Portugal scraps public holidays
Portugal has scrapped four of its 14 public holidays in order to boost economic activity. The debt-laden country, which is implementing a raft of other austerity measures, will suspend two Catholic festivals and two other public holidays for five years beginning in 2013.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The busiest airline routes
The world’s busiest airline route last year, with 9.9 million passengers, was between Seoul and Jeju, a South Korean island that is increasingly popular with tourists. All but one of the top 15 busiest city-to-city routes were domestic; 11 were in Asia, and not one was in North America.
Economist.com
China's access to the Treasury Department
China can go straight to the Treasury Department when buying U.S. government debt. Since last summer, the U.S. has allowed the People’s Bank of China, which holds $1.17 trillion in U.S. debt, to bypass major Wall Street banks when purchasing U.S. Treasuries. No other central bank has similar access.
Reuters.com
Soda consumption drops
Last year, the average American drank just under two sodas a day, a drop in per capita consumption of about 16 percent since the peak, in 1998. Schools have been removing the drinks from vending machines for the past several years, and local governments are increasingly eliminating them from public offices as concerns about national obesity rates grow.
The New York Times
Home sales surge
U.S. home sales surged in April to 4.6 million, up 3.4 percent from March and 10 percent from April 2011. The median price for homes sold in April was also up 10 percent from a year earlier.
CNNMoney.com
-
5 thin-skinned cartoons about shooting the messengerCartoons Artists take on unfavorable weather, a look in the mirror, and more
-
Is Trump's new peacemaking model working in DR Congo?Talking Point Truce brokered by the US president in June is holding, but foundations of a long-term peace have let to be laid
-
A tour of southern GreenlandThe Week Recommends New international airport has given this 'bucolic' island a welcome boost
-
The bottom linefeature Working families continue to struggle; The least-trusted industries; The bestselling vehicle; Mobil device use triples; Global unemployment among the young
-
The bottom line
feature The cost of e-filing; Dipping into nest eggs early; What Americans are drinking; Planning for death; How tax refunds are spent
-
The bottom line
feature Building bigger houses; And tuition at OSU is?; Christmas at McDonald's; Self-gifting at Christmas; Lloyd’s prepares for Hurricane Sandy claims; Google's billions
-
The bottom line
feature Good results for the third quarter; Compensation at financial firms hits a high; Three cities with recovering economies; Good year for car sales; Broadway's best performance ever; Tax bite is less in 2010 than in 1980
-
The bottom line
feature Airlines cut domestic flights; Income up in small cities and rural areas; Bond and Lincoln lift box office earnings; Don't be fooled by Black Friday; The high toll of identity theft
-
The bottom line
feature The gender pay gap; U.S. economic growth; Parents who argue about money; Online subscriptions rise
-
The bottom line
feature Can the U.S. keep up?; Airlines spend billions on runway taxiing; Americans exaggerate their working hours; The Dow Jones's 67.9 percent gain; Success and summer babies
-
The bottom line
feature Consumer confidence jumps; Wall Street cuts jobs, raises pay; Goldman Sachs's muppet hunt; Desktop web searches decline; Pizza Hut scraps debate freebie