The news at a glance

Tech: Apple opens its suppliers to scrutiny

Apple took the unprecedented step last week of revealing working conditions at its suppliers’ factories, said Poornima Gupta in Reuters.com. Audits of 156 mostly Asian suppliers that make and assemble Apple products uncovered a number of violations, including more than 90 companies exceeding a 60-hour workweek and more than 100 failing to pay overtime. Apple also exposed six cases of underage labor, as well as workers who suffer discrimination for being pregnant and those forced to pay excessive recruitment fees for their jobs. Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company would increase inspections and demand changes. “All of this means that workers will be treated better and better with each passing year,” he said.

Apple has been under fire after a spate of suicides and injuries at Chinese plants owned by its largest supplier, Foxconn, said Stanley James and Adam Satariano in Bloomberg.com. Last week, Apple also announced that it had become the first tech company to join the Fair Labor Association, which will make unannounced inspections at suppliers’ factories. Worker advocates say it’s critical that consumers push Apple to require best practices when governments won’t. “The power of their contract is more powerful than the power of law,” said FLA President Auret van Heerden.

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Wealth: A closer look at the 1 percent

There are many variations among America’s wealthiest 1 percent, said Shaila Dewan and Robert Gebeloff in The New York Times. Incomes in the exclusive club range from $380,000 per household up to Warren Buffett’s billions. But 1-percenters also have more in common with one another than with the rest of the country. They are three times more likely than the 99 percent to work more than 50 hours a week, nearly twice as likely to be married, and more likely to be self-employed. Doctors are the most well-represented profession among the 1 percent.

Companies: Hostess files for Chapter 11

“The maker of Twinkies, Sno Balls, and Wonder Bread is trying to lose the fat,” said Mae Anderson and Michelle Chapman in the Associated Press. For the second time in a decade, snack-maker Hostess Brands has filed for bankruptcy, citing increased competition from rivals and high pension and health-care costs for its mostly union workers. In Chapter 11, the Texas-based company hopes to shed some of its agreements with unions and modernize its plants to target more health-conscious American consumers.

Economy: Fed failed to foresee crisis

Transcripts from the Federal Reserve’s 2006 meetings reveal that the nation’s top economic thinkers “had little idea” that a financial crisis was looming, said Zachary Goldfarb in The Washington Post. The transcripts, released after the customary five-year waiting period, feature Fed officials praising outgoing Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, whose policies have since come under criticism for helping contribute to the financial crisis. Officials in the meetings also “joke about what turned out to be early warning signs in the markets,” including worries about Iceland’s banks.

Energy: Venezuela clamps down on oil industry

Venezuela says it will no longer heed the rulings of a World Bank body that referees investment disputes, said Benedict Mander and Sylvia Pfeifer in the Financial Times. Disputes with foreign companies, including those regarding energy assets that Venezuela has nationalized since 2006, will now be adjudicated by Venezuelan courts. “We are going to rescue our national sovereignty,” said Rafael Ramírez, the country’s oil minister. More than 20 foreign companies, including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, have unsettled claims that could be worth as much as $40 billion.