted pop will result in slower service. However, expanding the menu with drinks that broaden the chain's audience sounds like a winning plan.

Electronic Arts (EA) -- Loser

Fans of "The Sims Social" are being evicted. EA announced that it will be shutting down the popular Facebook (FB) game come June. Despite attracting 5 million monthly visitors, apparently it's just not lucrative enough for the game developer to keep supporting.

Developers shutter games that are fading in popularity often, but EA is a brand name outside of Facebook. Its reputation is going to take a hit here as gamers begin to wonder if they should invest their time and in some cases money on EA's other online diversions.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) -- Winner

The burritos are rolling in Chipotle's favor these days.

The "fast casual" restaurant operator posted better than expected results this week. Earnings per share climbed nearly 25 percent to hit .45 a share, well ahead of the .14 a share that Wall Street was targeting.

Yes, there was a small tax credit in there, but the fast-growing chain of 1,458 restaurants still would've obliterated market expectations.

Chipotle had actually come up short on the bottom line in its two previous quarters, so it was a welcome surprise to see the operator return to its market-thumping ways.

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Chipotle Mexican Grill, Facebook, and Starbucks. The Motley Fool owns shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Facebook, and Starbucks. Try any of our newsletter services free for 30 days.

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Toyota to Build Lexus Sedan at Kentucky Plant, Add 750 Jobs

Filed under: Toyota, Transportation, Automotive Industry, Manufacturing, Stocks

GEORGETOWN, Ky. -- Toyota will start building the Lexus ES 350 at a factory in Georgetown, Ky., starting in 2015, producing a luxury brand vehicle for the first time in the United States.

The Japanese car company said Friday that the Georgetown plant will build about 50,000 of the flagship sedans each year, creating 750 new jobs.

The Georgetown plant currently assembles the Camry, Avalon and Venza models as well as their hybrid counterparts. The plant already employs about 6,600 people.

Toyota said it will invest 0 million to build the Lexus assembly line, boosting Georgetown's annual vehicle production to 550,000 a year. The company made the announcement at simultaneous news conferences Friday in New York and Georgetown.

"It is fitting that the first country to build the ES outside of Japan is the United States," Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda, the company's top executive, said in New York. "This is the home for Lexus. It was where the brand was founded and it is still the biggest market for the luxury brand."

Toyota started the Lexus luxury brand in 1990 and has since sold nearly 1.2 million ES sedans in the U.S., Toyoda said.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said Toyota would invest a total of 1 million in the Georgetown plant, but the company gave no details of how the remaining 1 million would be spent. A top auto industry analyst said he would be surprised if the company didn't move more production to the factory.

Michael Robinet, managing director of IHS Automotive, a firm that tracks auto production, said a 1 million expansion should bring enough space to build even more vehicles every year. Toyota, he said, likely has plans to add more models and employees in the future.

"Fifty thousand [sedans] is a starting point," he said. "I would be floored if for a half a billion dollars, that the 50,000 didn't turn into between 100,000 and 150,000," he said.

The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority approved 6.5 million in state tax incentives on Wednesday to help with the cost of the expansion.

The Lexus ES, a large midsize luxury car, is offered in conventional and gas-electric hybrid versions. Initially at least, only the gas-powered cars will be made in Kentucky.

The move is being made to meet additional demand for the cars. Sales have nearly doubled so far this year compared with 2012. Last year, ES sales rose 37 percent. Toyota sold just over 56,000 ES models in the U.S. last year.

Jim Lentz, Toyota's North American CEO, said the investment is in addition to previously announced plans to sink billion into factories in Mississippi, Indiana, West Virginia and in Canada during the past 17 months, creating more than 4,000 jobs.

Lentz has said Toyota Motor Co. (TM) would continue to move production to North America as a hedge against fluctuations in the value of the yen versus the dollar. The company now builds in North America roughly 70 percent of the cars and trucks it sells in the region, he said.

The strong yen had caused Japanese automakers to produce more cars in North America. But recently the yen has weakened against the U.S. dollar, helping Japanese exporters. Lentz said the weaker yen is short term, and Toyota's broader strategy is to build where it sells.

Toyota also announced a new focus on stylish design for the Lexus brand. Both Toyota and Lexus vehicles have been praised for their reliability but criticized for bland designs and performance.

Toyoda said the decision to build the ES in the United States was the first made by a new team of executives in North America and a management structure that gives them authority to make faster decisions.

