Marketplace - American Public Media

Apple has them and so does Microsoft. And the word is, Google’s gonna have ‘em soon too.

“The rumor started circulating around a week ago about a Google Store, and I think is a terrific idea for Google,” Rebecca Lieb, an analyst at the Altimeter Group.

That rumor stirred up again with the unveiling of Pixel, which will cost about $1,300. Pixel is part of Google’s Chromebook line of computers, which are cloud-based. That means your spreadsheets won’t be on your hard drive but will live online much like your email.

Kirthi Kalyanam, a professor at the Retail Management Institute at Santa Clara University, says the stores would be the perfect place for Google to sell its infamous Google Glass, a wearable computer that sits on your face like eyeglasses.

"Google is pushing the boundaries of what cannot be done and as they push the boundaries, they come with products that are very hard for people to envision or understand," said Kalyanam.

He adds that products like Google Glass will probably need dedicated sales people and a sophisticated display, something big-box retailers like Best Buy can’t provide. But Google might be late to the store trend, says Trip Chowdhry. He's an analyst at Global Equities Research. He says Google risks looking like an Apple wannabe, like Microsoft and its stores.

"The days of opening stores is over. Microsoft is losing because there’s nothing much that they’re offering," Chowdhry said.

He says it’s not just about having products but getting people to buy them.

Earlier this week, a report by the cyber security firm Mandiant pointed to China as the source of several cyber attacks on the U.S. One of the targets of those attacks is the power grid. Although no one has successfully pulled off a large-scale disruption of the power, there have been blackouts caused by weather. Hurricane Sandy had millions of people living by candlelight. So just how vulnerable is our power grid?

The National Research Council recently issued a 168-page report -- "Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System." It found the system to be highly vulnerable for two reasons.

Number one: The system is physically vulnerable, particularly the system's large high voltage transformers. Granger Morgan is one of the authors of the report. He says many of these transformers are at facilities in wide open spaces. "So a small number of people who knew what they were doing could do very large and very disruptive damage to the system."

Repairing broken transformers could leave large numbers of people without power for weeks or even months.

The second vulnerability is to cyber attacks. "All the hype is about cyber attack," says Morgan. "But physical attacks can take the system down for weeks or months and it's almost impossible to see how you do that with cyber attack."

Whether from the Internet or the ground, the solution to these vulnerabilities is to break up the system into smaller micro grids.

Enter the bureaucracy -- the government, utilities and regulators. The electric utility industry has a self-regulatory body called the North American Elecrtic Reliability Council (NIRC). There's also the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and then there are the state governments.

"A lot of the nuts and bolts and making sure that the equipment is secure will be decided at the state level," says Richard Caperton, an energy expert at the Center for American Progress.

Ninety percent of the U.S. power grid is privately owned. There isn't much financial incentive for utilities to break up their systems into micro grids. That means the government will have to coordinate with regulators and utilities to make the necessary changes. In other words, it's not a quick fix.

Attention: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants you.

This week they called for consumers' suggestions for policies to ease repayment of student loans, which they say are preventing young borrowers from climbing the economic ladder. Last year, for the first time, the amount of student loans taken out passed the $100 billion mark. And this year, also for the first time, total outstanding student loans will exceed $1 trillion. That's more than the entire American population owes on credit cards. This is a crisis, right? Well, the Atlantic Monthly begs to differ. They argue that the numbers tell a very different story -- a story they illustrate with an infographic in the March issue of the magazine. Derek Thompson is a business editor for The Atlantic.

"So the sticker price of lots of school is $50,000-60,000 a year. I think one year at Harvard right now costs about $57,000, which is right in line with a lot of these elite, private institutions. But that's the sticker price and not a lot of people end of paying the sticker price. In fact, I think the average costs of these schools is much closer to $20,000 even after you include all the various amenities and the costs of living. What we wanted to look at was, OK, we know that people are afraid of this student debt crisis and that the number is especially big because in the recession a lot of kids went back to school and so student debt continued to rise. But when you look at exactly what students are getting in exchange for their debt. It does seem like a pretty good bet, especially when you compare it to all sorts of other investments that you can make with money," says Thompson.

 Thompson says he doesn't want to downplay the huge amount of money that students pay to attend college. Of course, education is expensive, but he notes that students do have a long time to pay back the money. "Getting student debt, essentially investing in an education, does tend to pay off down the line in higher wages, which you can use to pay off the student debt that you've acquired," says Thompson.

Forty-three percent of students owe $1,000-$10,000 after graduating, but tuitions are rising. At what point is the student loan too burdensome?

"One fact that I would look at is what economists call the college premium. You can basically think of it is as the bonus that you should expect to get from going to college. That college premium has stayed pretty strong throughout the recession and throughout the last 10 years," says Thompson.

And what about parents who are bankrupting themselves to pay off their kids' student loans? Instead of facing a student aid crisis, could we be facing a middle class collapse crisis?

"The thing that a lot of economists say is where do you start to fix the middle class crisis? You start with giving the middle class  more skills. You start with improving what they call the human capital of the middle class. You give them the capacity to start their own jobs and be smarter and more clever and skilled in the jobs that they're working in. And I don't know the best way to do that, except to say that we seem to have a college system that, for all of its faults, is still the envy of the world," says Thompson.

Yes, we know. Fact-checking kills a good policy fight. It gets in the way of echo-chambers, and is certainly a job-killer for the bumper sticker industry. Official Washington operates as a thriving eco-system for old, bad, partial and mis-information, and no one changes their mind anyway.

Still, today’s oil and gas debate provides ample opportunity for some equal-opportunity myth-busting. We’ll updating this page, so keep stopping by. For now, we ask our 'friends-of-the-Petro-state-podcast' to highlight some energy and environment myths and misperceptions:

• Ethan Zindler, Bloomberg New Energy Finance: Ready, aim, fire...on coal

Zindler says the first myth is that the Environmental Protection Agency is "killing the coal industry." The reality is that natural gas prices have just absolutely plummeted and natural gas has become so competitive with coal for power generation.

