Marketplace - American Public Media

Music moguls Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre announced a $70 million endowment to USC to start an academy for undergraduate students interested in marketing, entrepreneurship, computer science and engineering related to the music business.

The first class of the Iovine and Young Academy will enroll 25 students in 2014.

“The vision and generosity of Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young will profoundly influence the way all of us perceive and experience artistic media,” said USC President C. L. Max Nikias in a press release.

Iovine and Dr. Dre aren't alone in their gifts to universities. Check out our infographic below with other celeb gifts to educational institutions.

 

It's the House's turn to take a look at a nearly trillion-dollar piece of work known as the Farm Bill, passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee already.

The bill may have a simple name but Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack acknowledges it's a bit of a misnomer. "It also impacts much much more that occurs in rural America and it also has an impact on our nutrition assistance programs."

While Congress discusses the bill, Vilsack's turned his attention to organic farming. It's the fastest growing sector of agriculture and something he hopes could provide a boost to small farmers. "I think it's important, as we take a look at how we might rebuild the rural economy and revitalize it. We want to make sure young people have an opportunity to get into the farming business and that can be expensive unless you start small." Organic foods can be sold at higher prices, making it easier for small farmers to make money.

But Vilsack will keep an eye on Congress and the version of the farm bill that's finally proposed. Some Congress members have suggested the bill should reduce the amount of food assistance it provides to low income families.

On that subject:, he says: "Every dollar that is spent and invested in the SNAP program generates an extra $1.84 in economic activity."

And Vilsack's view: "the key is not to create a process that's going to disqualify a lot of well meaning and hard working folks who just need a little help. The key here is to make an economy that gets better paying jobs for those folks and thereby reduce the right way the number of people that need this assistance."

Acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller has resigned, President Barack Obama announced Wednesday.

"It's inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it. Obama said.  "I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the IRS."

Given the controversy surrounding this audit, it's important to institute good leadership, Obama said.

"The IRS has to operate with absolute integrity."

Reuters reports Miller has said there is a "strong and immediate need" to restore public trust in the agency, but he will leave the agency in early June.

"It is with regret that I will be departing from the IRS as my acting assignment ends in early June," Miller said in an internal message that was released by the IRS. "This has been an incredibly difficult time for the IRS given the events of the past few days, and there is a strong and immediate need to restore public trust in the nation's tax agency."

Miller became acting commissioner in early November, after Commissioner Douglas Shulman completed his five-year term. Shulman had been appointed by President George W. Bush.

On Monday, Obama called the incident “outrageous” and vowed to crack down on IRS officials who may have singled out conservative groups for scrutiny when they applied for a certain kind of tax exempt status.

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), will be a part of the Ways and Means Committee meeting and he told us Wednesday, before the news broke, that the politicization of the IRS is troubling.

"The IRS is supposed to be apolitical," Camp says. "What's even more troubling is where this may lead in the future, given that we are apparently finding out that the IRS is not able to complete its mission in an apolitical and professional way." 

Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday the FBI will begin a criminal probe into the IRS actions. 

The House Ways and Means Committee has a hearing scheduled on the targeting allegations on Friday where Miller is expected to attend, confirmed a committee aide late Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The eurozone has just shrunk for six straight quarters, making this the longest recession since the euro was born more than a decade ago. Nine out of the 17 economies that use the single currency are now contracting. And the second largest -- France -- has just slipped into a double-dip, its second recession in a row.

France has many flaws as an economic power. But the country’s biggest problem right now may be...geography.

“The economy in France is largely dependent on Europe. Europe is its main trading  partner," says Douglas Yates of the American University in Paris. "With Europe near zero percent growth, that affects French exports."

Sales of French cars, chemicals, food, pharmaceuticals and clothing have slumped especially in France’s two biggest markets: Spain and Italy. But will Germany -- Europe’s giant economic locomotive -- pull the continent out of the mire? Not likely, says Michael Steen of the Financial Times.

"Germany which is the growth engine supposedly  is just barely crawling out of negative territory," says Steen. "It shrank in the fourth quarter of 2012. It’s just growing a little bit now."

