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Fortune magazine takes a look at the top 25 most powerful people in U.S. business and how they got there. Atop the power pyramid is Wal-Mart chief executive Lee Scott, followed by Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch. The editors of Fortune say the list was a judgment call, based on the perceived "breadth and depth of their influence."
Maybe U.S. business has something to learn from Europeans after all, Business 2.0 says. Take the length of the workweek, where American workaholics put in more hours than Europeans. But, the magazine says, "Longer hours don't always add up to better work - and exhausted employees are not more productive."
Feel inundated by e-mail at work? The North American average for workplace e-mail is now 54 a day, up 13 percent from 2002, according to a Canadian study. Nonessential, nonspam messages have increased by 41 percent.
Saving water in the home is one of the easiest and cheapest things a homeowner can do. Most of the products that will save water, such as aerators or flow restricters, are inexpensive and easy to install. An efficient shower head, for example, can save the average household as much as 8,000 gallons of water a year, cutting water use by a third to a half of the current level.
Most consumers have mortgages. Many have car loans. But do you have too much debt? Smartmoney.com offers a calculator to help you determine if your debt load is too heavy, and some articles on how to dig out from under heavy debt.
When grocery shopping, check your receipts. No matter how careful you or the store staff might be, mistakes happen. "I can't say it's widespread, but I do get reports of people saying they check grocery bills and very often they find mistakes," says Gary Foreman, publisher of the Dollar Stretcher Web site. "And, 4 to 1, they are in favor of the store."
Compiled from Times wires and Web sites