• Zindler, Bloomberg New Energy Finance: Clean energy = overpriced energy
  

Zindler says that all we really want to do is track the costs and the amount of money. He adds, "The thing that kind of makes me nuts is when I hear people misquoting the actual data and facts about how much clean energy costs right now. I’ll give folks the benefit of the doubt, which is that they’re always not as on top of the latest research, but I repeatedly hear numbers cited that are two or three years old for the cost of say, wind generation or solar generation."

"It’s like saying oh yeah, my iPhone, it can only do 3G because that is what the iPhone 3 could do eighteen months ago – it literally is that same kind of technology evolution," he adds. "So, if you’re not getting the latest information, if you’re not within three to six months of the data you’re citing then you’re doing a disservice to people and that definitely came up in the debate over extending the production tax credit its comes up in discussions about solar as well."

Check out BNEF's chart below (note onshore wind and PV solar):

• John Hanger, former environmental chief of Penn.: Drilling/Fracking is totally, safe

"Okay, the part of the impression and sometimes explicit words from the gas industry that I think is just wrong is -- at least the impression that has left with many audiences -- that gas drilling has no impacts and all. 'The processes are 100 percent perfectly safe,'" Hanger says, "And that’s just not accurate – there are very good companies working hard on safety and they have a good safety record, but the impact, it will never be zero, no matter how well it’s regulated. For me, it’s important to recognize that and work hard to reduce the rate of accidents and spills and to reduce the impacts and maximize the benefits."

• Zindler, Bloomberg New Energy Finance: Government help = funding failed ventures like Solyndra

"There’s no question there were some big mistakes made around Solyndra. I won’t even sort of try to defend that, but the aim of what that program has tried to do, in terms of supporting next generation technologies is actually fairly unique," Zindler says. "And one of the things that our firm does is look around the world, at all kinds of policies and while there are a lot of countries that talk about doing things like having a green bank or these other kinds of things, the loan guarantee program was actually the very first to really put some real money, some real muscle into trying to do this."

"The fact that they’ve had some losers, frankly should have been expected. And I think it was expected internally, it may not have been articulated externally by the administration, but the reality of it is that program has planted some very important seeds in a lot of ways and we will not know whether some of these were successful, who knows for the next several years maybe five or ten years."

• Hanger, former environmental chief of Penn.: Natural gas is the dirtiest fuel
  

"I often hear that gas drilling is the single worst possible energy source, it’s poisoning our waters and that we can immediately replace it and implicitly coal and oil with renewables. The risk is so high that we should stop it immediately. And that’s just not true either, at least when you compare risks that we accept from all our other energy choices," Hanger says. "I live in the Three Mile Island evacuation area. Three Mile Island’s a nuclear plant. It had a meltdown. There are lots of old coal fire power plants operating this morning that have no pollution controls or very few pollution controls on them. They are putting out huge amounts of mercury soot, and other pollutants that according to the EPA and very good science cause 34,000 premature deaths a year.

"Corn ethanol and big hydro have massive water impacts much bigger than gas drilling. So I’m not belittling or minimizing the impacts from gas drilling. They exist. But to exaggerate them and not recognize that those impacts are actually less and the risks are less than other forms of energy that we are totally dependent on right now. I don’t think it is correct or in some cases it’s just not honest," Hanger adds.

Again, we'll keep doing this until Washington runs out of myths, as in never. So check back.

As a teaser, we in the next few days will get other analysts' take on shale gas and manufacturing renaissance (hint: maybe not), and whether new fracking regulations kill the natural gas industry.

As a culture, we're kind of a little bit obsessed with big navy ships. They're in, like, a million movies. Cher sang on one for a music video. We play basketball games on them now.

But you know who's the most obsessed? Politicians.

Candidate Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his V.P. running mate in front of the USS Wisconsin. President Obama gave a veteran-supportive speech on the USS Vinson. President George W. Bush announced the end of combat operations on the USS Abraham Lincoln. And President Obama will go to the USS Lincoln in Hampton Roads, Va., Tuesday to talk about the sequester problem.

The basic reason is because aircraft carriers are awesome, and politicians want to be awesome, too.

"It's like a spacecraft but here on earth," says Sean Bercaw. He's both a ship captain and a former naval officer who teaches nautical science. "Their scale, their magnitude, is humongous. It's hard for us to get our brain around."

And by extension, politicians want that sense of presence.

"Aircraft carriers are a symbol of American power and strength," points out David Gergen, longtime political advisor to several presidents and who now directs Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership.

"You wrap yourself in the flag and title of commander-in-chief," he says. "There's a certain totem aspect to these carriers."

Gergen says the tradition goes back to President Ronald Reagan and perhaps before; "the last three presidents have turned to aircraft carriers as props."

Sean Bercaw says the use of battleships as a form of messaging goes even further back. "One of the more famous platforms was at the end of World War II," he says, "where the Japanese emperor signed their defeat on the battleship Missouri." (That's, incidentally, the same ship that Cher sang on, FYI.)

In terms of marketing value, it's priceless, but it doesn't have to cost all that much. According to the Navy, if they approve you, the Navy won't charge you anything to use its ships in a movie or speech except what it costs to get your equipment on board. That can cost a lot if you have a lot of equipment -- $150,000 to rent a crane, for example. It cost around $3 million to put on the NCAA Carrier Classic games in 2011 and $2 million of that went to getting stuff set up on the ship.

With such scale, Gergen says "there is a risk of grandiosity" for politicians.

Like when George Bush landed on the USS Lincoln and gave a speech with a "Mission Accomplished" banner in the background.

What's in a name? There's got to be a better one for the 'sequester' cuts that are set to roll out beginning March 1, if Congress doesn't act in time. Speaker of the House John Boehner is using "Obamaquester;" Marketplace listeners have their own lists going.

Names aside -- how much of an impact will the sequester have on our economy?

"The fundamentals of the economy actually look pretty good...well, they would look good if it weren't for the politicians," said Fortune magazine's Leigh Gallagher. "We were really kind of gaining a lot of momentum on this recovery -- certainly if you look at the stock market, that's a completely different story. But these budget cuts, I'll call them, are not going to be good on top of the tax increase -- the payroll tax increase had already had an impact," she said. "I think the uncertainty...that's going to impact everything."