Europe is sinking under its own homegrown debt crisis. It’s  weighed down by austerity measures and traumatized by radical economic reform, largely prescribed by Germany. And yet in a globalised world  the effects of Europe’s malaise are felt well beyond  its borders, the effects are lapping up on the other side of the Pond.

“Our colleagues in the United States are still deeply concerned about  developments in the euro area.”said the head of Britain’s central bank, Sir Mervyn King at a news conference today. He claimed that the United States and Asia are praying for Europe’s recovery which "if it were to happen would go a very long way to help the world economy as a whole."

In other words: France, Spain, Italy and Europe’s other troubled economies are not only dragging each other down, they’re proving a real drag for the rest of the world, too.

The Cannes Film Festival is under way, and though Angelina Jolie won’t be there, her star power will. She’s already generating buzz -- albeit indirectly -- for a film being screened on Saturday: 'Decoding Annie Parker'.

It’s not a big budget production like festival opener T'he Great Gatsby'. “We have no promotional machine,” says director, co-producer and co-writer Steven Bernstein. “Our office consists of two people.”

He spent six years making the film, though didn’t expect it to garner wide distribution or attention. “The subject matter certainly limits it to a certain degree,” Bernstein says.

But that subject matter could now be the film’s secret weapon.

'Decoding Annie Parker' stars Helen Hunt as Mary-Claire King, the scientist who discovered that a mutation in the BRCA1 gene was a predictor of breast cancer. The presence of that mutation is what led Angelina Jolie to undergo a double mastectomy.

Her revelation in the New York Times on Tuesday brought attention to the issue of hereditary breast cancer just days before Bernstein flew to Cannes.

“It’s a tragic serendipity,” he says.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bernstein has received hundreds of emails in the days since and enough interest that he is in talks to double the number of cities where he will hold screenings. In a model the movie's website calls “filmanthropy,” those screenings will be benefit events for charities, such as the American Cancer Society, CancerCare and Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE).

“What we try to do is bring awareness,” says FORCE’s Amy Byer Shainman, “and Angelina Jolie, in one swoop, brought that awareness globally.”

The benefits of that awareness could spread, too, if the film signs a distributor at Cannes. Bernstein hopes to strike a deal that combines a theatrical release with premieres that continue to split ticket proceeds with cancer charities.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Amy Byer Shainman's surname. The text has been corrected.

The hedge-fund billionaire who shook up Yahoo’s leadership last year is taking his brand of shareholder activism to Japan. Daniel Loeb wants Sony to spin off its movie and music division and focus on reviving its consumer electronics business.

Loeb’s fund, Third Point, has become Sony's biggest shareholder by amassing a $1.1 billion stake. But his task may be more difficult than he expects. There’s a long line of powerful American investors who have been frustrated, thwarted and humbled by Japan’s business traditions and entrenched bureaucracy.

American companies are expected to put shareholders first. Japanese thinking is different, rooted in the country's history.

“The company was seen as a kind of a communal organization that owed its allegiances to its employees, to its customers, to suppliers, to management, not to the shareholder,” says Arthur Alexander, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and former president of the Japan Economic Institute.

Historically, American investors, including the colorful T. Boone Pickens, have found that asking for big change provokes a strong Japanese reaction: “Shock and fear,” according to Richard Linowes, an American University management professor with experience at Goldman Sachs and Accenture.

“But I do think also that there’s this recognition that sometimes you need an outsider to bring in another view,” he adds.

It’s an experience Josh Schechter is familiar with. He’s co-president of Steel Partners Japan Asset Management.

“It’s often difficult for outsiders to come in right off the bat and demand changes to longstanding business practices,” Schechter explains.

In a previous iteration, Steel Partners lost a six-year battle for change at a Japanese condiment company, Bull-Dog Sauce. There has also been success. Schechter now holds a seat on the board of Aderans, a Japanese wig maker.

Even when Japanese managers know hard decisions are necessary, they may be reluctant to go against longstanding business traditions. Foreign investors can give them cover for change.

“It is sometimes helpful for management to just say, ‘Look, we have a sizable foreign interest and we have no choice,’” says Ulrike Schaede, professor of Japanese business at University of California, San Diego.

