Young adults do not have it easy these days. Or at least that seems to be the public consensus, according to the report released this morning by the Pew Research Center. The center surveyed 2,048 adults nationwide, including 808 young adults ages 18 to 34 for this report. 

Young adults have been significantly affected by higher unemployment rate than those older than 34 years old. Parents have come to expect their children to be financially dependent on them till they turn 25 and believe that their children are having a harder time finding a job and saving some money than they did when they were their age. 

Even as young adults struggle to find jobs, however, they believe things will get better.

Most older adults don’t expect their children to be financially independent before the age of 25.

People are most likely to say that young adults suffered most in the recession.

Most people say this generation is having a harder time than their parents.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Microsoft’s Windows chief Steven Sinofsky just put up 8,000+ word blog post on Microsoft’s plans for Windows 8 on the low-powered ARM processors that today run the iPad and most other tablets.

This is the most critical part of Windows 8.

Like every version of Windows, Windows 8 will probably dominate the market for traditional notebook PCs and desktop PCs.

But it also has to take on the iPad, which is now outselling desktop PCs and had sales last quarter equal to 17% of the traditional PC market.

For Microsoft’s hardware partners to make Windows 8 tablets that are competitive with the iPad in terms of battery life, they’re probably going to have to use ARM chipsets.

Microsoft first announced that Windows 8 would run on ARM “systems on a chip” from Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments back in January 2011. It was a bit of a shock at the time — Windows has traditionally been sold only for Intel-type (x86 and 64-bit) processors.

But since then, Microsoft hasn’t revealed many more details, leaving us to wonder exactly what applications would be available and whether it would ship at the same time as Windows 8 for traditional Intel-based PCs.

Now, we know a lot more. The highlights:

• There will be a separate version of Windows called “Windows On ARM,” not “Windows 8 for ARM” … or “Windows 8″ anything for that matter. It is not the same as Windows 8 for traditional PCs, but shares a lot of code and components.

• It will run a special version of Office. There will be versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for Windows On ARM. The apps will be designed to work on touch screens, will have full document compatibility with traditional versions of Office, and will use a lot less power than their equivalents for regular PCs.

• There will be a desktop mode for Office and IE. As we’ve written before, Windows 8 has a split personality — there’s a desktop interface that will work and look a lot like Windows 7, and a new “Metro” interface that is designed for touch. (The “Metro” interface is what Microsoft has demonstrated so far — the big colorful icons and sliding menus are a highlight.) There was speculation that Windows On ARM would run ONLY Metro style apps. That’s mostly true, but Office and Internet Explorer will also be available in desktop mode.

• It will ship around the same time as regular Windows 8. That is the “collective goal” of Microsoft and its hardware partners.

• The hardware and software will be tightly integrated. This makes perfect sense — Microsoft can’t compete with the iPad on ease of use unless it creates a similar end to end experience. So Microsoft has been working closely with all parts of the hardware chain, from suppliers to PC manufacturers. Also, you won’t be able to buy Windows for ARM as a separate operating system to install on your own PC — it will only ship on new machines. Microsoft will update it over the Internet automatically. Sinofsky writes “Delivering WOA PCs is a partnership with PC manufacturers who bring their expertise in manufacturing, system engineering, and industrial design and combine that with the engineering work of ARM partners to develop a complete PC.”

• You won’t power these things off. Windows On ARM PCs will be like other smartphones and tablets — the screen will go dark and it will enter a low-power mode. But you’ll probably never turn it off.

• There will be ways for developers to write for both platforms at once. This is complicated, and gets into developer-speak, but basically if you’re using an abstracted or “high-level” programming language, such as C#, Visual Basic, XAML (all Microsoft-specific) or JavaScript and HTML5 (common Web-standard languages), then you can write one “Metro” style program and have it automatically work on both ARM-based devices and traditional PCs. If you want to write more directly to the hardware using C or C++, you’ll have to do some extra work.

• It will not be possible to port existing Windows apps to the new platform. It’s a total rewrite.

• Windows On ARM devices will be clearly labeled. So customers will know that they’re buying a device that does not run old Windows apps.

• Apps will be available ONLY through Windows directly (built-in) or the Windows Store. Microsoft had already said this would be the case for Metro apps, but it’s apparently the case for all Windows On ARM apps — again, very much like Apple does with the iPad and App Store.

• The Windows 8 Consumer Preview coming on Feb 29 will not include Windows On ARM. It will only be the x86/64-bit (traditional PC) version. Around the next Windows milestone, Microsoft will release test PCs running Windows On Arm to developers and hardware makers. These are NOT going to look anything like the final product, and will NOT be generally available to the masses.

Microsoft says that Windows On ARM will ship on touch-screen devices other than tablets — convertibles (notebook-to-tablet) seem likely. Likewise, the traditional versions of Windows 8 (x86 and 64-bit) might be available on some tablets.

But by and large, when you see a Windows 8 tablet, it probably will be running Windows On ARM. Especially at launch, which is expected later this year.

There’s a ton more technical detail in the blog post, plus a downloadable video (not embeddable here). Read it all here.

