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Markets tumble on weak unemployment report amid fear that U.S. recovery has stalled

Ylan Q. Mui — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 18:12:00 EST

A dramatic drop-off in U.S. job growth has erased one of the few bright spots in the global economy, stoking fears that the world’s major countries are inextricably linked in a downward spiral.

The U.S. Labor Department reported Friday that businesses created a meager 69,000 jobs last month — less than half what economists had expected. It was a sharp about-face from the start of the year, when hiring reached more than a quarter of a million jobs. The nation’s unemployment rate also inched up to 8.2 percent.

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Stocks suffer worst losses of 2012 on poor jobs report

Rita Nazareth — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 19:09:54 EST

U.S. stocks fell the most since November, erasing the Dow Jones industrial average’s 2012 advance, as U.S. employers added the fewest workers in a year and reports signaled global manufacturing was slowing.

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Bank oversight office failed to spot foreclosure fraud, Treasury inspector general says

Brady Dennis — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 19:43:34 EST

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency failed to spot widespread problems in the foreclosure practices of major banks between 2008 and 2010 because the agency’s examiners underestimated the mounting risks and were given outdated guidance that did not address how the industry had changed, according to a report issued Friday by the Treasury Department’s inspector general.

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Fri, 1 Jun 2012 19:43:34 EST

Ireland voters strongly approve European fiscal treaty

Anthony Faiola — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 10:40:00 EST

DUBLIN — Europe’s new fiscal treaty won a decisive and much-needed victory in Ireland in a closely watched referendum, a rare reprieve for the region’s leaders from the string of recent blows to the crisis-hit euro zone.

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For Mexico’s middle class, drug war deepens trust deficit

Nick Miroff — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 19:03:00 EST

By many measures, this country has made great strides in recent decades toward becoming a middle-class society, with broader access to education, consumer goods and professional careers that promise upward mobility.

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India’s telecom success story turns sour

Simon Denyer — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 13:13:00 EST

NEW DELHI — Over the past decade, the number of cellphones in India shot up from 6.5 million to 900 million, a prime example of how an industry could exploit the vast consumer market here to achieve breathtaking rates of growth and, in the process, help transform the country.

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Reconciliation

Sarah Kliff — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 18:00:00 EST

— What’s really behind Europe’s decline? It’s the birth rates, stupid.

— A conservative case for breaking up big banks.
— The Centers for Disease Control clarifies its stance on zombies.

— Today in odd Kickstarter projects.

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How the National Spelling Bee got so insanely difficult

Sarah Kliff — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 13:36:14 EST

Last night, 14-year-old Snigdha Nandipati won the Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling the word “guetapens,” an obscure French word that describes a snare or a trap. This follows on other spellers taking stabs at words like schwarmerei (to be enthusiastic), ericeticolous (a “heathlike” habitat) and schwannoma (a type of tumor, obviously).

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A libertarian approach to global warming

Brad Plumer — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 13:30:00 EST

Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western University, has been writing a very interesting series of posts at The Atlantic on conservative approaches to various environmental problems. Here he lays out the libertarian case for tackling climate change:

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How Popularise brought crowdsourcing to D.C.’s commercial real estate market

Olga Khazan — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 10:53:45 EST

The tycoon Herbert S. Miller developed his real estate the old-fashioned way: He built it. (Think Gallery Place, Georgetown Park and Washington Harbour.)

His sons, Ben and Dan Miller, have taken a decidedly modern approach to the family business: They want you, me and everyone we know to decide the next big commercial real estate deal.

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Facebook stock performance, IPO said to be under investigation by SEC

Suzy Khimm — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 20:41:44 EST

Two weeks after Facebook’s initial public offering, the hand-wringing over its dismal stock performance hasn’t died down— and neither have the questions over how the IPO was carried out. Federal regulators are reviewing the offering, but some Democrats in Congress say their concerns about the IPO go well beyond the question of whether any laws were violated.

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Facebook attack claimed by group identified as members of Anonymous

Hayley Tsukayama — Fri, 1 Jun 2012 12:05:00 EST

Hackers claiming to be part of the online group Anonymous threatened to block access to Facebook just before the Web site went down in several countries Thursday and Friday.

A 15-minute video posted to the Web site AnonNews called for the attack, code-named ”Operation Face Flood.” Members identified themselves as part of Anonymous and said they did not like the way Facebook makes money from users’ data. They also accused the site of removing Facebook pages set up by Anonymous.

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Mary Meeker’s Internet trends report lands

Emi Kolawole — Wed, 30 May 2012 15:39:00 EST

Every year, Mary Meeker of famed venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, puts together a report on Internet Trends.

Think of it as a State of the Union address, but for the Web.

The report, co-authored by Kleiner digital team member Liang Wu, is an in-depth exploration of the global population online: what they’re doing, where they’re going and how they’re consuming the bits and bytes of the Web. This year’s version was released at the D10 conference on Wednesday.

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