Blog Posts by Tim Sprinkle

Software giant Microsoft (MSFT) took some lumps on Friday, when NPD Group reported that sales of its new Windows 8 tablets were "almost nonexistent" and that early November sales of Windows PCs in general fell a whopping 21% in the last year. The news came after it was reported on Thursday that Microsoft had cut supply orders for its new Surface tablet in half, presumably due to less-than-impressive early sales results.

What's more, the launch of Windows 8, the company's latest update to its industry-leading operating system, on October 22, clearly did not provide that boost that Microsoft and its investors had hoped for. "It hasn't made the market any worse, but it hasn't stimulated things either," NPD analyst Stephen Baker told The New York Times.

Microsoft's stock price fell by as much as 1.5% in intraday trading Friday, ending down 1.2% at $26.61. Is the House That Gates Built finally in real trouble? Here's what the analysts are saying.

Brian White, Topeka Capital Markets: "The

Got bad credit? Like it or not, that means that mistakes were likely made. By you.

As tough as it is to raise a poor credit rating to the 700-and-above level, it can be surprisingly quick and easy to send the same score lower. Much lower. Miss a few payments, get in over your head, stop using your available credit ... there are myriad ways to ruin a credit score, and only one way to truly repair the damage: Be financially responsible.

The good news is that America, as a whole, is doing pretty well in the credit rating department. According to Experian, the average U.S. score is 736, mostly centered in the Midwest (four of the top 10 metro areas for high credit scores are in Wisconsin), with Wausau, Wisc. and Minneapolis, Minn. leading the pack. On the flip side, low credit scores are more common throughout Texas and the Deep South, “led” by residents in Harlingen, Texas; Jackson, Miss. and Corpus Christi, Texas. In Harlingen, the average score was just 686 as of 2011.

So how do these

By Joyce Russell

This month, the American people re-elected President Barack Obama after an election season full of hundreds of campaign stops, numerous debates, and endless polls. It was an election characterized by many issues— the auto industry bailout, the war in Afghanistan, and healthcare, to name a few. Yet, even up until the very end, one issue dominated them all: how to keep the economy moving in the right direction and help unemployed Americans get back to work.

In fact, an Associated Press exit poll showed that 60 percent of those who voted in this election considered the economy the biggest issue facing the country, and 40 percent cited unemployment — in particular — as the top economic issue; but this isn't news to anyone. While September's job numbers showed a glimpse of promise when the unemployment rate decreased to 7.8 percent from an all-time high of 10 percent in late 2010, October's numbers (back up slightly to 7.9 percent) showed that unemployment is a battle that

The latest lockup expiration for Facebook's (FB) stock on Wednesday brought new attention to two of the social network's better-known shareholders -- Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss -- and the six million or so shares they received from the company as part of their 2008 cash-and-stock settlement with Mark Zuckerberg over the creation of the ultra popular site. After Wednesday's 12% rise, those shares are now worth roughly $134 million.

According to reports, the pair plans to stick with Facebook for now. In fact, the "Winklevii," who have emerged as budding Internet moguls in recent months thanks to their Facebook fortune, are only planning to sell about $1 million worth of the company's stock at this time to help fund their latest venture, an e-commerce site called Hukkster.com, according to hard hitting financial news site TMZ.

Oddly enough, the first investment by the twins' new venture firm, Winklevoss Capital, was in a social network, but not the one with which they're most closely

It has been a rough couple of years for the alternative-energy sector.

First, in September 2011, California solar cell manufacturer Solyndra filed for bankruptcy protection, defaulting on its sizable U.S. Department of Energy-backed loans. Then, Colorado-based Abound Solar went belly up, despite the $400 million in federal loan guarantees it received in 2010. And those are just two of the highest-profile examples. The bankruptcy cycle has so far claimed a series of small wind and solar manufacturers nationwide, while larger firms such as Vestas Wind Systems, General Electric (GE) and Phillips 66 (PSX) have been significantly cutting back their renewable-energy investments this year.

In fact, according to the American Wind Energy Association, U.S. wind industry employment is on track to be cut in half to 41,000 by 2013, and investment in the sector is expected to plunge from $15.6 billion to just $5.5 billion in the next year.

Renewable energy stocks have been down almost across the

The election on Tuesday decided more than just the presidential and Congressional races. Voters in Colorado, Washington and Massachusetts also approved measures that loosened the marijuana laws in their states, with the drug becoming essentially legal for recreational use under state law in Colorado and Washington, and legal for medicinal use in Massachusetts.

That's right, it's finally legal (to a point).

Dave Meiler with the Marijuana Policy Project says it is "definitely a turning point in the war. It's showed the masses that people really do want normalized marijuana laws and are prepared to move this industry forward."

Marijuana policy was on six statewide ballots this week. Recreational use was the issue in Colorado, Washington and Oregon, while Arkansas and Massachusetts voters considered approving the drug for medicinal use. Montana voters struck down a measure that would have revived its previous medical marijuana program, and local voters in Palo Alto and San Diego,

What happened to all the baseball fans?

News Corp (NWS) on Tuesday announced that this year's Major League Baseball Fall Classic between the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants drew an average of just 12.7 million viewers, making it the least watched World Series of all time and the worst since 2008, when 13.6 million tuned in. The series was broadcast for the twelfth straight year by News Corp subsidiary Fox Broadcasting.

Compare that to 2011, when an average of 16.2 million viewers turned the seven-game series between the Texas Ranger and St. Louis Cardinals into one of the most successful World Series broadcasts in recent memory.

Not Enough Games

So what was the problem this year? Two things, analysts say: the matchup and the sweep. Unlike teams such as the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees that have national followings, there is less of a built-in audience for Detroit and San Francisco. That, and the four-game sweep that the Giants orchestrated this time around made the

The winter of 2011-12 was a rough one for the U.S. ski industry. The snow wasn't falling, the economy was still in recovery mode and people just didn't go skiing. In fact, last winter was among the worst ski seasons on record, as skier visits nationwide dropped by some 10%, according to the National Ski Areas Association.

Blame the lack of snowfall, says David Belin, director of consulting services with RRC Associates, a Boulder, Colo.-based consumer research firm specializing in mountain region travel and tourism.

"The saying in the ski industry is that snow trumps the economy," he says. "If you have a bad economy and good snow, the ski industry does great. But a good economy with bad snow is worse for the ski industry."

And last season was a really bad one. The 51 million total U.S. ski visits in 2011-12 were the lowest in 20 years. And, oddly enough, the collapse came on the heels of a record high in 2010-11 when 60.5 million skiers visited U.S. resorts. "We went from a record high