She and other Japan watchers point out that Sony is used to hearing foreign perspectives. After all, until last year, its CEO was a British-born American. And Sir Howard Stringer is still chairman.

Kai Ryssdal: You know the phrase "activist shareholder"?  Well if you want to be one, it helps a whole bunch to be really, really rich.

Daniel Loeb is. Both. His hedge fund -- called Third Point -- has bought itself a billion-dollar stake in Sony. Loeb is after that company to spin off its movie and music division and focus on reviving its consumer electronics business.

But even being Sony's biggest shareholder may not be enough clout. Marketplace's Mark Garrison reports on how powerful American investors often get a chilly response in Japan.

Mark Garrison: American companies are expected to put shareholders first. Japan specialist Arthur Alexander at Georgetown says the Japanese view is different and rooted in history.

Arthur Alexander: The company was seen as a kind of a communal organization that owed its allegiances to its employees, to its customers, to suppliers, to management, not to the shareholder.

Historically, American investors, including the colorful T. Boone Pickens, have found asking for big change provokes a strong reaction. Richard Linowes is an American University management professor.

Richard Linowes: Shock and fear! But I do think also that there’s this recognition that sometimes you need an outsider to bring in another view.

Josh Schechter knows this first hand. He’s a co-president of Steel Partners Japan Asset Management.

Josh Schechter: It’s often difficult for outsiders to come in right off the bat and demand changes to longstanding business practices.

In a previous iteration, Steel Partners lost a six-year battle for change at a Japanese condiment company, Bull-Dog Sauce. There has also been success. Schechter holds a seat on the board of Aderans, a Japanese wig maker. Ulrike Schaede, professor of Japanese business at U.C. San Diego, says foreign investors can give Japanese managers cover for change.

Ulrike Schaede: It is sometimes helpful for management to just say, look, we have a sizable foreign interest and we have no choice.

She and other Japan watchers say Sony is used to hearing foreign perspectives. Remember, until last year, its CEO was a British-born American. And he’s still chairman. In New York, I'm Mark Garrison, for Marketplace.

For any of you Dunder Mifflin fans out there, tomorrow night is the last chance to see Dwight, Angela, Jim and all your other favorite characters -- on primetime NBC.

"The Office" is already syndicated on TBS and Fox -- you can even buy episodes from the iTunes store. So what does a beloved sitcom stand to gain these days once it’s put out to pasture?

Thanks to the Internet, we can watch TV anytime and almost anywhere. Which must mean bazillions of dollars for content providers, right? When Michael Scott, the regional manager for Dunder Mifflin, realized what was available online, he shut out all other life forms.

“When I discovered YouTube, I didn’t work for five days," the character said in one episode. "I did nothing. I viewed Cookie Monster sings Chocolate Rain, about a thousand times.”

But to truly appreciate "The Office," you have to know its storyline -- and very original characters. Like Dwight, and his beet farm, or Angela, and her obsession with cats.

Paige Albiniak, an editor with Cable and Broadcasting Magazine, says it’s these inside jokes that make it hard for casual viewers to tune in to just one episode.

“Let’s switch over to the 'Big Bang Theory,' which does incredibly well in syndication. That show is not nearly as available online,” she says.

Albiniak notes you can't stream the "Big Bang Theory" on Netflix. She says that’s because when the cable networks and local TV stations pay, likely upwards of $2 million an episode, they expect a lot of bang for their buck.

“The more they pay for it, the more exclusivity they get," Albiniak says.

But Jethro Nededog says for shows with lower ratings, like NBC’s "The Office" or "30 Rock," there can still be life, and profit, after the TV screen goes dark. He's senior TV writer with Hollywood website, TheWrap.com.

“The difference in the online age, is that a show that under performs on broadcast can actually find a pretty huge audience online,” he says.

Nededog notes that even if a show’s audience is smaller, when it’s online, advertisers know viewers watch episodes over and over and over again.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly said "The Big Bang Theory" couldn't be streamed on Amazon.

Congress will convene its first hearing into the IRS this week for targeting conservative groups that applied for tax exempt status. Under the tax code, the social welfare groups are known as 501(c)(4)s. 

