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Reuters: General Motors Corp. on Monday said it was recalling more than 2 million vehicles to fix a variety of potential safety defects, most of them on cars and trucks sold in the United States.

…how are these guys still in business? Oh wait…

I apologize, I always link to WSJ articles. I realize a subscription is required (which may be changing soon?) so I’ll try to point to more accessible articles. With that said, here’s an article that Yahoo News has posted from Reuters which is from… thats right, the Wall Street Journal.

Reuters: Wall Street financier Kenneth Langone is attempting to mount a bid to buy the New York Stock Exchange, a move that could potentially scupper its pending merger with Archipelago Holdings Inc. , the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Help Rob define it over at BusinessPundit…

Why is it that I could see Google pulled up on Bren’s browser for at least a 2-minute segement? If I’m not mistaken, the official website of The Apprentice is apprentice.yahoo.com… I find that pretty funny.

Press Release: “Launching the brand Forth & Towne, which focuses on women over age 35, represents an important long-term growth opportunity for Gap Inc.,” said Paul Pressler Gap Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer, at the company’s investor update meeting.

Update: Liz has some more interesting Gap-related observations in the comments.

WSJ: Google posted net income of $369 million, or $1.29 a share, up from $64 million, or 24 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue soared 93% to $1.26 billion from $651 million.

…yes, that profit increase works to nearly sixfold. Do you realize this company doesn’t really make anything? I really wonder if GOOG would’ve survived the bubble…

WSJ: The Down Industrials shot up 206.24 points, or 2.06%, to 10218.60 — their first 200-point gain in almost two years. The Nasdaq composite gained 2.54% as Wall Street cheered upbeat earnings.

Archipelago gained almost 50% due to the NYSE deal.

When you become good, nay, really good, you attract plenty of critics. But thats expected: people won’t like you. In the cases of Wal-Mart and Google it seems they’ve attracted criticism becuase, perhaps, they do things similarly. Adam Penenberg from WIRED news takes a look at some of the traits these two giants have in common.

…it’s hard to belive Google doesn’t pay that well though. Seriously. Their profit increased nearly sixfold. Discussion at Jeremy’s blog suggests the same. It’s not an entirely solid article but still interesting to ponder.

PS: Did you see the latest Google-browser “proof“?

It’s shocking, I know. From Yahoo! (Reuters):

An organization opposed to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. took out a full-page newspaper advertisement on Wednesday that accuses the world’s biggest retailer of costing U.S. taxpayers some $1.6 billion a year. The advertisement in The New York Times says Wal-Mart’s low pay and benefits forced tens of thousands of employees to seek government aid in the form of Medicaid, food stamps and housing assistance.

Hehe, yeah, but how much have those people saved on a daily basis by shopping at Wal-Mart?

..he says, tongue-in-cheek…

The WSJ reports on the CPI increase reported today:

Consumer prices jumped 0.6% in March from February, the Labor Department said Wednesday, mostly because of higher energy costs. But even excluding the volatile food and energy categories, “core” prices rose a relatively sharp 0.4%, after a 0.3% increase in February. The two-month increase in core prices is the largest in four years, according to Nomura Securities.

There’s some discussion as to how much the hotel industry has skewed things… needless to say prices rise for the spring.

Before the Fed decides whether more aggressive rate increases are needed, it will likely consider one-time effects in the latest report, and await the Commerce Department’s lesser known price index of consumer expenditure, which the Fed considers a better gauge of the cost of living.

..ironically enough, my macroeconomics course has never once mentioned such an index. Good thing I spend more time online then in class, right?

Another headline I didn’t expect to see today. The merger will create a new publicly held, for-profit company called NYSE Group Inc. The WSJ says this group will be trading more than just stocks. Don’t get too excited yet, the deal will take about a year to finalize.

In any case, the merger will allow the exchange leverage new opportunities and hopefully, “the New York Stock Exchange will be the leading securities market in the U.S. and the world.” Well, at least Mr. Thain hopes so.

For some reason I’ve had little faith in eBay lately. I guess its the lack of traffic their site has been seeing lately. But, some way, some how, eBay posted a 28% profit increase. I guess that I, too, could make a profit if I had outrageous fee increases like they have, lately.

Seth: I believe,you become #1 on the Fortune 500…

So, I think I understand what happens when you win the race to the top. You end up with a healthy, motivated workforce that’s focused on adding art and joy to your products. You end up with profits and market share and a community that’s glad you’re there.

What happens, though, when you win the race to the bottom?

Seth Godin’s blog is always a great read.

Starbucks decided to purchase the bottled-water company, Ethos. While a portion of the profits were donated to charity, Starbucks claims the donations will be maintained. Kevin at FC Now is a bit critical of the coffee-king’s move. His last sentence is a bit more interesting though. My response? Well, look at what the word ‘ethos’ means…

According to Yahoo! over half of small business in America aren’t yet online. Solution: offer them a free website! The site is offered through the local listings and allows businesses to not only list themselves but provide their own five-page site to go along with it. Check out the blog entry with the annoucement.

…the search war continues. I swear a new feature is released by someone every week or so. At least Yahoo! is trying to help small businesses, right?