CNBC's John Carney, though, said he believes everything will be fine. "The actual budget cuts only amount to around $44 billion; it's not a lot of money," he said. "So we can easily take it, even at the full number of $85 [billion], we could take that. Our economy is strong enough right now that it turns out that you know, maybe this whole -- I won't use the 'S' word, I'll call it 'March Madness' -- isn't such a bad idea."

Listen to the full audio above for more analysis on the sequester. The two also offered some good reading for the weekend ahead.

Leigh Gallagher's picks:

• Time Magazine's special report on health insurance: "Why medical bills are killing us"
• A NYT op-ed on better productivity (hint: relax!)
• From the wayback machine, a 1987 look at the Vatican's finances by Shawn Tully that Fortune re-ran last week

And John Carney's suggestions:

• Crunch Time: Fiscal Crises and the Role of Monetary Policy. New paper from David Greenlaw, James D. Hamilton, Peter Hooper and Fred Mishkin that argues that debt becomes a problem when it reaches 80 percent of GDP
• Here's a cheery thought: We're underestimating the chance of human extinction, via The Atlantic
• Crown jewel lock-ups (Harvard Law School Forum): A new era of M&A is seeing the return of an old and controversial form of deal protection

Another real world activity quickly moving online -- gambling. On Thursday Nevada became the first state to legalize online gambling, narrowly beating out its longtime rival, New Jersey. Delaware and California are also likely to follow.  So now you won't have to leave the comfort of your couch to have the casino experience -- minus the showgirls and cirque de soleil. But what does it take to win online?

To answer that, we turn to the Wizard of Odds, Michael Shackleford, an actuary and a former professor of casino math at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Besides wagering at home in your pajamas, does gambling online have an advantage?  

"Assuming a fair game, the odds are generally better online. I attribute that to lower overhead costs with running an online casino. With slot machines, in Las Vegas they generally return anywhere from 88-92 percent whereas an Internet casino will usually from 93-97 percent. The odds are significantly better online in my opinion," says Shackleford.

DATA FROM: Wizard of Odds

But what risks come with Internet gambling?

"Basically the casinos are on the honor system to give you a fair game and I and other watchdog websites have busted casinos often for cheating. Often the way it works out is a player will post a log file of his play, or video of his play, and say this is just ridiculous how much I'm losing. As a mathematician by training, I can look at the log files and analyze what is the probability that a player would lose as much money as he did assuming a fair game. Lots of times the results are just off the chart. Like, the probability of luck this bad in a fair game being one in trillions," says Shackleford. "The regulation is very feeble. I think it's up to independents like me to keep an eye on the business."

How easy is it to cash out winnings online?

"With a good Internet casino, you have to click withdrawal, how much do you want to withdraw, and a check will be on its way," says Shackleford. "With a good casino -- not every Internet casino is a good casino. Some of them may not be you at all. Some of them may drag their feet and make you nag them a few times. For the most part, Internet gambling is unregulated."

Shackleford says Internet casinos subscribe to this philosophy: They want a player's deposit to last a long time and for him or her to get a lot of fun and entertainment out of their money (but eventually lose it). If a player has gotten a lot of entertainment out of their money, he or she is likely to be happy and make another deposit.

Shackleford offers these tips to succeed at online gambling:
1. Look for a good bonus that you can play on a low house advantage game.
2. The two best games to play in an online casino are usually Blackjack and Video poker (Craps is not bad either).
3. Remember that it's fun and to keep it in moderation.

Sequestration doesn’t just refer to budget cuts. You can sequester juries during trials or carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Catholic cardinals are sequestered to choose a new pope.

“It’s all about being kept separate,” says Mignon Fogarty, better known by her online handle Grammar Girl and the author of Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. “It comes from a Latin word that means to remove or separate or keep in a safe place.”

Sequester was first used in reference to budget politics in the mid 1980s. Under President Ronald Reagan, the economy was doing well, says Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. “But both parties were worried that domestic spending continued to grow, but taxes had been cut significantly.”

So Congress passed the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. It set targets for deficit reduction and said that if Congress and the President couldn’t agree on how to meet those goals, the money would be automatically taken away. With that, the sequester was born.

Just like now, Zelizer says politicians might have used the word sequester to talk about budget cuts without actually having to say budget cuts.  

“It’s inside-the-Beltway rhetoric that’s being used intentionally to try to keep some of this inside the Beltway,” he says.

Senator Phil Gramm from Texas (R), now retired, thinks the name is crystal clear.

“To me, sequester conjured up taking something off the table, withholding something,” he counters.

He’s the “Gramm” in the title of the law and the one who put sequestration in the bill.

“It’s always helpful if when you invent a term, if it already conjures up what you’re try to say,” he adds.

Gramm says the term was actually suggested to him by then House Majority Leader Jim Wright (D-TX). They also considered “impoundment,” but it had already been used for something else.

Now, Gramm stands by both the name and the idea behind it: That sequestration should be a last resort, a final backstop on overspending.

“If a sequester is what you got to do to get people’s attention, I would do it,” he says.

While Gramm says he’s more proud of raising two sons, he doesn’t mind being known as the father of sequestration, too.

Today, Olympic medalist and double amputee Oscar Pistorius was granted bail. Pistorius was arrested nine days ago after the shooting death of his girlfriend. You’ve probably heard about this story...in fact, you’ve probably heard a lot about this story. The media frenzy around Pistorius is in full swing -- and some people are even calling this the next O.J. Simpson trial.

Entertainment analyst Robert Galinsky says another O.J. trial might be a stretch, but the Oscar Pistorius story is almost tailor-made for the media.

"Here comes a real-life hero," says Galinsky. "This guy who has overcome being a double amputee, he’s created a success story for himself by being an Olympian, and something major like this happens, it’s a bonanza for the media."

News networks have gotten very skilled at making stories like these -- whether they be natural disasters, celebrity scandals or shootings -- into mega-news events, says Aram Sinnreich, a media professor at Rutgers University.

"These stories all have this kind of car crash quality to them," says Sinnreich. "Like, you don't want to look, but you can't look away." That translates into big ratings and ad dollars. Sinnreich cites the recent story about the stranded Carnival Cruise ship. "CNN actually saw a 74 percent ratings boost during their several day coverage," he says.