The hearing is still set for Friday. President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that acting IRS director Steven Miller resigned.

The House Ways and Means Committee is still set to put Miller on the hot seat.

"What were you thinking? How was this allowed to continue? Why did you mislead the Congress?" asked Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), in anticipation of the hearing. Camp chairs the Ways and Means committee. 

As we've previously reported, political groups are written in to the tax code in such a way that the IRS must deal with them, and has the power to reject some groups that are too overtly focused on particular candidates or races. But Republicans and Democrats alike have condemned the policy that led progressive groups to be quickly approved, while subjecting conservative ones to extra scrutiny. 

"The IRS is supposed to be apolitical," Camp insisted. "What's even more troubling is where this may lead in the future, given that we are apparently finding out that the IRS is not able to complete its mission in an apolitical and professional way." 

Even though the IRS is sometimes called upon to make tough calls, Camp says their role here was clear.  

"What we may find out is that we need to pass legislation and amend the law, but under current law these groups are absolutely appropriate and able to be approved."

When asked whether IRS employees should go to jail over this, Camp said, "They may."

Correction: An earlier version of this text misstated the scheduling of the hearing date.

 

The Congressional Budget Office expects the federal deficit to shrink from more than $1 trillion in 2012 to $642 billion in the 2013 fiscal year. Economists say a few factors, including higher taxes, are contributing to the dramatic shift, and many caution against celebrating the news.

"What we're doing is looking at what's happening to a little bush in front of a forest of obligations," said Boston University Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, who warns that while the CBO's near-term projections may look bright, the federal government's obligations like social security and health care costs will tick up inexorably as a growing number of Americans live longer.

The shrinking deficit isn't likely to resolve any disputes in Washington over whether austerity measures are a boon to the economy.

"If what you think the government should be doing is trying to stimulate the economy in a time of mass unemployment, then this is in fact the result of a bad set of policies," said Justin Wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan.

Some of the nation's most elite professors are taking up a new teaching fad: Massively Open Online Courses. MOOCs rhymes with nukes, and the reach is about the same. These classes streamed on the Internet have millions of students around the world enrolling. They're free of charge. But when you add up all the work it takes on and off camera to make a MOOC, the cost to professors is pretty high. As Prof. Kevin Werbach can attest, the life of a MOOCs rockstar is not pure glitz.

Intro to gamification

Werbach teaches at Penn’s Wharton School of Business. He was a lead advisor on President Barack Obama's transition team. And despite his impressive Ivy League pedigree, he shows up to Day 1 of his online course as an avatar -- a little monster with big elephant-like feet and a tent on his back.

“Now don't worry,” Werbach assures viewers, “I'm not actually going to teach the class from inside a video game. But I am going to show you how some of the techniques that designers use in games like this one can be applied to problems in business, education, health and other fields.”

After providing this simple definition of the course’s core concept “gamification,” the little monster flies away and the real Prof. Werbach reappears in a cozy office with a walnut bookcase. He's professorial in his starched white shirt, and quite good-looking.

Virtual class is hard work

More than 140,000 students have enrolled in Werbach’s online gamification class. That’s rock-star status in the MOOC world. But it took more than just a webcam and an Internet connection to get him there.

Over half of MOOCs professors polled in a recent survey report that the online class has diverted time away from traditional teaching and faculty work.

Werbach has spent hundreds of hours turning his semester-long course into a simple six-week mini-series on Coursera, the online education start-up. He says, “it’s as time-consuming as writing a book.”

He’s replaced hour-long lectures with six- and 10-minute videos. Students have the option of pressing a fast-forward button, to get through the shrink-wrapped lectures even faster. So Werbach throws in an exercise every few minutes, to ensure viewers are paying attention.

By teaching so many at one time, MOOCs risk turning thousands of students into a faceless aggregate. Werbach tries to disaggregate them, using social media. On Twitter he responds to student gripes about grades and homework. In lieu of traditional office hours, he invites students from around the world into Google Hangout. The first session included top students from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Poland, Romania and Spain.

“I hear from them all the time,” Werbach says. “I’m having more conversations with students than I’ve ever had in a course.”

