Business

Maureen O'Brien told her daughter Emily Macri: dream big.

She could pick any college she wanted and they would figure out a way to pay for it.

Macri chose the University of Vermont, which costs more than $49,000 in tuition and fees per year for out-of-state residents.

O'Brien and her daughter co-signed a private student loan from Sallie Mae for $24,000 and a $30,000 Parent PLUS loan, a federal loan program for parents. And that was just for Macri's first two years of college.

In Libya, now that the revolution is over, you can have a Cinnabon. That cinnamon smell that flavors the air in food courts and airports around this country is now wafting through downtown Tripoli, Libya's capital.

Amazon is positioning itself to be a bigger player in the digital music and movie market. This week, the company announced that it would be offering its movie and music apps on more devices including Apple's iPad. NPR's Laura Sydell has the story.

The call from conservatives such as former Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum to short support for Chick-fil-A and company President Dan Cathy's stand against same-sex marriage has produced long lines at the fast-food chain's restaurants today, judging from news reports:

While it does indeed appear that "economic activity decelerated somewhat over the first half of this year," the Federal Reserve also said in its policy statement this afternoon that it is not — as of yet — taking any news steps to give the economy a boost.

Eric Auld wants a full-time job. He completed a master's program in 2009 and has a part-time job as an adjunct lecturer, but that provides barely enough to cover the bills.

Three years into the economic recovery, the unemployment rate is still disastrously high. So today's big economic question is whether the Federal Reserve will announce new measures to bring down unemployment when it releases its policy statement this afternoon.

Update: The new statement is out. The Fed isn't doing anything new right now.

Weighing 400 grams, the Olympic gold medals that are being doled out at the London 2012 Summer Games are the heaviest ever, according to reports. But that doesn't mean they're the most valuable: at an estimated $620.82, they're nearly $590 short of the $1,207.86 value held by a gold medal from the Stockholm Games of 1912.

The discrepancy stems from the fact that the 2012 gold medals contain only 6 grams of gold; the rest is silver and copper. In fact, the London bling contains more copper than gold, which is only used to coat the medals with a plating layer.

For a historic look at spending in America, see our post What America Buys. For more, see our Graphing America series.

How do Americans spend their money? And how do budgets change across the income spectrum?

"August 1st will be another day that will destroy investor confidence just like the May 6th [2010] flash crash."

That rather ominous sounding pronouncement comes from Joseph Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC in Chatham, N.J., in a Bloomberg News report about what happened early this morning on Wall Street.

There was a 163,000-gain in the number of jobs on private payrolls in July, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report.

That's down from an estimated 172,000 boost in June (a number revised slightly from ADP's previous report of a 176,000-increase for that month).

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with a poker payout.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now let's talk about the business of car insurance. It's getting more competitive but that does not necessarily mean consumers end up saving.

NPR's Sonari Glinton reports.

SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE: In real estate the mantra is Location. Location. Location.

JOHN EGAN: That same mantra can be applied to car insurance because geography does play a role in how much you pay for car insurance even down to the zip code level.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

One of the brands that defined the '80s was Jordache jeans.

(SOUNDBITE OF JORDACHE JEANS AD)

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) You've got the look I want to know better. You've got the look that's all together. Working. Playing...

MONTAGNE: Some among you will remember squeezing into a pair of those skintight jeans and then pulling on a purple velour top.

Reporter Matthew Boyle wondered whatever happened to this now faded brand, which led to his profile in of today's Jordache for Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine.