Marketplace - American Public Media

The suspense is over for many college-bound kids, as nearly all the acceptance letters have gone out. Now it's decision time -- not only which school to attend in the fall, but how to pay for it.

Financial aid that colleges give out regardless of need comes as a welcome boost to many American households. But even though state schools cost a tiny fraction of what it costs to attend private colleges, that's just the sticker price.

Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, says the actual amount students pay at private colleges is on average less than 60 percent of the total cost of school. That discount is a selling point for students and for schools, as tuition costs soar and the economy remains weak.

"Offering a merit-based scholarship where maybe that student is not eligible for need-based financial aid could entice them to come to your school  instead of a different institution where they'd have to pay the full sticker price," says Amanda Griffith, who teaches economics at Wake Forest University.

Griffith says colleges want to attract a variety of students, including those whose families make too much to be eligible for financial aid. They want the drum majors, the debate stars, the artsy types.

Beckie Supiano, who reports for the Chronicle of Higher Education, says merit aid has given private colleges an edge."The colleges that really rely on merit aid tend to feel that they just wouldn't be able to enroll the kind of class they're looking to without it," she says.

But some say the trend toward giving money to students regardless of income needs to stop, and several private college presidents are calling for a shift back to more need-based aid. Tori Haring-Smith, president of Washington Jefferson College, is one of them. "We need to provide broader and broader access to higher education," she says.

She says that doesn't mean colleges ought to stop trying to lure students with special talents. But she says they do need to give more aid to students who just plain can't afford private college tuition.

Ekman, of the Council of Independent Colleges, says many people fall into that category. "The 18-year-old college-going generation these days is disproportionately lower income compared to what it was a generation ago," he says.

It's noon at the KFC in the heart of Shanghai’s busiest shopping district on Nanjing Road. Half the tables are empty. It's a highly unusual scene at this particular location, surrounded by dozens of glass towers full of office workers.

KFC’s business appears to be in a bird flu funk. "I was a little scared when I walked in," says Ma Xiaobin, one of the few customers here. "There’s hardly anyone here because of the bird flu. I asked if they had any beef products. They didn’t. Other customers were eating chicken burgers, so I ordered one of those."

Health officials believe the new strain of bird flu is being passed on by live poultry, not cooked poultry. Still, James McGregor, author of "One Billion Customers," says Chinese consumers don’t take chances when it comes to food safety. McGregor says the threat of a bird flu pandemic is going to hurt KFC parent company YUM! Brands, which earns half its profits from the China market alone.

“What’s difficult for YUM! is that China has become such a huge portion of their global earnings," says McGregor. "And China is a topsy-turvy market where you get hit by politics, you get hit by disease, and you get hit by competitors going after you that they can use the local media to put out bad stuff about you that’s not true.”

If history is any indication, KFC will likely bounce back. In 2003 during the SARS outbreak in China, KFC’s sales dipped by 30 percent for a few weeks before making a full recovery.

Whenever a federal agency sets new standards, say about the environment, or the financial industry, there's an office inside the White House that has to put the final seal of approval on those regulations. It's called OIRA (pronounced, "Oh, Ira") -- the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Up until last year, Cass Sunstein ran that office for President Obama. And he's got a new book about making government, and its rules, work more elegantly. It's called "Simpler".

"Think of a large company which is not going to get smaller. It shouldn't. It should grow. But it can get simpler. It can make the experience for its own employees and for its customers easier," Sunstein says. "My suggestion is that governments can serve their citizens a lot better if they get simpler." 

The current regulatory system in the United States is undoubtedly complicated, with state and local agencies issuing their own rules. That's in addition to the sometimes conflicting policies coming out of multiple federal agencies. At Sunstein's former post, OIRA, the focus is on negotiating and solving those potential conflicts.

That can lead to criticism that the office is a convenient place for Presidents to allow inconvenient rules to wither away. Sunstein doesn't agree with that characterization.

"Recent Presidents, starting actually with Reagan, have found it useful to have an office where there's an administration-wide examination of whether regulations make sense," he says.

However, he acknowledges that process can prevent a regulation from being enforced.