Those ratings bumps have now been baked into the business model of 24-hour cable news, says Robert Thompson, a professor of TV and popular culture at Syracuse University. Thompson says networks learned how to make a news event into a media blitz during the murder trial of another famous athlete: O.J. Simpson.

"Many people point to that as the real moment when we reached maturity for this kind of coverage," says Thompson. "These kinds of stories, in effect, become cottage industries."

Thompson points out that O.J.’s trial meant months of gavel-to-gavel coverage -- lawyers and witnesses became mini-celebrities and news stories themselves. Thompson says you just can’t get that kind of mileage out the Greek debt crisis or the dreaded sequester.

Today, Olympic medalist and double amputee Oscar Pistorius was granted bail. Pistorius was arrested nine days ago after the shooting death of his girlfriend. You’ve probably heard about this story...in fact, you’ve probably heard a lot about this story. The media frenzy around Pistorius is in full swing -- and some people are even calling this the next O.J. Simpson trial.

Entertainment analyst Robert Galinsky says another O.J. trial might be a stretch, but the Oscar Pistorius story is almost tailor-made for the media.

"Here comes a real-life hero," says Galinsky. "This guy who has overcome being a double amputee, he’s created a success story for himself by being an Olympian, and something major like this happens, it’s a bonanza for the media."

News networks have gotten very skilled at making stories like these -- whether they be natural disasters, celebrity scandals or shootings -- into mega-news events, says Aram Sinnreich, a media professor at Rutgers University.

"These stories all have this kind of car crash quality to them," says Sinnreich. "Like, you don't want to look, but you can't look away." That translates into big ratings and ad dollars. Sinnreich cites the recent story about the stranded Carnival Cruise ship. "CNN actually saw a 74 percent ratings boost during their several day coverage," he says.

Those ratings bumps have now been baked into the business model of 24-hour cable news, says Robert Thompson, a professor of TV and popular culture at Syracuse University. Thompson says networks learned how to make a news event into a media blitz during the murder trial of another famous athlete: O.J. Simpson.

"Many people point to that as the real moment when we reached maturity for this kind of coverage," says Thompson. "These kinds of stories, in effect, become cottage industries."

Thompson points out that O.J.’s trial meant months of gavel-to-gavel coverage -- lawyers and witnesses became mini-celebrities and news stories themselves. Thompson says you just can’t get that kind of mileage out the Greek debt crisis or the dreaded sequester.

It’s better for me to go ahead and admit up front I’m a cheap guy. I love a deal, so when I recently had to switch dentists and found one offering $25 American Express gift cards to new patients, I noticed. It wasn’t the main factor in my decision, but it definitely didn’t hurt.

Soon I had clean teeth and $25 I could spend almost anywhere. Or so I thought. The gift card was declined at a restaurant, grocery store and gift shop.

These cards issued by MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover are known in the industry as general purpose gift cards. In theory, you can use them anywhere credit cards are accepted, making them more flexible than, say, Best Buy or Apple gift cards. But in practice, spending general purpose gift cards can be a hassle, something more and more Americans are learning as the popularity of these cards surges.

“The largest complaint that we keep hearing is the inability to use up all of the funds on the card,” says Michelle Jun, a senior attorney and gift card expert at Consumers Union. “And we have heard this complaint again and again.”

Preparation is key for any shopper who wants to be sure to spend every last dime on a general purpose gift card. Card companies and experts offer these 7 gift card tips to make sure you’re not leaving any loot behind:

1. Know your card’s balance, which you can quickly check online or by phone.

2. Gas pumps may reject a gift card if its value is below a certain amount. Stations do this to prevent drivers from buying more gas than they can pay for. Pay inside the station before pumping.

3. In restaurants or other places where you sign for a tip, the merchant's system will typically preauthorize a charge 20 percent or higher than your bill. That’s to make sure you can pay the tip. This can screw up a gift card transaction and possibly freeze your money. It may be easiest not to use general purpose gift cards when dining out.

4. If your gift card won’t cover the whole bill, tell the store exactly how much is on it. Then pay the difference via cash or credit card before they swipe the gift card.

5. If a store can’t process this kind of split transaction, try a workaround. Ask if you can use your general purpose gift card to purchase a gift card for that store. Store point-of-sale systems are designed to accommodate combining store gift cards with other payments (In fact, CEB TowerGroup finds that the typical consumer ends up spending 30 percent more than the gift card is worth. So stores make sure not to lose out on this extra money). Then you can complete your purchase combining that entire store gift card with your own credit card.

6. Communication is vital. Your success in spending your entire balance may hinge on how well you can explain all of this to a teenage cashier. Know your facts and be clear and polite in telling the cashier what you need done.

7. Finally, keep the card in your wallet so you remember to use it. There are literally billions of dollars locked away unspent on gift cards forgotten in junk drawers or accidentally discarded. Spend the money as soon as possible.

My complaint was bigger. I wasn’t able to spend any of my funds. After my third denial, I called AmEx’s customer service line to see what was going on. Following a lot of button-pushing and waiting, I finally had a guy in New Delhi with some answers. The rep's phone name was "Andrew."

In unfailingly polite speech over a crackly line, he calmly explained that the restaurant had swiped my card. And even though it didn’t take the money, the swipe put a pending charge on my card for the full amount. That effectively put all my money in purgatory. “Andrew’s” explanation was apparently inspired by the Book of Genesis.

“It stays for seven days,” he intoned. “On the eighth day, on the eighth calendar day... if the merchant does not claim the funds, then this amount comes back on the card automatically.”

This frozen-funds phenomenon is exactly the opposite of what these general purpose gift cards claim to offer: flexibility and convenience. If you have a gift card to Best Buy or Amazon, you’re stuck spending it there. General purpose cards from AmEx and others should work almost anywhere. That promise is part of why this type of gift card is growing.

CEB TowerGroup forecasts general purpose gift cards will add up to $42 billion this year. They surpassed retail-store gift cards in 2011. Analyst Brian Riley says they became especially popular during the recession, when people wanted cards that could be used for basic needs like groceries and gas, not just splurges at electronics and clothing stores.

It’s not just card recipients who get frustrated about them. General purpose cards aren’t exactly a great deal for the giver either. Unlike store gift cards, general purpose cards are packed with purchase fees, ranging from $2 to $6, says says Janna Herron, who surveyed gift cards for Bankrate.com.

