promise

Germany criticizes U.S. Fed

Berlin -- German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble harshly criticized the U.S. Federal Reserve's $600 billion quantitative easing program announced Wednesday.

Schauble said the United States had broken a promise made in June at the Group of 20 summit in Toronto to tighten monetary policy, EUobserver reported Friday.

"That was the common policy, that all developed countries, including the United States … explicitly obliged to undertake," Schauble said in televised remarks.

With a G20 summit scheduled next week in Seoul, Schauble said, "We will speak critically about this in bilateral talks with our American friends, but also at the G20 summit in South Korea."

Small firms expect to hire in 2010

Chicago -- A national survey found the second half of 2010 could hold some overdue promise for U.S. job seekers.

CareerBuilders said in its latest survey found 32 percent of businesses with fewer than 500 employees indicated they planned to hire new workers in the second half of the year.

Of those, 21 percent indicated they would hire full-time workers, while 11 percent indicated they would hire part-time workers.

An additional 6 percent indicated they would hire temporary workers or contractors, said CareerBuilder, an online staffing agency.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, included interviews with 1,300 employers each with less than 500 persons on their payrolls.

A Fool Looks Back

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has become a political hot button after pulling its search engine out of China.

Early intervention for autistic kids shows promise

Seattle, December 1 -- A comprehensive new study has found that early intervention program in toddlers with autism not only improved their IQ, language skills, and social interaction, but even resulted in an improved diagnosis of the neuro-developmental disorder.