TV News LIES

McDonald's might finally have figured out that paying its low-wage workers more would actually be a good thing for McDonald's.

McDonald's CEO Don Thompson recently suggested his company would support a bill, proposed by President Barack Obama, raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25. Such a wage hike likely wouldn't satisfy his workers, some of whom recently stormed the company's Oak Brook, Ill., headquarters demanding $15 an hour. But it would be a noticeable shift in attitude for the world's biggest restaurant chain, which has so far been neutral as the debate about higher wages has roiled around it.

Propelled by a soaring stock market, the median pay package for a CEO rose above eight figures for the first time last year. The head of a typical large public company earned a record $10.5 million, an increase of 8.8 percent from $9.6 million in 2012, according to an Associated Press/Equilar pay study.

Last year was the fourth straight that CEO compensation rose following a decline during the Great Recession. The median CEO pay package climbed more than 50 percent over that stretch. A chief executive now makes about 257 times the average worker's salary, up sharply from 181 times in 2009.

Technology giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced an 18% rise in profits to $1.3bn for the second quarter in statement that was accidently released before US stock markets closed.

But the firm said that despite rising profits, it plans to lay off an additional 11,000 to 16,000 workers.

HP had previously announced it would cut 34,000 jobs as part of a restructuring announced in 2012.

U.S. regulators found illegal collections of fees or severe compliance shortfalls in more than half of the private-equity firms it has examined since 2012, a signal the industry could face tougher oversight or sanctions.

“By far, the most common observation our examiners have made when examining private-equity firms has to do with the adviser’s collection of fees and allocation of expenses,” Drew Bowden, director of the SEC’s office of compliance inspections and examinations, said today in a speech at the Private Fund Compliance Forum in New York. “We have identified what we believe are violations of law or material weaknesses in controls over 50 percent of the time.”

When President Barack Obama visited an Amazon's fulfillment center in Chattanooga, Tennessee last year, he compared it to Santa's workshop. "This is kind of like the North Pole of the south right here," he said. Then speaking of the workers, he added, "Got a bunch of good-looking elves here."

What went unsaid and unnoticed was that the Amazon "elves" would not have jobs or prospects after the holidays. Many of the people in those Amazon warehouses were among the long-term unemployed – shuffling from one temporary job to another to another. Due to this unstable employment, number of them have found themselves living in shelters.

Employees at Pfizer Inc's U.S. research centers, such as the La Jolla, California site that specializes in cancer drugs, may want to dust off their resumes if the company's proposed acquisition of Britain's AstraZeneca comes to fruition.

Pfizer said on Friday it was determined to reach a deal that would restore its status as the world's biggest pharmaceutical company despite AstraZeneca's rejection of its latest cash and stock offer of 63 billion pounds ($106 billion).