Today in business: 5 things you need to know

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last updated 11 January 2015

1. OBAMA HINTS BERNANKE MIGHT NOT SERVE A THIRD TERM

In a 45 minute interview that aired Monday night, Charlie Rose asked Obama if he would reappoint Ben Bernanke if the Fed chairman asked for a third term. Obama hesitated: "He has been an outstanding partner along with the White House in helping us recover much stronger than, for example, our European partners from what could have been an economic crisis of epic proportions," Obama said, adding, "He's already stayed a lot longer than he wanted, or he was supposed to." [CNN]

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Applications to build single-family homes climbed 1.3 percent in May, the fastest growth since May 2008, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Housing starts jumped 6.8 percent in to a 914,000 annualized rate and April was revised to a 856,000 pace. The evidence of continued growth in housing edged stocks up, even as investors nervously await Ben Bernanke's Wednesday press conference to discuss the Fed's plans for quantitative easing programs. The S&P 500 inched up 0.2 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average crept up 0.4 percent. [Bloomberg]

A woman in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., is suing McDonald's, where she briefly worked, for sending her paycheck in the form of a JP Morgan Chase prepaid debit card. Natalie Gunshannon says she did not sign the debit card or enroll in the payroll system for fear the card's fees would reduce her pay to below minimum wage. The lawsuit says fees for the payroll cards include: $1.50 minimum charge for an ATM withdrawal, $5 for an over-the-counter cash withdrawal, $1 to check the balance, 75 cents per online bill payment, and $15 to replace a lost or stolen card. [USA Today]

Thailand's government said it lost $4.4 billion subsidizing rice between fall 2011 and September 2012. Though the 2012 to 2013 calculations are not yet in, government officials fear the numbers could agitate anti-government protesters already rallying against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Yinglunk's policies, which included buying up rice at 50 percent above market price, spurred competing countries like Vietnam and India to ramp up rice production, driving down their own prices and allowing them to sell at $150 to $170 a ton less than Thailand. Thailand now has an estimated 17 million tons of stockpiled rice, and Moody's has warned the program could affect the country's credit rating. [Wall Street Journal]

Carmel Lobello is the business editor at TheWeek.com. Previously, she was an editor at DeathandTaxesMag.com.

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