The real-world payoffs

I met up with the non-virtual Werbach at a Gamification conference in San Francisco, where he delivered a keynote address about his MOOC to a packed house.

The professor who is always sitting down in virtual class is a towering 6'4" tall.  Comfortable in front of a webcam and an audience, you can see why he’s become a go-to guy for colleagues nervous about MOOCs: "They're worried that they're going to let slip something that's going to offend someone. If it's just in the classroom with ten students, it's nothing. But if it's online, it'll ruin their careers. The reality is that rarely happens."

Werbach says MOOCs are great advertising, and not just for him.  He has more students online than Wharton has living alumni. According to the Babson Survey Research Group, about a third of students in American colleges and universities have taken at least one online course.

Werbach is willing to bet, the MOOC will create brand new customer-bases for the education industry. About three-quarters of his students report they are not in school.

"They're people, typically professionals, who are taking this for what we would call lifelong learning,” Werbach says. “So if that ratio is right, there's what, half a billion people who would be motivated even at this early stage in taking one of these courses."

Werbach says there’s a payoff for offline teaching too. The MOOC has taught him to make classes more interactive, and rethink test design. A professor may not give too much weight to a couple of students complaining about an exam question. But when two percent of 140,000 complain, they’re louder. Werbach ended up revising one question when “enough [students] noted the problems on the discussion board to attract our attention.”

The Ivy League brand

Deirdre Woods directs the Open Learning Initiative at Penn. Woods says schools need to get in the game because MOOCs are part of the future.

"You're rowing in the river and you're learning about what's going on,” Woods says, “ or you're just standing on the banks watching the boat go by."

Woods admits the business model is shaky right now. Coursera just began charging around $50 for a certificate of completion, for MOOC students who want to document their online coursework.

That certificate does not grant university credit. People who ace Werbach's class are Penn fans, not Penn graduates.  "These courses are not Penn courses yet. They're intentionally not Penn courses because of the experimental nature of them."

While the professor and university take on extra work for a tiny honorarium, Woods says there's little downside. If not every professor turns out to be a Kevin Werbach, that’s okay. While a MOOC does take more than an internet connection and a webcam, it’s a small price to pay for Internet celebrity.

We could have a conversation about over-consumption in America, and the virtues of simple living. But how big retail chains are doing offers useful insight into the state of the American economy. Macy's reported its profits are up and that it is raising the dividend it pays shareholders, despite modest gains in sales.

How are retailers in the U.S. and abroad responding to last month's clothing factory collapse in Bangladesh, one of the worst industrial accidents ever? So far, the answer has been piecemeal. More than fifteen major retailers in Europe have signed on to a legally binding plan to help pay for safety improvements at facilities in Bangladesh. But in the U.S., many companies are coming up with their own individual approaches to making the factories they use safe.

Investigators with the European Commission have raided several oil industry offices this week. The U.K. offices of BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Platts, an industry data provider, were subject to what the Commission called "unannounced inspections." The investigation is in its early stage, and it is not clear if anything illegal will be found, but the concern is price manipulation.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is taking a stab at the government inefficiency beast. The committee is set to hold a hearing on 380 ways to make Washington more efficient. The number 380 comes from congressional reports outlining 380 areas of government waste and duplication. Yet despite the catchy title, governtment watchers aren't getting too excited.

There's this dream techies have been chasing. That one day, our computes will speak to us, anticipate our needs and maybe even have  a personality. C3PO comes to mind. At Google i/o, the talking computer on "Star Trek" came up a few times.

Well, we’re still waiting for the dream of the computer as the ultimate personal assistant to become a reality. Tech companies are in hot pursuit of the dream. There’s Apple’s Siri. Amazon and Microsoft are also moving into voice technology. Your Xbox may be talking to you in the future.

And, today, at its big developers conference Google announced that Google Voice is moving beyond phones to desktops and laptops. I recently caught up with Scott Huffman, who leads the Google Voice team.

Sitting in a conference room at Google’s Mountain View headquarters, Huffman pulled out his Android and asked it this question. “How far is San Louis Obispo from here?” he asked.

 “The drive from your location to San Luis Obispo is 197.6 miles,” Google voice answered.