“That means if you were buying a $25 gift card, you have to pay, you know, $28 to $29 to get the gift card. Whereas with the store branded cards, you just pay the $25,” she says.

CEB TowerGroup says the average gift card is worth $45. So to put that on a general purpose card, you could pay a whopping 13 percent premium. That’s why last Christmas, Herron gave a couple relatives store cards instead.

"I'm a little bit frugal and I didn't want to spend the extra $2 to $3 for a gift card and that extra $2 to $3 could be used for a stocking stuffer for my son," Herron explained.

Herron and Jun at Consumers Union both recommend a check or cash instead of a general purpose gift card, though of course it’s best to avoid mailing cash.

It’s not that credit card companies are trying the make the cards difficult to use. In fact, they love it when people use them. Every time a card is swiped, AmEx and all the rest take a cut of the sale from stores.

“The primary money they’ll make on it are the transaction fees going through,” says CEB TowerGroup’s Brian Riley.

The $25 on my gift card is now unfrozen, so I’m hoping I’ll have better luck finding somewhere that’ll let me spend it.

Mark Garrison: I’ll admit it. I’m a cheap guy. So when I had to switch dentists and found one offering $25 American Express gift cards to new patients, I noticed. It wasn’t the main factor, but it definitely didn’t hurt. Soon I had clean teeth, and 25 bucks I could spend almost anywhere. Or so I thought. The gift card was declined at a restaurant, grocery store and gift shop. Michelle Jun at Consumers Union says many people run into problems with these cards.

Michelle Jun: Lately, the largest complaint that we keep hearing is the inability to use up all of the funds on the card. And we have heard this complaint again and again.

I wasn’t able to spend any of my funds. After my third denial, I called AmEx’s customer service line to see what was going on. Once I had pressed lots of buttons and waited, finally I had a guy in New Delhi with some answers.

Andrew: Sir, my name is Andrew and how may I help you?

The restaurant had swiped my card, but it was declined. Even though the restaurant didn’t take the money, the swipe put a pending charge on my card for the full amount. So all my money was in purgatory. Andrew’s explanation was apparently inspired by the Book of Genesis.

Andrew: It stays for seven days. On the eighth day, on the eighth calendar day, the pending charge is, like, if the merchant does not claim the funds, then this amount comes back on the card automatically.

Having your funds frozen is just one problem more and more consumers are learning about as these general purpose cards grow in popularity. CEB TowerGroup analyst Brian Riley tracks gift cards.

Brian Riley: During the recession is really when they tweaked up a little bit faster than the others.

General purpose cards surpassed retail store gift cards in 2011. Riley forecasts they’ll add up to $42 billion this year. We’ll have some tips in a moment on making sure you’re able to spend your share of that. But it’s not just recipients who get frustrated about them. General purpose cards aren’t exactly a great deal for the giver either. Janna Herron surveyed them for Bankrate.com. She found they’re packed with purchase fees.

Janna Herron: That ranged between $2-6 depending on the gift card. And so that means if you were buying a $25 gift card, you have to pay, you know, $28-29 to get the gift card. Whereas with the store branded cards, you just pay the $25.

CEB TowerGroup says the average gift card is worth $45. So to put that on a general purpose card, you could pay a whopping 13 percent premium. That’s why last Christmas, Herron gave her nephew a Best Buy store card instead.

Herron: I’m a little bit frugal and I didn’t want to spend the extra $2-3 for a gift card and that extra $2-3 could be used for a stocking stuffer for my son.

She and Consumers Union’s Michelle Jun both recommend a check or cash instead of a general purpose gift card, though of course it’s best to avoid mailing cash. It’s not that credit card companies are trying the make the cards difficult to use. Quite the opposite. The analyst Riley points out that every time a card is swiped, AmEX and all the rest take a cut from stores.

Riley: The primary money they’ll make on it are the transaction fees going through.

But to actually make that gift card transaction work, you need to be prepared. Card companies and experts say to avoid missing out, know your card’s balance, which you can check online or by phone. If your card won’t cover the whole bill, tell the store exactly how much is on your card. Then pay the difference before they swipe it. Your success may hinge on how well you explain this to a teenage cashier. Again, Bankrate’s Janna Herron.

Herron: You might find that you might have to do things a little differently and it might be more inconvenient than you thought it would be.

Gas pumps may reject a gift card if its value is less than required to fill up your tank. You should pay inside before pumping. Restaurants typically preauthorize a higher charge than your bill to make sure you can pay the tip. This can screw up a gift card transaction, so it may be easiest not to use general purpose gift cards when dining out.

In New York, hoping I find somewhere that’ll let me spend that $25, I'm Mark Garrison, for Marketplace.

It’s better for me to go ahead and admit up front I’m a cheap guy. I love a deal, so when I recently had to switch dentists and found one offering $25 American Express gift cards to new patients, I noticed. It wasn’t the main factor in my decision, but it definitely didn’t hurt.

Soon I had clean teeth and $25 I could spend almost anywhere. Or so I thought. The gift card was declined at a restaurant, grocery store and gift shop.

These cards issued by MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover are known in the industry as general purpose gift cards. In theory, you can use them anywhere credit cards are accepted, making them more flexible than, say, Best Buy or Apple gift cards. But in practice, spending general purpose gift cards can be a hassle, something more and more Americans are learning as the popularity of these cards surges.

“The largest complaint that we keep hearing is the inability to use up all of the funds on the card,” says Michelle Jun, a senior attorney and gift card expert at Consumers Union. “And we have heard this complaint again and again.”

Preparation is key for any shopper who wants to be sure to spend every last dime on a general purpose gift card. Card companies and experts offer these 7 gift card tips to make sure you’re not leaving any loot behind:

1. Know your card’s balance, which you can quickly check online or by phone.

2. Gas pumps may reject a gift card if its value is below a certain amount. Stations do this to prevent drivers from buying more gas than they can pay for. Pay inside the station before pumping.

3. In restaurants or other places where you sign for a tip, the merchant's system will typically preauthorize a charge 20 percent or higher than your bill. That’s to make sure you can pay the tip. This can screw up a gift card transaction and possibly freeze your money. It may be easiest not to use general purpose gift cards when dining out.