"It might happen sometimes that the internal scrutiny means the rule doesn't come out. And that means there isn't sufficently wide administration support for [the rule]".

Lest these rules sound like dull stuff, Sunstein reminds us how we're touched in everyday life by regulation.

"If you think about whether the economy is booming or not, or whether the air is clean or not, or whether food is safe or not, those are all core issues that regulation is engaged with," Sunstein says. "I hope there's nothing dry about that." 

Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female Prime Minister, died Monday from a stroke. She was 87. Known as the "Iron Lady" for her strong and uncompromising leadership style, Thatcher led a conservative economic resurgence in the U.K. during the 1980s. Thatcher, who served office from 1979 to 1990, reduced the power of labor unions, privatized state-owned airlines, car companies and other assets, and championed financial deregulation. As a result of the so-called "Thatcher revolution," Britain became more entrepreneurial, and according to some, more efficient.

First quarter earnings come out as the stock markets hit all-time highs. But investors could be more interested in what happens the rest of the year. There are two words that sum up Wall street's mood for first quarter earnings: Cautiously optimistic.

A new report out today by the American Association of University Professors reveals a widening salary gap between public and private university professors. Given the dismal outlook of State budgets across the country, public universities will have to find a way to compete for talent with fewer resources than their private counterparts. For a doctoral professor at public research university the average salary this year is $123,393. That same professor at a private university makes just over $167,118. It’s a gap that’s grown since last year.

Corporate earnings season kicks off today with a report from the aluminum maker Alcoa. Analysts will be watching closely for signs of how the U.S. and global economy is faring.

Julia Coronado, chief economist with the investment bank BNP Paribas, joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to share her predictions on what to expect this season from corporate America.

A new report out today by the American Association of University Professors reveals a widening salary gap between public and private university professors. Given the dismal outlook of State budgets across the country, public universities will have to find a way to compete for talent with fewer resources than their private counterparts.

For a doctoral professor at public research university the average salary this year is $123,393. That same professor at a private university makes just over $167,118. It’s a gap that’s grown since last year.

John Thelin, author of The Rising Cost of Higher Education, says that disparity will have a profound impact on where professors chose to teach.

“Private and independent colleges and universities will be far more competitive and attractive to top academic talent,” Thelin says.

With education funding growing tighter, both public and private universities are offering fewer tenure-track positions. Saranna Thornton, one of the authors of the report, says this could lead to a pipeline effect.

“The best and brightest undergrads, we worry about people like that not even going into higher education,” Thornton says.

Instead, those graduates are could choose more lucrative careers in medicine, law and engineering.

Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female Prime Minister, died Monday from a stroke. She was 87. Known as the "Iron Lady" for her strong and uncompromising leadership style, Thatcher led a conservative economic resurgence in the U.K. during the 1980s.

Thatcher, who served office from 1979 to 1990, reduced the power of labor unions, privatized state-owned airlines, car companies and other assets, and championed financial deregulation. As a result of the so-called "Thatcher revolution," Britain became more entrepreneurial, and according to some, more efficient.

"She shook up and modernized Britain, perhaps more than any other British peace time leader in the twentieth century," says Marketplace's London Bureau Chief, Stephen Beard.

Yet Thatcher's policies, while transformative, weren't lauded by all. Shipbuilders, coal miners, and others in industries where her policies led to high unemployment, bitterly resented her economic influence. The recent financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 also raised new questions about Thatcher's legacy. Even among those who supported the former prime minister, there is now a sense that she may have allowed Britain to become too dependent on banking and finance. 

To hear more about Margaret Thatcher and her impact in and outside of the U.K., click on the audio player above.

What is the best age for innovation? Are you more innovative in your 20s or your 50s?

Tom Agan, managing partner at innovation and brand consultancy Rivia, has come up with answer that might surprise you.

"The real innovators average about age 40," Agan says, adding that the popularized image of a young college age innovator -- think Mark Zuckerberg -- is a "total fallacy."

Agan cites Steve Jobs, who introduced the iPod and iPhone in just the last decade of his career, after years of personal computing experience.

The upshot? Companies looking to lower costs by hiring a younger workforce may be losing out on innovation.