Voice recognition technology -- or simply transcribing the phonetics of the spoken word -- is commonplace. Call centers use it a lot. But tech companies are racing to actually “teach” computers to understand “language.” Remember, Huffman’s question: How far is San Louis Obispo from here?

He says the example shows how steep that learning curve is.

“I like this example because of the word here, such a simple word but if you actually think about it means a lot of different things,” Huffman said.

There’s “hear” – as in I can “hear” you. And then “here I am.” And here’s another example...

Getting a computer to understand the we speak naturally is sorta like teaching it to become human.  Huffman says it’s a long ways off. But he says, we’re getting closer. Computing keeps getting more powerful. Meanwhile, Google has a ton of on language and knowledge. The next jump is to turn that information into intelligence.

“We’re moving beyond search as we traditionally think of it of finding kind of documents to a broader assistant you can find information for you and can do things for you,” Huffman said.

In the meantime, there are other economic forces that are bigger than search, said Tony Costa, an analyst at Forrester.

“It’s about smart phones and tablets and this huge growing list of devices, such as smart tvs, our cars and wearable computers,” Costa said. 

He says unlike desktops computer, computers of the future don’t really lend themselves to the keyboard and mouse.

“And this really presents a problem for Apple and Google and Microsoft,” he said. “They’re all really trying to find ways to make this technology easy and efficient to use.”

If the trend to hook up everything we use to computers continues, than the company that masters voice could master, well, almost every part of our lives, says Michael Chui, who leads the tech research at McKinsey & Company.

“You want to be able to do naturally in your day-to-day life, you know, please turn on the TV or raise the temperature.”

Are you listening C3PO?

May is the month of the television Upfronts, where networks show off their new programming to advertisers. But there's a growing issue in the TV world -- so called cord-cutters, the people who don't watch TV on TV. The Nielsen Company has traditionally been the authority on ratings, but not even they know how much TV the cord-cutters are watching online.

Bloomberg's Edmund Lee explains why Nielsen is loath to look at online numbers.

We could have a conversation about over-consumption in America, and the virtues of simple living. But how big retail chains are doing offers useful insight into the state of the American economy. Macy's reported its profits are up and that it is raising the dividend it pays shareholders, despite modest gains in sales.

For a read on the economy we turn to Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh.

There's a rare diamond set to be sold off at Christie's Auction House in Switzerland today, one that would surely put Kim Kardashian's over-the-top engagement ring to shame. It is the largest clear, flawless diamond ever to be offered at auction.

This diamond doesn't yet have a name. "We call it right now the 'absolute perfection diamond'," says Daniel Struyf, jewelry specialist at Christie's. He says this diamond is completely clear. It was pulled out of a diamond mine in Botswana. And it was cut from a 236-carat piece of ruff.

"This 101 carat is actually very big," he says. "It looks a bit like a little egg."

Struyf says that little egg is expected to fetch $20 million to $30 million. The diamond is classified as "flawless".

"That means there are no impurities in the diamond, but also from the outside there are no impurities," he says.

For example, nitrogen is an internal impurity. It can turn a diamond yellow. And on the outside? Not even a hint of a smudge. People have to wear gloves when they handle it.

"It is actually a group of diamonds that are chemically pure, and which represent 2 percent of all diamonds," Struyf says.

Polishing it took 21 months. "A lot of time I think is probably spent looking at it and figuring out what shape is going to maximize the yield from this piece of rock," says Michelle Graff, diamond editor at National Jeweler Magazine. "You know, what can we get out of this that will give us the biggest, best quality stone possible?"

Even Graff wonders who would buy this. Her best guess: an investor or a collector. Or a movie star.

"Look at somebody like Elizabeth Taylor," Graff says. "I mean she had huge diamonds and she wore them."

And Graff says based on past auctions, that $20 to $30 million price tag might be a lowball figure.

Investigators with the European Commission have raided several oil industry offices this week. The U.K. offices of BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Platts, an industry data provider, were subject to what the Commission called "unannounced inspections." The investigation is in its early stage, and it is not clear if anything illegal will be found, but the concern is price manipulation. 

The BBC's Rob Young has the latest from London.