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We conducted a Q&A with billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

He’s a judge on ABC’s Shark Tank and he is an angel investors, so he has seen a lot of startup pitches.

We asked Cuban about the worst pitch he’s ever seen. He replied, “Tons have started, ‘I have a great idea, can you help me?’ or ‘I don’t know where to start.’ Those are an immediate no.”

The best pitches, Cuban says, tell him why the product is different, how it will stay ahead of competition, and how it will give him a return on investment.

Here’s the full Q&A.

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Italian investigators have charged four priests with laundering money out of the Vatican’s official bank, the Institute for the Works of Religion, the National Catholic Reporter’s John L. Allen Jr. writes.

The Italian daily l’Unita was the first to report that the priests were being investigated for laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It’s the latest in a series of investigations into Vatican finances dating back to 2010. In December of that year, Pope Benedict XVI decreed an updated anti-money laundering law for Vatican finances.

Late last month, an Italian TV program published letters written by the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S. that charged the Holy See’s financial planners with cronyism and corruption.

In the letters, published by the popular Italian news magazine program “The Untouchables,” Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò said that his appointment to the U.S. was motivated by a desire to get him out of Rome because he was causing headaches, according to Les Echoes’ Guillaume Delacroix.

Viganò worried that his removal would cause disillusion among those hoping to clean up “corruption and dishonesty” in the city-state, including rigged contract bids and mismanaged investments, Allen reports.

The Vatican has denied the charges.

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South Ossetia’s elections last year were not the best.

Before the tiny, Russian-dominated country (a breakaway state from Georgia and the cause of 2008′s Russia-Georgia war) held its election in November, the country had seen armed guards storming the parliament building, demanding that the Kremlin-supported President Kokoity be allowed to stay a third term. Later, when he was refused. a different candidate’s supporter stormed the Parliament with machine guns, making it something of a trend.

Finally, a new Kremlin-supported candidate, Anatoly Bibilov, was chosen and ran on the platform of officially making South Ossetia a Russian state.

The problem is, he didn’t win.

Instead, Alla Dzhioyeva, an anti-corruption campaigner, found herself winner with 57 percent of the vote. All hell broke lose, the Supreme Court declared “irregularities”, and hundreds of masked, machine gun toting soldiers blocked off the city center, many covering their face.

The situation, unfortunately, has not improved. Dzhioyeva had been planning her inauguration tomorrow, despite official opposition. At 6pm local time, law enforcers tried to take her in for questioning and she apparently some kind of medical emergency.

Ria Novosti quotes deputy prosecutor general, Georgy Kabulov, who says that Dzhioyeva suffered a “hypertensive crisis” when arrested — suggesting a stroke.

A slightly different account comes from Ekho Kavkaza, who say that 15 people, wearing masks and camouflage gear, broke into the office and attempted to arrest Dzhioyeva. She then suffered a heart attack but attempts to assist her were blocked by the guards (via Democracy and Freedom Watch).

Incidentally, the South Ossetian interior ministry had issued a statement just yesterday banning “mass public gatherings”.

A new election is planned for March 25 — but something tells us it may work out just as complicated. Even former Kremlin candidate Bibilov is refusing to run, saying the situation was too tense to work.

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This couldn’t be easier (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) (via Justin Wolfers):

There’s also this guide made especially for elected officials. But frankly, we’re too trapped in our own cycle of prediction, waiting and praise to fully digest its implications:

Click here to see the original post at SMBC > >

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A newcomer has rolled onto the 2012 Greenest List, a ranking of new-model-year autos based on their fuel economy and tailpipe emissions as well as the environmental impacts from their manufacture and the techniques used to produce their fuel.

Now in the No. 1 spot: the subcompact Mitsubishi i-MIEV, a light lithium-ion powered electric car that recently debuted in the American market and bumped the previous champ, the Honda(NYSE:HMC) Civic Natural Gas, to the No. 2 spot.

The i-MIEV (Mitsubishi in-wheel-motor electric vehicle, shown at right) gets 3.8 miles per kilowatt hour (mpkWh) in the city and 2.9 mpkWh on the highway—or 126 miles-per-gallon equivalents (mpGe) in the city and 99 mpGe on the highway. In MpGe units, 33.7kWh of electric power is equivalent to one gallon of gasoline. The car ranges in price from $29,125 to $31,125.

The Honda Civic Natural Gas gets 27 miles per gallon in the city, 38 on the highway. It lists for $26,155.

No. 3 on the Greenest List is the Nissan Leaf, whose mpGe is 106 in the city and 92 on the highway. It’s available for $35,200 to $37,250.

The Toyota (NYSE:TM) Prius landed in the No. 4 spot, with 51 mpg I the city, 48 on the higway, and a price range from $24,000 to $29,805.

No. 5 is the Honda Insight, offering 40 mpg in the city and 43 on the highway. It costs from $18,350 to $21,815.

Smart GmbH’s Smart ForTwo Cabriolet/Coupe two-seater ranked No. 6, with 34 mpg in the city and 38 on the highway. It is among the least expensive of the vehicles on the list, with a price range of $12,490 to $17,690.

