Business

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The real estate website Trulia is successfully riding the housing recovery, and has just gone public. After one day of trading, the San Francisco-based company is valued at well over half-a-billion dollars.

From our member station KQED, Aarti Shahani reports this is seen as a boost for the tech sector after Facebook's shaky plunge into the stock market.

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On Capitol Hill, some members of Congress are asking whether new rules are needed to reign in high-speed stock market trading. Democratic Senator Jack Reed told a conference of traders that there is enough evidence to warrant a closer look.

We were curious how hard it would be to set up an offshore company, so this summer we bought two. We at Planet Money are now the proud owners of "Unbelizable Inc." in Belize and "Delawho? LLC" in Delaware. The whole process was quick and easy.

At least that's how it seemed at first — until we got an email from David Buckley, a tax lawyer at Rogin Nassau, telling us we had just walked into an IRS sinkhole.

Buckley described it as "a minefield of U.S. tax obligations," and he said he was worried about me. (The companies are in my name.)

Minnesota gamblers no longer have to rip paper pull-tabs to see if they've won cash: As of this week, they can use iPads to play, and play again, at the click of a button. The venture was sparked by the need to help pay for a new Minnesota Vikings football stadium, which will cost an estimated $975 million.

Every election season, political signs sprout like dandelions from lawns across America. They also pop up at more than a few businesses. For some, expressing political preferences is a calculated move to attract customers. But it can just as easily turn clients away.

Jeff Reiter, who owns the Blue Plate Lunch Counter & Soda Fountain in Portland, Ore., proudly displays a 2008 Obama campaign sign inside his restaurant and says he has "never tried to hide" his support for the president.

Members of Congress are about to flee Capitol Hill, and they'll be gone until Nov. 13, one week after Election Day.

As they shift to full-time campaigning, lawmakers are leaving behind many questions about the "fiscal cliff," a massive cluster of automatic spending cuts and tax-break expirations that come together around year's end.

(We retopped this post at 8 a.m. ET.)

Though fresh data from the Census Bureau show that the number of Americans living in poverty edged higher in 2011, its latest American Community Survey also signals that after a Great Recession and a painfully slow recovery the U.S. economy may finally be bottoming out.

The Associated Press leads its report on the news this way:

American Airlines is notifying more than 11,000 employees that they might get laid off. The move is part of the company's ongoing bankruptcy reorganization which continues to be rocky.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We also have a correction for you this morning. Two reports in our air in recent days listed Americans who do not pay income taxes, and those lists included mentions of active duty-military service members. Those statements were too broad.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Military personnel do pay federal income tax. But there are exemptions for some, including those who are serving in designated combat zones.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And Chick-fil-A fast food restaurants became the focus a few weeks ago of protests and counter-protests, after the CEO of the restaurant chain said he opposed same-sex marriage. Now, after a change in policy the chain, a Chicago alderman says he will no longer stand in the way of Chick-fil-A opening in his neighborhood.

NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.

Apple and Samsung remained locked in their high stakes patent dispute. A Silicon Valley jury last month ordered Samsung to pay Apple more than $1 billion for infringing on its patents. Samsung is fighting in court and with a new aggressive marketing campaign for its Galaxy smartphones.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news begins with good news for Google.

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INSKEEP: The search giant is expected to be the top firm in online display advertising revenue this year, according to analysts at the industry news site eMarketer. If their prediction comes true - if - Google will unseat the reigning online ad champ Facebook, which would be a blow for Facebook, which only last year managed to beat back the previous top-earner, Yahoo.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Our last word in business today is: the rich getting richer.

Forbes magazine just came out with its yearly list of the 400 richest Americans. Their combined net worth increased 13 percent since last year.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Here are some of the people who can certainly afford any kind of phone they want: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, the Koch brothers and the children of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.