"The number one factor for innovation is learning from past experiences, learning from past successes and failures" Agan says. "Now that we've moved into a knowlege-base world, experience becomes much more important."

To hear more about the relationship between age and innovation, click on the audio player above.

Portugal's economic future is in doubt this morning after the country's high court ruled that many of the government's bailout cuts are unconstitutional.

The BBC's Alison Roberts in Lisbon joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to discuss the austerity measures in question and the fate of Portugal's economy.

This final note on the way out. Another passing of a legendary woman, although for quite different reasons.

Annette Funicello died today. She was 70 years old. Had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1987. Annette Funicello was America's beach blanket sweetheart, and before that a Disney Mousketeer, who, for better or worse, helped pave the way for a bunch of other Mousketeers -- Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilara among them.

Every few days it seems, we spot a story on the question of whether the nation’s 14-year-old copyright law may need an overhaul for the digital age.

The latest? Researchers, who were looking into old Sony Music CD's which had copy protection that behaved like malware, worried that even researching the malware could be a violation of a 1999 federal law.

Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain joins Marketplace Tech host David Brancaccio to explain the law, called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and its upcoming legal tests.

Every few days it seems, we spot a story on the question of whether the nation’s 14-year-old copyright law may need an overhaul for the digital age.

The latest? Researchers, who were looking into old Sony Music CD's which had copy protection that behaved like malware, worried that even researching the malware could be a violation of a 1999 federal law.

Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain joins Marketplace Tech host David Brancaccio to explain the law, called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and its upcoming legal tests.

Instead of streaming movies and shows on your smartphone over Wi-Fi, why not watch them over the same transmitters that send signals to your television? Mobile TV, which makes use of special add-ons for mobile devices, may be the next key development for broadcasters.

"A great example is the Today show," says Anne Schelle, partner at Acta Wireless who is leading the panel on mobile TV at the National Association of Broadcasters convention this week. "You know in the morning, you get up, and you want to walk right out the door and keep watching it, you can do that with this device."

What you see on the mobile screen would be the same image you’d see live on your TV, and in real time. That’s because mobile TV is driven by the powerful signal coming out the TV transmitter, not by Wi-Fi or cellphone services like 3G or LTE.

"This enables consumers to have unfettered access," says Shelle. "You don't have to have a data plan, you don't have the same buffering issues."

Fisher Communications has been testing mobile TV on some of their stations in Washington State and Minnesota. Randa Minkarah, senior vice president of revenue and business development at Fisher, says a customer could get an add-on device with a small antenna that plugs into a USB port on, say, an iPad.

"And then you are free to start watching television, the device will scan and pick up the channels available," Minkarah says. "And if you go to another market, you open it up and you scan and you pick up those channels."

Minkarah says her company's been gathering audience data. Ahead of her panel at the NAB convention tomorrow, she would only say that Fisher is "very excited" about the early returns.

In the daylight, Orange County’s fire rings aren’t much to look at. They’re small square pits that dot the sand for a few hundred yards.

“One of the great things about the fire pits is that it is one of the few places in Orange County where everyone can gather together, where there is no class, said OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano. “There’s no rich or poor. There’s no Mexicans or white folks or Asians. It’s whoever gets to the fire pits first.

 But when the sun goes down, beachgoers are drawn to the bonfires like moths to a flame. 

"We came out here to catch a few waves and then later tonight, [we're] probably gonna make some hotdogs over the fire pit, chill out," said 18-year-old Connor Renard who gathered with a dozen friends around an unlit fire ring.

The rings have drawn crowds for 60 years, but they are also drawing the ire of Newport Beach residents who say smoke from the open bonfires pollutes the air, leading to a host of health problems for those who live – and hang out – on the beach.

"[Newport residents] have respiratory problems from asthma, to, some people talk about cancer -- but it's difficult to pinpoint," says Dave Kiff, city manager of Newport Beach.

What began as a request by Newport Beach to have the city’s fire rings removed has erupted into a local firestorm pitting those who want the rings to go against those who say the health concerns are nothing more than an excuse invented by wealthy homeowners who want to keep the public off of public beaches.