4. If your gift card won’t cover the whole bill, tell the store exactly how much is on it. Then pay the difference via cash or credit card before they swipe the gift card.

5. If a store can’t process this kind of split transaction, try a workaround. Ask if you can use your general purpose gift card to purchase a gift card for that store. Store point-of-sale systems are designed to accommodate combining store gift cards with other payments (In fact, CEB TowerGroup finds that the typical consumer ends up spending 30 percent more than the gift card is worth. So stores make sure not to lose out on this extra money). Then you can complete your purchase combining that entire store gift card with your own credit card.

6. Communication is vital. Your success in spending your entire balance may hinge on how well you can explain all of this to a teenage cashier. Know your facts and be clear and polite in telling the cashier what you need done.

7. Finally, keep the card in your wallet so you remember to use it. There are literally billions of dollars locked away unspent on gift cards forgotten in junk drawers or accidentally discarded. Spend the money as soon as possible.

My complaint was bigger. I wasn’t able to spend any of my funds. After my third denial, I called AmEx’s customer service line to see what was going on. Following a lot of button-pushing and waiting, I finally had a guy in New Delhi with some answers. The rep's phone name was "Andrew."

In unfailingly polite speech over a crackly line, he calmly explained that the restaurant had swiped my card. And even though it didn’t take the money, the swipe put a pending charge on my card for the full amount. That effectively put all my money in purgatory. “Andrew’s” explanation was apparently inspired by the Book of Genesis.

“It stays for seven days,” he intoned. “On the eighth day, on the eighth calendar day... if the merchant does not claim the funds, then this amount comes back on the card automatically.”

This frozen-funds phenomenon is exactly the opposite of what these general purpose gift cards claim to offer: flexibility and convenience. If you have a gift card to Best Buy or Amazon, you’re stuck spending it there. General purpose cards from AmEx and others should work almost anywhere. That promise is part of why this type of gift card is growing.

CEB TowerGroup forecasts general purpose gift cards will add up to $42 billion this year. They surpassed retail-store gift cards in 2011. Analyst Brian Riley says they became especially popular during the recession, when people wanted cards that could be used for basic needs like groceries and gas, not just splurges at electronics and clothing stores.

It’s not just card recipients who get frustrated about them. General purpose cards aren’t exactly a great deal for the giver either. Unlike store gift cards, general purpose cards are packed with purchase fees, ranging from $2 to $6, says says Janna Herron, who surveyed gift cards for Bankrate.com.

“That means if you were buying a $25 gift card, you have to pay, you know, $28 to $29 to get the gift card. Whereas with the store branded cards, you just pay the $25,” she says.

CEB TowerGroup says the average gift card is worth $45. So to put that on a general purpose card, you could pay a whopping 13 percent premium. That’s why last Christmas, Herron gave a couple relatives store cards instead.

"I'm a little bit frugal and I didn't want to spend the extra $2 to $3 for a gift card and that extra $2 to $3 could be used for a stocking stuffer for my son," Herron explained.

Herron and Jun at Consumers Union both recommend a check or cash instead of a general purpose gift card, though of course it’s best to avoid mailing cash.

It’s not that credit card companies are trying the make the cards difficult to use. In fact, they love it when people use them. Every time a card is swiped, AmEx and all the rest take a cut of the sale from stores.

“The primary money they’ll make on it are the transaction fees going through,” says CEB TowerGroup’s Brian Riley.

The $25 on my gift card is now unfrozen, so I’m hoping I’ll have better luck finding somewhere that’ll let me spend it.

Mark Garrison: I’ll admit it. I’m a cheap guy. So when I had to switch dentists and found one offering $25 American Express gift cards to new patients, I noticed. It wasn’t the main factor, but it definitely didn’t hurt. Soon I had clean teeth, and 25 bucks I could spend almost anywhere. Or so I thought. The gift card was declined at a restaurant, grocery store and gift shop. Michelle Jun at Consumers Union says many people run into problems with these cards.

Michelle Jun: Lately, the largest complaint that we keep hearing is the inability to use up all of the funds on the card. And we have heard this complaint again and again.

I wasn’t able to spend any of my funds. After my third denial, I called AmEx’s customer service line to see what was going on. Once I had pressed lots of buttons and waited, finally I had a guy in New Delhi with some answers.

Andrew: Sir, my name is Andrew and how may I help you?

The restaurant had swiped my card, but it was declined. Even though the restaurant didn’t take the money, the swipe put a pending charge on my card for the full amount. So all my money was in purgatory. Andrew’s explanation was apparently inspired by the Book of Genesis.

Andrew: It stays for seven days. On the eighth day, on the eighth calendar day, the pending charge is, like, if the merchant does not claim the funds, then this amount comes back on the card automatically.

Having your funds frozen is just one problem more and more consumers are learning about as these general purpose cards grow in popularity. CEB TowerGroup analyst Brian Riley tracks gift cards.

Brian Riley: During the recession is really when they tweaked up a little bit faster than the others.

General purpose cards surpassed retail store gift cards in 2011. Riley forecasts they’ll add up to $42 billion this year. We’ll have some tips in a moment on making sure you’re able to spend your share of that. But it’s not just recipients who get frustrated about them. General purpose cards aren’t exactly a great deal for the giver either. Janna Herron surveyed them for Bankrate.com. She found they’re packed with purchase fees.

Janna Herron: That ranged between $2-6 depending on the gift card. And so that means if you were buying a $25 gift card, you have to pay, you know, $28-29 to get the gift card. Whereas with the store branded cards, you just pay the $25.

CEB TowerGroup says the average gift card is worth $45. So to put that on a general purpose card, you could pay a whopping 13 percent premium. That’s why last Christmas, Herron gave her nephew a Best Buy store card instead.

Herron: I’m a little bit frugal and I didn’t want to spend the extra $2-3 for a gift card and that extra $2-3 could be used for a stocking stuffer for my son.

She and Consumers Union’s Michelle Jun both recommend a check or cash instead of a general purpose gift card, though of course it’s best to avoid mailing cash. It’s not that credit card companies are trying the make the cards difficult to use. Quite the opposite. The analyst Riley points out that every time a card is swiped, AmEX and all the rest take a cut from stores.