Looking for a job at Toyota? Click here to get started.

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7 Smart Money Moves to Make Before the Stock Market Rally Ends

Filed under: Investing Basics, Retirement Plans, 401K, IRA, Investing

The stock market has been on a tear over the past four years, more than doubling since the financial crisis. Many investors have recovered much of the money they lost during the market crash in 2008.

That said, recent bumpiness in stocks suggests that the end of the long bull market may come sooner rather than later.

While trying to time the market is an impossible task, here are some smart moves you can make with your money right now to protect yourself from the next market downturn while still putting yourself in a position to reach all your financial goals.

1. Get in the Habit of Investing Regularly.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that they don't have enough money to invest regularly. Instead, they buy stocks only occasionally when they have big windfalls like a tax refund.

But with the automatic investment options that many employer retirement plans and brokerage companies offer, you can put even modest amounts of savings to work for you on a regular basis. That will make you more likely to keep investing even if the market drops, allowing you to take better advantage of bargain opportunities that inevitably arise during downturns.

2. Diversify.

If you're like most people, you've heard plenty of tales of how a single stock made millionaires out of all of its investors. But for every anecdote like that, there are 100 untold horror stories of investors who lost everything gambling on one company.

The secret to successful investing isn't finding a single perfect stock, but rather putting together a diverse portfolio of promising investments and building it up over time. Owning many different stocks keeps you from losing your shirt on a single piece of bad news, and boosts your chances for earning solid returns.

3. Rebalance.

When the stock market rises sharply, your overall portfolio mix gets out of balance, overemphasizing stocks and giving you too little in other investments like bonds and cash. Back in 2008, many people were surprised at how big their losses were, simply because they hadn't realized how much their stock positions had grown during the bull market from 2003 to 2007.

Rebalancing involves selling off some of your winning stock investments to raise cash or invest in bonds or other types of investment assets. By targeting specific percentages for stocks, bonds, and other investments, it'll be easier for you to keep a well-balanced portfolio.

4. Shore Up Your Emergency Cash Supply.

During bull markets, it's tempting to put all your cash to work in the market. Moreover, savings accounts are paying next to nothing in interest right now, making having a cash stash seem like a waste.

Yet as an insurance policy, it's still smart to have enough emergency cash set aside to cover three to six months' worth of living expenses. That way, if you're laid off or suffer a financial emergency in the future, you won't have to worry about whether it's a good time to sell your investments.

5. Look For Problem Stocks in Your Portfolio.

Bull markets tend to pull most stocks up with the overall market. When a stock is rising, you're less apt to notice troubling signs that could foretell declines down the road.

To avoid unpleasant surprises, take a close look at all the stocks and other investments you own, and see if you can identify any weaknesses that would be liable to rear up during a market downturn. If you find any worrisome signs, selling before the rally ends could save you a ton of money compared to waiting.

6. Target Some Bargains.

Long rallies make many promising stocks too expensive to buy. Even the best businesses don't make good investments if you have to overpay for their shares.

But making a list of promising stocks that you might be interested in adding to your portfolio on a pullback will help you prepare for the bargains that inevitably pop up during a market downturn. You may not get every stock on your shopping list at the price you want, but having a plan in place will make you more willing to pull the trigger even if falling markets make you less certain than you are now.

7. Be Tax-Savvy.

Bull markets really show the value of smart tax planning. Many investors are reluctant to sell winning investments because of the taxes they'll have to pay, and that reflects the mistakes they made early on in not using tax-favored accounts to invest.

Using an IRA or 401(k) can be the smartest way to invest for long-term goals like retirement. Between breaks that can reduce your current tax liability and the promise of tax-deferred or even tax-free growth in the future, tax-favored accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s give you big advantages over regular investment accounts.

Don't Wait!

Just because stocks have been choppy lately doesn't mean they won't go to new record highs in the future. But by taking a critical look at your investments and making smart moves with your money now, you'll be prepared for whatever happens next.

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Math in a Time of Excel: Economists' Error Undermines Influential Paper

Filed under: GDP, European Union, Economy

Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff are at the top of the economics profession, with influence inside and outside the academy. Both have worked in senior positions at the International Monetary Fund; both have chairs at Harvard. Rogoff was a chess grandmaster in his mid-twenties, before giving up the royal game to focus on economics. "I'm not a great mathematician," he told the Financial Times, explaining the relation between his interests, "but game theory really clicked for me." This method of analysis offers insight into government behavior during a debt crisis, Rogoff suggested: "One of the reasons that Carmen Reinhart and I hit it off, is that we are both incredibly cynical about governments."