“The fire pits are the latest salvo in a war pitting the rich against the rest of us,” says OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano. "It's the elite who live at these affluent communities. They don't want the hoi polloi to come down here." 

Dave Kiff takes offense to that.

"They don't know what's in our hearts," he says.

But Arellano says that Newport Beach has come up with many reasons to ban the fire pits, including noisy teenagers and the risk that people might fall into the pits.

Setha Low, who teaches anthropology of the City University of New York, says that the rich and the rest often clash over public space. As the wealth gap grows, so will the problems.

"If this continues, because we have a greater difference between poor and rich, that means more and more people are being thrown off public spaces that are actually public," says Low.

California officials are also divided. The Newport City Council first proposed removing the pits to the California Coastal Commission, which denied the request, calling the fire rings an important, low-cost attraction for beachgoers.

But the South Coast Air Quality Management District, a regional body that monitors air pollution, disagrees. Officials there say that Newport Beach has a case and they’ve introduced a proposal to ban the fire rings not just in Newport, but in all of southern California. 

And that is throwing a kink into Orange County’s laid back culture. 

Connor Renard, who will soon graduate from high school and has plans to move to Arizona asks, “If you’re not gonna be at the beach, why ruin the fun of people who are at the beach?”

There are two words that sum up Wall street's mood for first quarter earnings: Cautiously optimistic.

"I think that's the right way to put it," says Alec Young, a global equity strategist with S & P Capital IQ. He forecasts 4 percent growth in profits overall in sectors like housing, telecom, and consumer staples.

But after a few years of strong profit growth, S&P 500 companies are making more sober predictions.   

"84 companies have actually lowered their expectations for first quarter earnings," says Tim Ghriskey, who works with the investment management firm Solaris Group. He says we've seen a pattern appear over the last two years. A strong first quarter and a weak second.

"In terms of first quarter earnings, optimistic. In terms of second quarter earnings, more cautious." 

Cautiously optimistic -- at least until companies feel the effects of the sequester budget cuts.

Immigration is expected to be front and center when Congress returns from its spring break this week. A bill could be introduced in the Senate any day now. One of the hallmarks of the plan is a deal to bring in more low-skilled guest workers, but thre are sticking points.

The biggest one centers around how many visas we need for low-skilled guest workers -- immigrants who work in restaurants or construction. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and labor leaders hammered out an agreement on that question, capping visas for construction workers at 15,000.

Jeff Shoaf of the Associated General Contractors of America says that’s not nearly enough.

“15,000 equates to about 0.25 percent of total construction employment today," he explains. "That seems like an extremely small number to be your cap.”

Shoaf wants more construction worker visas, a higher cap. He’s going to lobby hard for it.

Tom Snyder will be on the other side of the debate. Synder, the point person for the AFL-CIO on immigration, wants to limit construction worker visas to be sure Americans get the first crack at new jobs that open up.

“We want to be sure there’s true labor market shortages before you admit new workers in," he says.

Especially, Snyder says, when the unemployment rate for construction workers right now is double the national average. 

A robo-grader may be coming to a school near you. 

EdX, the nonprofit collaboration between Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is about to launch a new free Internet service that uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays without any input from teachers. 

But Dr. Joshua Kim, an administrator in learning and technology at Dartmouth College, says the new technology isn't meant to replace teacher feedback -- it's meant to get more students writing. 

"The choice is between doing something like this and not doing any writing and only doing multiple choice," Kim said. "So if a technology like this can introduce writing into large classes where the writing was not going on because the classes were too big, I think that's a great technology." 

He added, "Maybe this technology is sort of a gateway drug for getting people writing and they'll end up in the small seminars that we all believe are what education should be about." 

One criticism of some examination methods is that teachers "teach to the test" so students get high scores. With the EdX essay grader, will students learn to write to the robot?

Professor Kim says that's not likely. "I think that any technology can be misused and I think we're starting to see this with these massively open online courses where people are thinking, well this is a substitute for what goes on in higher education." But Kim says, "It's only a tool, its a way to engage our students, to get them to think and participate and to build. Sure, it could be misused but I'm not so worried about that."

