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...grow by 15% in 2009. Bartercard, the world's largest exchange network, is leading the charge. So far this year trades through its network are worth more than $2 billion, up by 20% over 2008. Founded in Australia in 1991, when the country was mired in recession, the firm now does business in nine countries - including New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates - and boasts clients as diverse as advertising firms, electricians, hotels, paper suppliers, restaurants, translators and even zoos. (See 10 big recession surprises...
...owner of the 24-bedroom Hotel Penzance in Cornwall, southwest England. "There are other times when we can't - and that's when Bartercard comes into its own." Whenever Hill has unfilled rooms, he places an appeal for barter business on Bartercard's online site or through the firm's brokerages - there are currently 100 offices around the world to help connect members. If the hotel is 70% full, the cost of filling an otherwise empty room is virtually nothing. Plus, it brings in customers who may return to the hotel in the future - and spend cash. Hill, who trades...
...that trading means more profit for Bartercard. The privately held company charges a one-time membership fee - $1,200 to $2,400, depending on the size of the business - and a 5.5% cash and 1% trade fee on each transaction. Sharpe is confident the firm will continue to expand even as the economy improves. "Companies will need to hire new staff and restart advertising and marketing campaigns which they pulled during the recession," he says. "Bartering frees up cash for that." It's a concept he obviously believes in: the firm uses its trade credits to pay the rent...
...major insider-trading ring, the largest ever centered in the hedge-fund industry. Raj Rajaratnam, a billionaire co-founder of the Galleon Group, and five others were arrested and charged with earning $20 million off stock trades on the basis of information unavailable to the public. Rajaratnam, whose firm manages $3.7 billion, allegedly relied on a broad network of sources, including executives at IBM and McKinsey & Co., for lucrative tips; one leak about a Google earnings report yielded his firm $8 million in profits in 2007, authorities said. The investigation was the first insider-trading probe to make...
...spokeswoman for General Mills said the company declined to comment for this story, but Kellogg CEO David Mackay defends his firm's much maligned Froot Loops, noting that the cereal is a good source of vitamins A and C. And those 12 g of sugar? "Twelve grams of sugar is 50 calories," says Mackay. "A presweetened cereal as part of a regular diet for kids is not a bad thing." But it's hard to argue that it's a good thing either...