How are retailers in the U.S. and abroad responding to last month's clothing factory collapse in Bangladesh, one of the worst industrial accidents ever? So far, the answer has been piecemeal.

More than fifteen major retailers in Europe have signed on to a legally binding plan to help pay for safety improvements at facilities in Bangladesh. But in the U.S., many companies are coming up with their own individual approaches to making the factories they use safe.

So what's keeping these companies from all joining together in one plan? Two key factors are the question of unions, and the question of liability.

Let’s start with the the union question. The factory safety proposal that has the most traction so far -- though not in the U.S. -- was launched by a global federation of trade unions, known as IndustriALL and Uni. A broad coalition of European retailers has joined the plan, including the world’s second largest retailer, Carrefour, as well as Benetton, H&M and the parent company of Zara. Together, these brands work with more than a fifth of the factories in Bangladesh, according to the plan’s sponsors. 

Known as the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, the plan would be legally binding, and require retailers to finance key safety measures like fire escapes, which many Bangladeshi factories don’t have. Factories would have to submit to independent monitoring that includes input from workers themselves, and unions. 

And that last point, about the unions, is key, says Judy Gearhart, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum, an advocacy group based in Washington that has worked on overseas garment factory safety issues for years.

In last month’s tragedy, there were reports that some workers were told they must come to work even after cracks appeared in the building. “Half of the problem is the fact that workers are not able to speak up,” says Gearhart. “Having trade unions at the table makes all the difference.”

But trade unions may be a big part of why most of the big U.S. retailers, including Wal-Mart, the Gap, Target and J.C Penny,  have not signed on to the Accord.

On Tuesday, Wal-Mart issued a statement saying that while it agreed with much of the Accord, it did not feel comfortable with “requirements, including governance and dispute resolution mechanisms, on supply chain matters that are appropriately left to retailers, suppliers and government.”

Marshall Cohen, a retail analyst with NPD Group, put it more bluntly. “Any time you use the word union in retail, they get nervous.”

“It’s a dilemma for retailers,” says Cohen. “They want to be responsible.  They want to do the right thing. But their model in many cases is based on providing the consumer with the lowest priced product and means that they have to carefully assess union shops, and using union rules and regulations.”

Another issue some U.S. retailers have raised with the Accord is liability. A spokesman for Gap told the New York Times “the U.S. is quite litigious,” expressing concerns that American lawyers could use a legally binding agreement to sue American companies on behalf of factory workers in Bangladesh.

Gap has proposed changes to the Accord that would replace language making it legally binding with a provision to expel any company from the factory safety plan that violated the agreement.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart has come up with its own plan for factory safety in Bangladesh. It would not be legally binding. Instead, Wal-Mart would hire an outside auditor to inspect factories, and immediately stop working with factories that did not address safety issues. 

Under the plan Wal-Mart, a company known for hard-driving negotiations with suppliers to get the lowest prices possible, would not finance safety upgrades at the factories it uses, saying it expects those costs “to be appropriately reflected in its costs of goods purchased.”   

According to new data out today, the economies that use the euro weakened during the first quarter of 2013, marking the sixth straight quarter of contraction. France was officially in recession, while Germany, the continent's largest economy, eked out a slight expansion.

BBC economics correspondent Andrew Walker looks at the economic mood in these two countries.

Today marks the beginning of Google's three day conference for developers, called Google I/O. Last year the company unveiled its tech-boosted spectacles, Google glass. It was perhaps one of the most extravagant unveilings in tech history -- glass-wearing Googlers streamed live video of themselves jumping out of a plane and riding into the convention on trick bikes.

I/O stands for "input/output," so Marketplace Tech host Ben Johnson got some input from CNET's Molly Wood on what Google might be outputting this year. Wood says it won't be easy to top last year's spectacle.

This final note qualifies, I think, for the 'This Week's Sign the Apocalypse is Upon Us' tag.

Picture this: "Angry Birds: The Movie."

It's coming soon to a theater near you. Sony Pictures Entertainment and Rovio are gonna team up for a full-length animated 3-D version of the game.

Which does kinda make you think back to Mark Garrison's story, doesn't it? About getting Sony to concentrate more on consumer electronics and not so much on movies, hmmm?