Dominance displays, posturing, submissive behavior -- sound like anything you've seen at the office? Psychologist Meredith Fuller specializes in a certain subset of these behaviors -- usually exhibited by women -- behaviors we all know rather well. Cattiness. Dismissive, snide remarks. Cliques and talking behind people's backs. Most of us associate this kind of stuff with high school, but it doesn't end there.  It can make your life miserable at work. Fuller's written a new book about this with the eye-catching title of "Working with Bitches."

Fuller says she chose to use the word "bitch" in her book title for two reasons. First, everybody knows what you mean when you say 'I work with a bitch.' And second, the "new bitch" is fun and can be a positive thing. She says there's nothing wrong with a woman who is assertive and tough in the workplace, but she wrote her book for more polite, concerned, earnest women who need a way to deal with the sort of behaviors that are more manipulative and cunning.

Fuller identifies eight different types of so-called office mean girls at work (find out about the different types of bitches and what you can do about them by clicking on the photo above).  She says low self-esteem is the reason some women engage in these devious behaviors.

"For a lot of us, we've got fears, anxieties, depressions, worries and we mask that. So a lot of the bitchy behavior is because [bitches] don't know how to feel good enough and so they're relying on these covert behaviors. But there's always something they want. For example, that micro-managing boss who's always saying this isn't good enough, do it again, slashing with a red pen -- often it's their anxiety and they feel they're going to mess up. They look at you and if you're not very neat, that just screams terror for them that something will go wrong. And they're worried that they're not in control. The more they feel in control, the less they have to hassle you," says Fuller. "So give them those updates before they ask, make your desk look neat every time they go back. That helps bring down their anxiety. It's working at what is driving their behavior underneath what they're showing you and try and resolve that for them so they don't need to have that unconscious nastiness triggered."

Men also exhibit alienating behaviors -- like lying, narcissism or exclusion. But they are much more overt than women. To some men, engaging in manipulative behavior can almost seem like a game.

"We all engage in behavior to get a need met, but often what you notice is that it's more subtle with women. It's harder to read them," says Fuller. "Women are more selective and are more able to play it so subtly with several mutterings and nonverbal behavior that a lot of the men don't necessarily engage in. It's more like it is what it is with a lot of men."

Part of the issue with some women in the workplace is they have a desire to be liked whereas men are more likely to want to be feared at work.

"We've got mixed motivations [at work] and I think that's what we pick up. What we've noticed is that historically women have felt they need to be more sly, surreptitious, cunning, manipulative and that's what they've been rewarded for," says Fuller. "What I really like, a lot of the young people we're getting through -- the more Gen Y's -- they're actually saying, 'Oh blow all of this. Let me be who I am and part of me is a range of behaviors.' And that also allows men to have their range of behaviors."

Fuller says she's starting to see a massive paradigm shift where a lot of the old, rigid structures are beginning to be broken down. But we're still in a period where bitchy behavior is something some workers have to cope with.

Amid the not-so-good news coming from the jobs report out today, there was a theoretical ray of sunshine: there has been a small drop in the unemployment rate.

However, the rate came down for all the wrong reasons — not because more people are getting hired, but because fewer people are actively looking for jobs. In fact, according to today’s numbers, labor force participation is lower than it was even during the Great Recession.

"Missing workers" is what labor economist Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, calls this phenomenon. 

“The group of workers who are not in the labor force but who would be in if job prospects were strong,” she explains. 

She calculates that number at around four million people right now. That’s more than the population of Oregon. 

Some of these workers decided to leave the workforce to, say, raise a child, and would be ready to come back if they were more confident they could actually get a job. 

Then there are those who lost their job and, after trying for months, have just stopped looking.

That’s what happened to Ross Anderson, a 58-year-old from Minnesota who had a career in the manufacturing industry.  A few years ago, he applied for five different jobs that he eventually found out were the same job, posted by different recruiters.  It was a rollercoaster.

“I thought, ‘Why am I doing this?’” he says.  “I've already been down this road and it hasn't lead to anything.”