Riley: The primary money they’ll make on it are the transaction fees going through.

But to actually make that gift card transaction work, you need to be prepared. Card companies and experts say to avoid missing out, know your card’s balance, which you can check online or by phone. If your card won’t cover the whole bill, tell the store exactly how much is on your card. Then pay the difference before they swipe it. Your success may hinge on how well you explain this to a teenage cashier. Again, Bankrate’s Janna Herron.

Herron: You might find that you might have to do things a little differently and it might be more inconvenient than you thought it would be.

Gas pumps may reject a gift card if its value is less than required to fill up your tank. You should pay inside before pumping. Restaurants typically preauthorize a higher charge than your bill to make sure you can pay the tip. This can screw up a gift card transaction, so it may be easiest not to use general purpose gift cards when dining out.

In New York, hoping I find somewhere that’ll let me spend that $25, I'm Mark Garrison, for Marketplace.

He may have been ousted from office, prosecuted for fraud, corruption and having sex with an underage prostitute but he’s back! Italian media magnate and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is seeking re-election at the polls this weekend.

Perhaps even more surprising:  He could conceivably win high office again.

“It’s still unlikely but it’s not impossible any more,” says Vincenzo Scarpetta of the Open Europe think tank. "Berlusconi has made a remarkable political comeback. He has been able to gain ground in the opinion polls, largely thanks to his anti-austerity campaign.”

Berlusconi has promised to reduce some of the taxes imposed by the previous government; he’s even pledged to refund the hated property tax paid by many homeowners late last year. And he refuses to accept the need for radical reform to shake-up Italy’s inflexible labor market. His message is proving popular with many Italians at a time when there is widespread weariness with budget cuts and falling living standards.

Franco Pavoncello of John Cabot University in Rome says Italians  are undoubtedly suffering:

“GDP’s going down. It’s negative. Unemployment is growing constantly. Shops are closing left and right. You know the country is on its knees," says Professor Pavoncello.

But if Berlusconi wins the election, Italy’s plight might worsen:

“It would put the frighteners on the markets and all the European institutions. And it would cause major problems for Italy and the European Union” says James Walston of the American University in Rome.

If Italy abandons austerity and reform, markets may drive up its borrowing costs again. The eurozone debt crisis -- now dormant -- could be rudely reawakened. Victory for a coalition of pro-reform parties seems more likely than a Berlusconi win, but markets won’t fully relax until the results are in.  

At a Jewish service at the Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz funeral home in Cleveland Heights, friends and family share stories about the man they call “Joe.”

“And as you might’ve guessed, a week or two later, you know what happened,” smiles one relative. “One of the kids turned the table on Joe, and put a pie right in his face, and we had that on camera as well.”

I saw scenes of fondness and remembrance -- smiles and tears. But the thing is, I wasn’t really there. Some of the mourners weren’t either. We were watching an online video stream, some from Arizona, Vermont, and Rhode Island.

Cindy Saltzer is Joseph’s daughter. She’s glad the funeral was available online.

“My family... they did not want to have that,” confides Saltzer. “I think they thought it might have been intrusive, but they originally did not want to do it, and I did. I thought it was a good idea.” 

In the Jewish religion, burials are done quickly. In Albert Joseph’s case, it was two days after his death. Normally this means costly, last-minute airfares or long, stressful drives. But in this case, Saltzer arranged a webcast with the funeral home, with an on-demand link for those who could only see it later. 

“And we got wonderful responses, wonderful letters from people who saw it live,” Saltzer says. “Even one of my dad’s elderly friends... figured out how to do it, and watched it live.” 

Funeral director Michael Kumin says he installed the projectors, screens, and computer equipment two months ago, at a cost of $22,000. The funeral home doesn’t charge extra for the service, which gives them a leg-up on competitors.

Kumin says out of the last 80 services, about a third included webcasts... like one where a brother Skype-d in from Florida.

“And bigger than life, we had the brother sitting on that screen... in front of his computer so we saw him,” recalls Kumin. “And he spoke to everyone here. He said the things he wanted to say about his brother that came from his heart, and when it was all over, the rabbi continued, we put the screen back up, and the service continued as if someone had just walked out of the family room to step up on the podium and speak.”

Interest in online funerals is growing. One company, National Webcast, says demand has shot up 250 percent from 2011. But Sara Marsden says some funeral homes are worried.  She’s editor-in-chief for U.S. Funerals Online.

“We will see a lot more funeral homes close down, unfortunately,” says Marsden. “Because I think the more we can access online services, we’re not going to be traveling on the same basis to visit funeral homes.”

In short, less revenues for funeral homes from chapel space, services, and caskets. 

But not everyone thinks the online trend means the end of traditional services. Daniel Berry runs a couple funeral homes in the Cleveland area. 

“I don’t think it’s ever going to replace the value of the human touch, the presence of a friend or family there at the funeral home to comfort and share the grief with the family,” says Berry. “Which is why we have calling hours, why we have funeral services, why we memorialize the individuals.”

Still, for Cindy Saltzer, emailing the link of her father’s service to friends made her happy.

“It was a beautiful service,” she says. “My dad was an outstanding man, and I just wanted to share it with people who would’ve wanted to see it.”

Saltzer’s husband Michael, argues online services will benefit those tight on for cash, too sick or too old to travel, as well as relatives in the military.

“I really don’t see a downside, and since we have the technology, why not take advantage of it, and use it so other people can be a part of it and experience it?” 

Ahead of the 2013 Academy Awards this weekend, the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Bellini set out to calculate how long it would take someone to actually watch every film nominee before the ceremony. Plus, how much would it cost?

The United States Olympic Committee recently sent out letters to 35 mayors around the U.S. It's looking for bids to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Among those 35 cities were some you would expect -- New York, Chicago, and L.A. But there were also some surpises like Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Columbus Ohio which have city budgets far below the cost of hosting the summer games.

And finally, to Lake Tahoe where researchers discovered a goldfish that was nothing like the one I had as a kid that fit in a little glass bowl. It was a foot and a half long and weighed 4.2 pounds. I'm guessing this goldfish would not be afraid of the house cat.