Now the most influential product of their collaboration - an argument widely considered to have helped lay the basis for the West's recent shift toward austerity economics - has been shown to rest in large part on a simple error, a spreadsheet coding mistake discovered by a 28 year-old graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst named Thomas Herndon.

"I almost didn't believe my eyes when I saw the basic spreadsheet error," Herndon told Reuters. "I was like, am I just looking at this wrong? There has to be some other explanation." Herndon asked his girlfriend for confirmation that he wasn't missing something. He was right, she said.

The story begins with a large-scale research project carried out by Reinhart and Rogoff, investigating hundreds of years of financial crises around the world. The result was a well-received 2009 book, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. They also published a paper based on a selection of their data, titled "Growth in a Time of Debt" (2010), which claimed to show that economic growth slows appreciably once a country's public debt to GDP ratio gets above 90 percent.

It was an argument bound to receive attention from the press and policymakers, because, according to some projections, the U.S. was set to pass that purported 90 percent red line in the coming decade. And the Reinhart-Rogoff result achieved notoriety on both sides of the Atlantic: Reinhart testified before the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform; Paul Ryan cited the study in his 2013 budget, "The Path to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal"; and European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn spoke in February of "serious academic research" that indicated an economic danger zone above 90 percent debt-to-GDP. (The G20 countries have said they will soon consider a proposal "to cut public debt over the longer term to well below 90 percent of gross domestic product," The Fiscal Times reports.)

The Washington Post editorial board even presented the "Growth in a Time of Debt" finding as established economic fact. Writing about the risks of supposedly overly rosy economic growth and spending projections, the paper cautioned, "debt-to-GDP could keep rising - and stick dangerously near the 90 percent mark that economists regard as a threat to sustainable economic growth."

Needless to say, this being an academic question, there was disagreement all along. Several economists argued for "reverse causation," suggesting that high levels of debt are in fact caused by slow economic growth, rather than conversely. Others questioned the data that Reinhart and Rogoff chose to focus on, saying the authors excluded evidence that didn't match their take-home result.

But the fatal blow came when Herndon attempted to replicate the eminent professors' findings for a class assignment. He thought he would arrive at the same results but offer a different explanatory conclusion; instead he found that the numbers weren't right. When Reinhart and Rogoff provided their data spreadsheet, Herndon saw why: In the words of a paper he wrote with his teachers, "a coding error in the RR working spreadsheet entirely excludes five countries, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, and Denmark, from the analysis." This spreadsheet error "is responsible for a -0.3 percentage-point error in RR's published average real GDP growth in the highest public debt/GDP category."




So that slightly negative average growth rate for countries with debt-to-GDP ratios was illusory, the product of an Excel error; 2.2 percent is the actual GDP growth rate for countries above the 90 percent mark.

Herndon and his co-authors found other errors, as well; Mike Konczal summarizes their findings at Next New Deal. Confronted with Herndon et. al's evidence, Reinhart and Rogoff released a response which essentially said "this changes nothing." They later conceded the coding mistake, saying, "It is sobering that such an error slipped into one of our papers. We do not, however, believe this regrettable slip affects in any significant way the central message of the paper." They don't accept the other criticisms, which concern data manipulation (selective exclusions and unconventional weighting).

Herndon's teacher and co-author Michael Ash told Bloomberg that the UMass-Amherst team's new calculations do show "a modest diminishment of growth" in high-debt countries, but not "the stagnation or decline" claimed by Reinhart-Rogoff. The point, in Konczal's summation, is that "there's no magic number out there":

The debt needs to be thought of as a response to the contingent circumstances we find ourselves in, with mass unemployment, a Federal Reserve desperately trying to gain traction at the zero lower bound, and a gap between what we could be producing and what we are. The past guides us, but so far it has failed to provide evidence of an emergency threshold. In fact, it tells us that a larger deficit right now would help us greatly.

But an identifiable threshold was apparently alluring to the Harvard academics, and advantageous to political elites. The tide of opinion among policymakers may be shifting, however: Olli Rehn told Reuters that the euro zone will pivot back towards attempting to promote growth, rather than cut budget deficits. Whether this decision was influenced by the Reinhart-Rogoff affair was not discussed.

