The Rent Is Too Damn High: Toys R Us Is Leaving Enormous Times Square Location: Gothamist

gallery js end gallery js start of gallery code Even big companies are getting screwed by NYC’s skyrocketing rents: Toys R Us will be leaving its enormous Times Square home next year. Commercial Observer broke the news, speaking with Cushman & Wakefield’s Brad Mendelson, who is marketing the 110,000 square foot space at Broadway between…

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Surprise: U.S. Economic Data Have Been the World’s Most Disappointing – Bloomberg Business

It’s not only the just-released University of Michigan consumer confidence report and February retail sales on Thursday that surprised economists and investors with another dose of underwhelming news. Overall, U.S. economic data have been falling short of prognosticators’ expectations by the most in six years. The Bloomberg ECO U.S. Surprise Index, which measures whether data beat or miss forecasts, fell…

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This Fed Official Just Perfectly Described Why Student Loans Are a Terrible Investment – Bloomberg Business

William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, delivered a speech on Wednesday morning that drove home just how dangerous an investment student loans are for American taxpayers. Speaking at a conference on student loan data, Dudley outlined the consequences of the unique way the U.S. government lends money to people for college. Government student loans…

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‘We won’t pay’: students in debt take on for-profit college institution | Education | The Guardian

A lawsuit was filed against Corinthian last year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which, among other complaints alleges that Corinthian ‘falsely inflated its job placement statistics’. Photograph: Chloe Cushman Nathan Hornes didn’t think he’d still be working in fast food on his 25th birthday. He had a plan: he wanted to be a pop…

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Coming soon: ‘A meditative potted plant app,’ growing in real time – The Washington Post

The best virtual plant-growing app seed capital can buy? (Ice Water Games) Soon, all you’ll need to enjoy the exciting experience of watching plants grow is an app. At least, that appears to be the idea behind Viridi, a project in development from Ice Water Games. The developer describes Viridi as “a meditative potted plant app”…

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Hidden in Plain Sight: New York Just Another Island Haven | International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Lax U.S. rules and real estate industry’s no-questions-asked approach make it easy for dodgy characters to funnel wealth through high-end Manhattan apartments. One day during Chen Shui-bian’s second term as Taiwan’s president, several people lugged what a witness described as “five or six” fruit boxes into the presidential residence in Taipei.  Inside the crates, the…

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Why New York Real Estate Is the New Swiss Bank Account — New York Magazine

One57, on West 57th Street, where a penthouse is reportedly in contract for $90 million. (Photo: Rendering Courtesy of Extell Development) Additional reporting by Michael Hudson of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. PART I. THE BUYER The buyer, an Italian, was in town for a week, with a million or so dollars to spend….

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