The Greenest List is compiled by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit advocacy group. ACEEE ranked 12 vehicles in all for their greenness, but also compiled two other, related rankings: Greener Choices, which ranks the top 12 gasoline-powered vehicles, and the Meanest List, which identifies some of the biggest gas hogs and major emissions champs.

You can check out the entire Greenest List lineup and images of each vehicle by clicking here for a CNNMoney slide show of the ranking.

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A day after we heard that the asset management firm Goldman Sachs recently acquired was not the one that Deutsche Bank had been shopping around since the year started, should we be surprised that there is now news that the sale of the business may now be falling apart?

The Financial Times is reporting that JP Morgan and State Street, two of the front runners to acquire the business, have dropped out of the bidding process. In addition, another bidder Ameriprise may soon throw in the towel because of the high price the German bank had set on the unit. Goldman Sachs was originally rumored to be interested in Deutsche’s asset management business as it considered acquisitions.

The faltering deal could also mean negative publicity for incoming co-CEOs Anshu Jain and Jürgen Fitschen.

The issue appears to be the high cost of the transaction—Deutsche Bank wants around $2 billion—and the fact that many interested firms want parts of the business but not the whole, despite the fact that Deutsche Bank wants to sell the unit in tact, according to the Financial Times. A sale of broken up parts of the asset management business may only bring the bank in about $1.3 billion.

Deutsche Bank originally announced its intentions to spin off the asset management unit last November because of declining revenue and regulatory changes.

Read the Financial Times report here >

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At our IGNITION conference last fall, Mark Cuban summed up his life in one quip: “Someone has to be the world’s luckiest person!”

Cuban certainly could be the world’s “luckiest man,” but that would discount his incredible savvy as a businessman and investor. 

Cuban made his fortune when he sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo in the late ’90s.  Now he owns the Dallas Mavericks, throws ragers at the Super Bowl, and angel invests in startups.

Cuban is also a judge on ABC’s Shark Tank, which just launched its second season.

We did a Q&A with the billionaire over email. Here’s his advice to startups, his players, and his thoughts about Yahoo.

Business Insider: What does an entrepreneur have to do to catch your eye?

1. Know what areas I invest in. Don’t bring me anything outside of tech, media or consumer.
2. Be differentiated
3. Know your industry cold. I’m not going to do the work for you.

How many companies have you invested in; how much do you generally invest?

I don’t even know how many…50 plus. Anywhere from $25,000 to $4 million with 90 percent being $250,000 or under.

Does a startup’s location matter to you when you invest? Is it still an advantage to have a headquarters in Silicon Valley or NYC?

To me it’s a disadvantage in either. It’s far more expensive and particularly in the Valley there is a level of arrogance that can be distracting.

Worst pitch you’ve ever heard?

Tons that started “I have a great idea, can you help me?” or “I don’t know where to start.” Those are an immediate no.

Best pitch you’ve ever heard?

People who can tell me why their product is unique and differentiated, by how they will compete and stay ahead and how they will give me a return on my investment from operations.

How should entrepreneurs think about their exit strategies? 

They shouldn’t. They should focus on building the best possible business. If you are great, people will notice and opportunities will appear. Then you decide if it works for you or not.

You encourage people to angel invest rather than put their money in the stock market. Isn’t that insane advice for the general public? 

Not if you stick to what you know and can add value to. If you can’t add value, don’t do it.  What’s insane is thinking the stock market will always go up and the needs of your life, house, car and medical won’t crush your investment approach.

What do you tell your athletes to do with their money? 

I tell everyone the same thing. Pay off 100 percent of your debt. Use the transactional value of cash to get an absolute return on your savings (buying something in bulk to save 40 percent on something you know you need is a guaranteed return of 40 percent. You can’t get that anywhere in market). And don’t invest in things you don’t know.

What’s the best thing about being a billionaire? The worst?

Everything. Nothing.

Do you think Yahoo made a good choice hiring a technical CEO rather than one from the media business? 

Yahoo’s issue is culture. They can’t leverage all the amazing assets they have until they get a little ruthless in how they relate to their competitors. They generate huge percent of traffic for other sites and you would never know which sites because that would be impolite.  They can’t be afraid of using the wrong fork.

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There’s no denying it — there’s definitely been a great deal of ire directed at Wall Street lately, especially toward the bank CEOs.

But many of these CEOs are still “liked.”

Well, on Facebook, that is.

Those who use the social networking site can join so-called “like pages” and there are pages dedicated to these Wall Street titans.  (Of course, we suspect that many of them are not “official” pages.) 

While the numbers aren’t staggering or jaw-dropping, it appears that they do, in fact, have fans in the social media sphere.

Bob Diamond

Bank: Barclays

Number of ‘Likes’: 4

People Talking About This: 1

Fun Fact: He began his career as a lecturer at UConn’s business school.

Sergio Ermotti

Bank: UBS

Number of ‘Likes’: 8

People Talking About This: 1

Fun Fact:  He took an apprenticeship at the age of 15 at the Corner Bank in Lugano. 

James Gorman

Bank: Morgan Stanley

Number of ‘Likes’: 14

People Talking About This: 0

Fun Fact: He has a law degree.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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