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Market Minute: SeaWorld Goes Public, Valued at .5 Billion

Filed under: Earnings, Market News

One of the biggest IPOs this year could make a big splash today. Theme park operator SeaWorld was priced at the high end of expectations, a share. That values the company at .5 dollars.

Two out of three ain't bad: That's the scorecard from the three tech giants that reported quarterly results late yesterday.
Microsoft's (MSFT) profit rose by a better-than-expected 19 percent to more than . Sales of server software and Xbox video games were strong, but newly booked revenue from Windows was essentially flat.

Google's (GOOG) net rose 16 percent, also topping expectations. Revenue growth in its core advertising business was also strong.

But IBM (IBM) came up short of Street expectations and revenue was hurt by sluggish demand from corporate tech customers. It the first time IBM has missed the target since 2005. Separately, Big Blue is in talks to sell its huge server business to China-based Lenovo.

General Electric's (GE) net rose 16 percent, in line with expectations. Revenue was flat, but a bit stronger than expected. GE is often considered a bellwether for the broader economy.

Blackstone Group (BX) has withdrawn its offer for Dell (DELL) after discovering the computer maker's business is deteriorating faster than previously thought. That leaves only investor Carl Icahn as a possible rival to the bid from a group led by company founder Michael Dell to take the company private.

It was seven months ago today that Apple (AAPL) shares hit their all-time high of 2; they closed yesterday at 2. That's a drop of 44 percent.

And Netflix (NFLX) is hoping to build on the success of its "House of Card" series with a second original program. Today it begins streaming the entire first season of a gothic horror series, "Hemlock Grove."

-Produced by Drew Trachtenberg

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Sales Fall at 'Broken' McDonald's

Filed under: McDonald's, Food & Beverage, Spending

Not all is happy in McDonaldland.

McDonald's reported its first-quarter earnings Friday morning, and while profit rose slightly, comparable-store sales in the U.S. fell 1.2%. Things were even worse abroad, with comparable sales in Asia, the Middle East and Africa falling 3.3%.

In a statement accompanying the filing, McDonald's (MCD) CEO Don Thompson cited "global economic headwinds" and a "challenging eating-out environment."

The poor sales don't come as a complete shock. While the company reported improved profits in the fourth quarter of 2012, it also saw sales decline in key foreign markets and dealt with a drop in operating profit margins.

Though popular, the McRib barbecue sandwich can't solve all of the chain's problems. So in recent months, McDonald's has introduced Chicken McWraps in a bid to stimulate sagging sales. But franchisees recently complained that the sandwiches took too long to prepare.

And the company is also confronting the fact that customer-service issues are rampant at its franchises: According to one report, McDonald's officials told franchisees that "service is broken." QSR Magazine, an industry trade publication, found that the average wait time at the McDonald's drive-through window was a full minute slower than at rival Wendy's (WEN).

McDonald's stock dropped by more than 2 percentage points to .76 a share in pre-market trading.

Matt Brownell is the consumer and retail reporter for DailyFinance. You can reach him at Matt.Brownell@teamaol.com, and follow him on Twitter at @Brownellorama.

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Kimberly-Clark Posts Higher Profit on Strong Int'l Growth

Filed under: Company News, Earnings, Consumer Goods, Manufacturing, Stocks

Kimberly-Clark posted a bigger-than-expected jump in first-quarter earnings and raised its forecast for the year Friday as the maker of Kleenex tissues and Huggies diapers saw strong growth in its international markets and cut costs.

The company, which competes against larger rival Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) in categories such as diapers and paper products, said it cut million in costs during the quarter.

Shares of the company rose 2.6 percent to 4 in trading before the market opened.

Excluding items such as restructuring costs, Kimberly-Clark earned .48 a share, well ahead of an average forecast by analysts of .34, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income rose to 1 million, or .36 a share, from 8 million, or .18 a share, a year earlier.

Sales rose 1.5 percent to .32 billion, topping analysts' forecast of .28 billion.

In personal care, the company's largest segment with products such as Huggies diapers, North American sales were flat as a 1 percent price increase offset lower sales volumes. Sales of these products rose 4 percent in international markets, helped by a 2 percent price increase and growth in countries such as China, Russia and South Korea.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (KMB) said it expected to post 2013 earnings a share of .60 to .75, excluding items, versus its prior target of .50 to .65. The analysts' average forecast is .59.

While the company has been cutting some expenses, materials and distribution costs rose in the quarter. Input costs were up million from a year earlier, with increases of million for fiber, million for other raw materials and million for distribution, it said.

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