Fearing his frustration was coming out in job interviews and hurting his prospects, Anderson took a break, and stopped applying for jobs altogether for four months.  He relied on his wife to support the family. 

It didn’t feel good. 

“I'm the kind of person that needs to work.  We find a lot of personal identity through work and without it we really get kind of lost,” Anderson remembers.

That response isn't uncommon, said Laura Labovich, president of The Career Strategy Group. 

"People who have been out of the work force for so long, often have this crisis of confidence,” Labovich says. "They believe it’s because of their value that they’re not employed."

For those moments of discouragement, Labovich has a few recommendations. One, don’t wait for job openings. Instead, try to tap in to what she calls "the hidden job market." She estimates that 85 percent of positions are never posted.

“They’re sourced through referrals, or through someone that comes through the door and has talked to a president or a VP and said ‘I can do something to help you,’" she said. "They talk over drinks and the position never gets posted and that person gets hired.”

Meanwhile, she says, competition gets that much stiffer for the 15 percent of job openings that still are actually posted, because most job searchers are applying for them.

Dreaded as the word is, networking is an undeniably important tactic when a job search doesn't seem to be going anywhere, says Labovich. "Just to start meeting people and make it not about a job but about making connections, making friends, and cultivating the relationships you have."

Finally, in the midst of the frustration of unemployment, don’t forget to do things you love.  It’ll make you feel better, and might help catapult you in to a job. 

Rather than feeding the doubts that a long job search can bring on, hobbies build confidence, “using the part of your brain that is actually doing what you love to do,” says Lubovich. “Whereas we don't love to job search.”

As for Ross Anderson, eventually he did find another job, through word of mouth. But he lost that one a few weeks ago, when the company downsized.  This time, he's determined not to get discouraged during the job hunt.  To stay busy and attract future employers, he just started a blog about his field.

“Right now I’m still trying very hard to get that next job.”

He has a job interview next Monday.

Ross Anderson, good luck!

Corporate heads rolled this week. Among the punishments? Lululemon's chief product officer is leaving after that yoga pants debacle (they turned out to be see-through and had to be pulled from the shelves); Hewlett-Packard's chairman resigned after a botched acquisition, and Chevron docked executive pay over industrial accidents. But none was as extreme as JCPenney. The board of the struggling retailer cut CEO Ron Johnson’s pay by more than 96 percent.

JCPenney hired Johnson away from Apple in 2011 to turn the retailer around. Hopes were high and so was pay. JCPenney offered Johnson a compensation package that topped $53 million -- most of that was in stock.

This year wasn’t so good. "They didn’t give him a bonus, they didn’t give him any equity awards,” says Aaron Boyd, director of research at Equilar, an executive compensation data firm. “All he really had was the salary."

That salary is $1.5 million (plus some perks, of course). That’s still real money, but as large as Johnson’s salary sounds, the pay cut sends a strong message, says Ralph Ward, publisher of trade publication Boardroom Insider. But why didn't the board just fire Johnson?

"That would put the board in a position of, ‘Okay, what’s our fallback plan?’ I suspect they don’t have one," Ward says.

Or the board is willing to give Johnson one more chance, says Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.

"Obviously they believe that there’s merit in the individual and they didn’t think it was time to cut the line," he says.

Elson says the pay cut sends a “we’re not messing around” message to shareholders, but he also sees it as a vote of confidence in Johnson. The board wiped out Johnson’s bonus, but it did raise his base salary.

Cutting pay packages for underperforming CEOs is a growing trend, says Equilar’s Boyd. "Companies are much more sensitive to investor sentiment regarding pay," he notes. "We’re starting to see pay reflect how the companies are performing."

JC Penney declined to comment, saying the company would let its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing lower 2012 compensation for Johnson and senior executive "speak for itself." 

Because of all the tens of millions of dollars worth of stock he stands to own, Johnson could still make a fortune if he puts JCPenney back on track. "We’ll have to see how it pans out," University of Delaware’s Elson says. "The bigger issue will be next year, do things turn around?

There is precedent for C-suite survival. An Australian bank CEO had his pay cut by 99 percent in 2009. Four years later, he’s still the boss.