The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is up again this morning to $3.78, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Chris Low, chief economist with FTN Financial, joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to explain what's causing the price spike and its impact on buying.

Online gambling is poised to go interstate, thanks to a fast-tracked bill in Nevada that Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) signed in to law on Thursday. Not only does the bill legalize some forms of online gaming within the state, it also allows Nevada to negotiate online gambling agreements with other states. 

The bill was signed in to law in the same room where, 80 years ago, Nevada legalized gambling at good old fashioned brick and mortar casinos. Now, the state hopes to get an early advantage within the online frontier. 

“Online gaming is a multibillion dollar industry. We've been missing out for years on that revenue and we hope to start benefitting from it,” said the bill’s sponsor, Nevada state Assemblyman William Horne (D) in an interview with television station KTVN in Reno.

Lawmakers hope online gambling license fees, which will cost $500,000 a pop, will bring new revenue to the state. Prof. Richard McGowan, a gambling industry expert at Boston College, says Nevada is betting that online gaming will not cannibalize the state's real world casinos, but instead help the industry recruit new gamblers. 

“I guess their rationale is that people will like to learn to gamble online, but will want to come to the real thing in Nevada,” he says. 

A federal bill to legalize online gaming across the country failed in congress last year, so for the time being states are tackling the issue piece meal. Besides Nevada, Delaware is the only other state that's legalized online gaming. New Jersey is expected to take action soon. 

As a checkerboard of states emerges, there will be new challenges for online gaming companies required to keep track of who is logging on where, and that could be a lucrative opportunity for geo-tech companies.

“None of these operators want to find out that there’s somebody playing from Idaho, but makes it look they’re in Nevada,” says online gaming consultant Sue Schneider.

Also keeping a close eye on the trend toward legalization are social gaming companies like Zynga, that already have Facebook games where you can use real money to buy credits on virtual slot machines, but -- at least, currently -- can't cash out. As online gambling becomes legal in more parts of the U.S., those companies could start allowing users to bet real money. 

“The way is already paved, and this is going to complete the journey and make it possible to directly gambling online,” says Natasha Dow Schull, a professor at MIT.  Schull worries Facebook could become a potent “gambling gateway,” for its more than 100 million users in the U.S.   

She warns that if you think Facebook is addictive now, think of what it could be like if you could gamble there with real money. 

I described one of my friends as being exactly like her avatar.

Her little 48 x 48-pixel photo features her wry smile and the kind of glasses you wish you wore. It conveys her mien of earnest, disappointed cheerfulness that brightens the lives of everyone she knows. Her avatar captures her perfectly.

How rare is that? Not only do few of us look like our avatars on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, few of us even know what our avatars are supposed to do. Generate interest? Radiate professionalism? Spark a smile?

The avatar is our post-post-everything combination of a logo, a business card, a wallet-size photo, and a refrigerator magnet. It's a distillation, your essence in an image that flashes for a second and takes up a tiny fraction of a screen that is itself smaller than a candy bar. "This is me," it says. "It's the size of the nail on your pinkie, but it represents my soul."

My friend chose what you might fall the winsome approach, and it suits her. But the web abounds with other choices not nearly so successful. "Mugshot Modern" seems always to show an expression not nearly as fetching as people think it is, though it outperforms "Ironic Me," which is usually ironic for much different reasons than its users think it is. For my own avatar I've chosen "Someone Drew Me Once," which works for those of us who just don't look good in photos, but it doesn't convey much. Actual logos can work, if you can figure out what they mean, though I rarely can. More intimate avatars -- "Look at My Children," say, or "Here Is My Kitty" -- barely merit discussion.

In fact, if there's any theme among avatars it's that they betray more of our fears than our hopes, which makes my friend's successful avatar even more of a treat. I'll have to tell her about it.

If I ever see her in person.

I described one of my friends as being exactly like her avatar.

Her little 48 x 48-pixel photo features her wry smile and the kind of glasses you wish you wore. It conveys her mien of earnest, disappointed cheerfulness that brightens the lives of everyone she knows. Her avatar captures her perfectly.

How rare is that? Not only do few of us look like our avatars on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, few of us even know what our avatars are supposed to do. Generate interest? Radiate professionalism? Spark a smile?

The avatar is our post-post-everything combination of a logo, a business card, a wallet-size photo, and a refrigerator magnet. It's a distillation, your essence in an image that flashes for a second and takes up a tiny fraction of a screen that is itself smaller than a candy bar. "This is me," it says. "It's the size of the nail on your pinkie, but it represents my soul."

My friend chose what you might fall the winsome approach, and it suits her. But the web abounds with other choices not nearly so successful. "Mugshot Modern" seems always to show an expression not nearly as fetching as people think it is, though it outperforms "Ironic Me," which is usually ironic for much different reasons than its users think it is. For my own avatar I've chosen "Someone Drew Me Once," which works for those of us who just don't look good in photos, but it doesn't convey much. Actual logos can work, if you can figure out what they mean, though I rarely can. More intimate avatars -- "Look at My Children," say, or "Here Is My Kitty" -- barely merit discussion.

In fact, if there's any theme among avatars it's that they betray more of our fears than our hopes, which makes my friend's successful avatar even more of a treat. I'll have to tell her about it.

If I ever see her in person.

Italian voters go to the polls this weekend. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is in the running to replace the technocratic government that was meant to bring stability to the financially troubled country. But as the election nears, Italy faces an even tougher euro zone economy than it thought.

Today, the European Commission said the euro zone will shrink another 0.3 percent in 2013, which is deeper and longer lasting than originally expected. Growth is not forecasted to return until the end of the year.

"It does confirm that I think that austerity is perhaps having a negative effect on the major economies of the euro zone and indeed the small economies of the euro zone," says Jonathan Loynes of Capital Economics.

Growth in France has flatlined. Italy will contract by a full one percent this year -- twice the estimate just three months ago.

Nicholas Spiro of Spiro Sovereign Strategy says the euro zone needs a change in policy away from cutting government spending and cutting taxes.

"Europe is condemning itself to years of sub par growth after an extremely brutal and savage downturn," Spiro says.

But not all of the euro zone countries are in the doldrums. Germany should grow by a half a percent this year. And optimism among German businesses is on the rise.