Money

By Matt McFarland, CNN Business Twenty-one years ago, Bart Riley and co-founders bet their short-lived company, A123 Systems, on batteries free of nickel and cobalt. They believed the battery technology offered several benefits for automakers in the then-nascent electric vehicle space. The Massachusetts-based startup pitched Tesla on its batteries between 2008 and 2011, Riley recalled,

By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business Inflation jitters are at a fever pitch, and some investing experts and economists are making comparisons to the 1970s and early 1980s. But could today’s surging prices really be as serious as the prolonged inflation shock of 40 years ago? (For those who didn’t live through it: It

by Matt Egan, CNN The severe drought in California threatens to significantly undermine the state’s ability to generate hydroelectric power, raising costs for families and driving up planet-warming emissions, according to a federal government forecast. Assuming drought conditions persist, California’s hydroelectric generation would be 48% less this summer than if water conditions were normal, the

By Chris Isidore, CNN Business The number of workers being fired or laid off has hit the lowest point on record, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed only 1.25 million people lost their job in April, breaking the previous record low of 1.26 million recorded in December. With

Opinion by Bill Carter for CNN Business Perspectives Streaming networks were the center of attention last month when the television industry — or, more accurately now, the entertainment industry — staged its annual ritual known as the “upfronts.” Long-time attendees of these affairs surely felt some sense of disorientation, because the upfronts were invented as

By Anna Cooban, CNN Business Russia’s increasingly aggressive actions against its European gas customers are taking a toll. The country’s natural gas exports have tumbled by more than a quarter since January. But surging prices have kept Russia’s coffers bulging as it continues to cut off deliveries. Moscow’s gas exports to countries outside of its

By Matt Egan, CNN Business Gas prices just took another big step in the wrong direction. The national average for regular gasoline climbed by five cents on Wednesday to a fresh record of $4.67 a gallon, according to AAA. That leaves gas prices up by 48 cents in the past month alone. It now costs

By Chris Isidore, CNN Business Canceled flights, surging airfares, a rental car shortage, record gas prices and rising hotel prices. Welcome to the summer of travel hell. Airlines had said they were prepared to avoid the service problems that plagued much of the industry last year. But between Friday and Monday, US airlines canceled 2,653