Though companies often make their tax situation as opaque as possible, citing complex calculations, much can be gleaned by looking at a standard measure in public reports over several years.

It’s that time of year when shareholders speak their minds at annual meetings. But that doesn’t mean the companies’ boards are always listening.

Readers respond to “Coffee Rites, and the Stories They Tell” (Workstation, May 19).

Bill Marriott Jr. says a 1954 chat with President Eisenhower taught him that when it comes to making decisions, it’s always important to be inclusive of others.

Despite all the hoopla about an “open data” society, many consumers are being kept in the dark.

An assortment of services can help you and your heirs organize the online accounts that you will eventually leave behind.

Although high unemployment and lackluster personal income still plague the nation’s economy, several developments provide reason for longer-term optimism.

It was a good week for leaders of two major American companies. But it brought frowns from some corporate-governance watchers.

A long-running math miscalculation on what a father owes leads the Haggler to the New York City Office of Child Support Enforcement.

An Apple-1 computer, made in 1976 and originally priced at $666, sold for a record $671,400 at an auction in Germany. The sale shows the run-up in prices for the vintage machines recently.

Mr. Johnson was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, television commentator and author who spent most of his career at The Washington Post and won wide acclaim for his coverage of the capital.

The closing of a plant in Paducah, Ky., could pose a problem for the American nuclear weapons arsenal over time but is not likely to affect civilian nuclear electric plants.

Mike Darnell, who has supervised reality programming for Fox since before the term reality show entered the lexicon, oversaw “American Idol,” once the most popular show on American TV.

Edward Woodard Jr., and three others were convicted of conspiring to defraud the Bank of the Commonwealth of $71 million before its collapse in 2011.

The fast-food chain said it would sell the patties in 3,100 of the country’s 4,000 Walmarts.

The company, now owned by Bausch & Lomb, pleaded guilty to promoting its eye drug Xibrom for unapproved uses.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has more than doubled since Barack Obama took office, an accomplishment achieved by only four other presidents.

Fruit growers, farm workers and a major retailer have started a program aimed at preventing the types of bacterial outbreaks that have sickened consumers who ate contaminated produce.

Brokerage firms say that options, traditionally used by professional traders, can be profitable for ordinary investors, but this does not square with many investors’ experiences.

Citigroup’s direct involvement in shaping a House bill suggests it feels that it should work behind the scenes to shape legislation for its benefit. Fears about its bottom line may have been what stirred ...

Share your experience and tips on how to start a conversation about organizing your parents’ financial and legal affairs.

The technology reporters and editors of The New York Times scour the Web for important and peculiar items. For Friday, selections include earthquakes shifting the locations of GPS markers on the ground, ...

An energy company’s plan to drill an exploratory oil well in a bucolic area of southern England has galvanized residents.

The gains suggest economic growth may be holding steady this spring.

Making a good phone isn’t enough to compete in the brutal handset market. Just ask HTC, BlackBerry, Nokia and just about any company that isn’t Apple. Chetan Sharma, an independent telecommmunications ...

Banks’ lobbyists help in drafting bills on finance. | Brazil is luring the millisecond investor. | In a plus for electrics, Tesla repays a big federal loan early. | After a vote, Jamie Dimon moves to mend ...

More than 88 percent of Fortune 500 companies have adopted written policies prohibiting bias on the basis of sexual orientation, but Exxon Mobil has refused.

The company is expected to complete its separation on June 28, with publishing assets in one company and most film and television units in another.

Children may be reluctant to ask aging parents about their estate and financial affairs, but information shared can prevent confusion later.

Baby boomers and other home buyers with limited incomes but substantial financial assets could qualify for low-rate conventional mortgages.

People contacted in connection with the case said that regulators were asking questions about Google’s bundling of advertising services.

Original Apple-1 computers can now sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars at professional auctions. But the vintage machines have been selling informally for years. The story of the 1997 sale of an ...

The departure of Robert McDonald as Procter & Gamble’s chief executive was yet another victory for the hedge fund manager William A. Ackman. But how is the activist investor doing in his other big bets?...

If completed, a transaction would be one of the biggest health care deals of the year. And it could reap a sizable profit for Bausch & Lomb’s current owner, Warburg Pincus.

Dish Network’s argument that Japanese ownership of the U.S. cellphone operator is a risk to national security is half-baked and shows desperation, the author contends.

Purpose is a uniquely powerful source of fuel – and satisfaction. That’s why we resonate so strongly with exhortations that speak to it, the author writes.

A super-speedy prepackaged bankruptcy and a choice for convertible noteholders — all in Delaware.

As more people do their banking and investing online, the lack of a paper trail poses a problem for business partners, executors and heirs.

Rates of “underwater” homeowners continue to fall, an analysis finds, but higher equity may still be necessary to sell a home.

A furor has erupted over comments made by Paul Tudor Jones, a billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist, who was captured on video trying to explain why there is a scarcity of female traders.

The Dow, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index and the Nasdaq all finished the week lower for the first time since mid-April.

Herbert Steptic, the chief executive of Raiffeisen Bank International, is facing scrutiny of his personal investments in Asian real estate.

Jerome Leleu and Mille Cheng will be co-heads of its equity capital markets business in Asia. The pair will replace Justin Haik, who is moving to a new role as senior client relationship manager for equities ...

A hotel that helps with breast-feeding, showdown coming on student loan rates, disability and discrimination at the doctor’s office and other consumer-focused news from The New York Times.

Silicon Valley’s billionaires have long been criticized for not giving away enough money, but there are signs that some, like the widow of Steve Jobs, are instead choosing to do it anonymously, and paving ...

Apple’s iTunes 11 program moves the Downloads icon to a new location.

Procter & Gamble said on Thursday that its chief executive, Robert A. McDonald, had resigned. | Four executives of SAC Capital Advisors have received subpoenas to testify before a grand jury. | In a push ...

A founder of Wanderable, a honeymoon gift registry, talks about the cost of advertising on wedding blogs and how she chose her company’s name.