Morning Edition archive

Friday, May 25, 2012

Asia

Hollywood Dreams Led Chinese Firm To Buy Into U.S.

Moviegoers watch a 3-D IMAX movie at a Beijing theater run by the Chinese company Wanda, which recently announced it was buying AMC movie theaters for $2.6 billion. The move is seen as part of a larger effort by the Chinese conglomerate to move into the U.S. market.

May 25, 2012 When the Chinese firm Wanda announced the purchase of AMC cinemas, it may not have made a lot of business sense in the short term. But it could be part of a larger strategy that will bring the company into the U.S. in a major way.

Transcript

ListenPlaylist

Your Money

In Tight Credit Market, A Tool For Small Businesses

Many small-business owners have had difficulty securing loans in recent years. One website grades the nation's banks by the ratio of small-business loans to deposits — and finds that community banks are often most friendly to small business.

May 25, 2012 Many small-business owners have had a tough time securing credit since the start of the economic downturn. "I couldn't understand why they wouldn't be willing to give us a loan," one owner says. A new website aims to help such owners, grading banks based on the percentage of deposits that are used for small-business loans.

Transcript

ListenPlaylist

Africa

How Crumbling U.S. Dollars Bailed Out Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe now uses the U.S. dollar as its main currency, though the bills are often extremely dirty and falling apart due to constant use. Here a cashier holds U.S. dollars in good condition at a supermarket in the capital Harare in 2009.

May 25, 2012 Back in 2008, Zimbabwe's inflation rate was estimated at 79 billion percent. To cure hyperinflation, Zimbabwe ditched its own currency in favor of U.S. dollars. There's only one problem: Those constantly circulating dollars are now filthy and falling apart.

Transcript

ListenPlaylist

Around the Nation

Walk This Way: Crossing The Golden Gate Bridge

More than 200,000 people crossed the bridge the day it opened in 1937. Many walked. Others ran, tap-danced, roller-skated, unicycled, or strode on stilts.

May 25, 2012 On May 27, 1937, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opened, connecting bustling San Francisco to sleepy Marin County to the north. The Oakland-Bay Bridge had opened six months earlier — but the Golden Gate was an engineering triumph. And on its first day, thousands of people walked across it.

Transcript

ListenPlaylist

Shots - Health Blog

Need A Nurse? You May Have To Wait

Some fear that with rising medical costs and an aging population, the country's nursing staff will be stretched too thin.

May 25, 2012 A new poll finds 34 percent of patients hospitalized for at least one night in the past year said "nurses weren't available when needed or didn't respond quickly to requests for help." We asked nurses why that might be. Stories poured in about being overworked, comparing the job to "spinning plates."

Transcript

ListenPlaylist

NPR thanks our sponsors

Become an NPR Sponsor

Podcast + RSS Feeds

Podcast RSS

  • NPR: Technology
     
  • NPR: Sports with Frank Deford
     
  • NPR: Religion
     
  • Morning Edition
     
 
Kelley Hawkins and her grandmother AnnaBelle Bowers

Multigenerational households face difficult financial decisions surrounding elder care, paying for college and retirement.