A roundup of the ‘micro’ news
Kai Ryssdal: Truth be told, there’s not a whole lotta big news today. Small stories, mostly. Micro, you might say.
Like this one: A plan from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to ease the crunch in New York’s crazy real estate market. A new apartment building in the city that would include 80 micro-units. Apartments that’re about 275 square feet.
We went out this morning and asked New Yorkers what they think of the plan. Their reaction: not so micro.
I think that’s ridiculous.
Who wants to live — that’s like in a jail cell!
Come on, that’s a chicken coop.
In keeping with the micro-theme then, a small scale look at some of the other news of the day. Here’s Marketplace’s Mark Garrison.
Mark Garrison: How about a micro fine? The Wall Street Journal reports Google will likely pay $22.5 million to settle charges it tracked the online exploits of people using Apple’s web browser — even though users thought they had blocked that kind of snooping. But for Google, it’s a micro slap on the wrist. The Journal estimates the fine amounts to five hours of revenue.
With ‘micro’phone in hand, I’m Mark Garrison for Marketplace.
It’s not just high-tech. There’s a micro-trend in auto news as well. Marketplace’s Eve Troeh has that.
Eve Troeh: Chevrolet is rolling out micro car ownership of sorts. The automaker wants more people to buy cars and trucks. So it’s throwing in a money back guarantee. If that Malibu or Suburban really isn’t you after all, you can bring it back for a full refund, you’ve got 60 days to decide.
I’m Eve Troeh for Marketplace.
And finally, this from our New York bureau chief Heidi Moore.
Heidi Moore: I guess you’d call it the case of the micro CEO. You’ve just been made the head of one of the country’s biggest utilities — oh wait, sorry, you’re not.
That’s pretty much what happened to Bill Johnson. He’d been picked to be CEO of a new power company formed by the merger of Duke Energy and Progress Energy. But hours after the deal closed, the new board ousted Johnson in favor of Duke’s longtime CEO Jim Rogers.
I’m Heidi Moore for “Microplace.”
Back when I was working the morning show, I came out of a story on a certain software company and said, ‘You’re listening to the Microsoft Morning Report.’
True story.
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