Hsi-Chang Lin

One-hit wonders often spell long term rewards for record companies, which can make millions of dollars from legacy recordings — as long as they own the rights. That may be about to change. A provision in U.S. copyright law stipulates that songs released after 1978 have "termination rights," which offer artists the ability to regain ownership of their work after 35 years have passed. With that deadline on the horizon, a battle is looming between artists and labels over song rights. 

Tasked with fixing the nation’s economic problems, the bipartisan "super committee" of twelve Congressional members may be leading some politically sacred cows to slaughter. In the halls of Congress, there is now discussion of making cuts in defense, intelligence and military spending, including pensions for retirees with 20 years of military service. Is Congress really ready to change the course of our military spending, or, is this just another bargaining tactic?

This week we’ve been asking listeners to suggest ideas on how to fix the economy. So far we’ve talked about raising inflation and boosting housing prices. Today we're talking about capping the total compensation that CEOs earn — including salary, benefits and bonuses — at $5 million. Any additional money would go back to the company, hopefully creating more jobs. Who would step up to do this? Perhaps Warren Buffett, in light of his recent op-ed for The New York Times.

How should the United Kingdom combat the violence that's raged across the country all week? British Prime Minister David Cameron says the country needs to learn a few lessons from America on how to fight gangs, along with possibly revoking social media and Blackberry service from rioters. What can the U.S. offer as advice for the U.K. on handling gang violence?

As riots and unrest continue to spread throughout England, some say they began with youths who are unhappy with the economic climate there. Throughout the U.K., there is a growing sense that many young people are going to face more difficult financial times than their parents' generation did. The future will bring fewer job opportunities and lower pensions, which will mature at a later date and come at a greater personal cost. Overall, there’s a feeling that politicians are inept to fix the nation’s economic problems.

It's been a week of ups and downs for the U.S. markets, which ended at 600 points down on Monday, rose Tuesday, and took another nose dive yesterday. But those numbers only tell half of the story. All week long, experts like our economics editor, Charlie Herman, have reminded our listeners that a cursory glance at the markets is not a direct indicator of our economic well-being. If we shouldn't be worrying about the perpetual stock market roller coaster, which numbers should we be watching instead?

Yesterday, U.S. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner spoke by phone with his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, to discuss the challenges facing global markets after a tumultuous week for the U.S. economy. China's stock market plunged on Monday (along with the U.S.'s), following the news that Standard and Poor downgraded America's credit rating. Chinese investors are concerned that the current poor economic climate in the U.S. will lead to decreased demand for Chinese exports. China is the largest U.S. foreign creditor, but over the weekend on Chinese websites many people were calling for China to invest less money in the U.S.

After years of training, double-amputee Oscar Pistorious achieved his dream this week, when South Africa's athletics federation selected him for the country's team in the track and field world championships. Pistorious — who was born without fibulae, or calf bone — achieved an Olympic qualifying time of 45.07 seconds for the 400-meter dash last month. But not everybody is rooting for him to succeed. Some critics are saying that Pistorious's prosthetic legs have unfairly boosted his performance in time trials.

It is widely assumed that Texas Governor Rick Perry will soon announce plans to seek the Republican nomination for president. The governor's announcement may come this weekend, a week after his large prayer rally in Houston — which drew almost 30,000 attendants — where he prayed for divine intervention to the assist President Obama's judgement. 

As one of the hallmark pieces of education legislation passed by President George W. Bush, The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 aimed to reform the American education system by giving schools standard and measurable goals that 100 percent of all students needed to meet. But, by promising to leave no child behind, did the act set its goals too far? 

We're celebrating summer music here at the Takeaway. Throughout the month we’ll be talking with different musicians about what songs say summer to them. Our guest today is Jim James, the lead singer and founding member of the band, My Morning Jacket. The band's latest album is called “Circuital.”

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive James "Whitey" Bulger will be arraigned in a Boston District Court later today. The onetime federal informant is facing 19 counts of murder, dating back to 1999. At today’s court appearance, several family members of Bulger’s victims will meet the alleged crime boss, who inspired Jack Nicholson’s character Frank Costello in "The Departed."

Google announced last week that they would close the doors on their medical project, Google Health, leaving an opening for a new player in the medical record tech industry. Google Health was designed as a “personal health record service," a place where patients could voluntarily store all of their health records, in hopes of centralizing their treatment information. The medical industry has limitless room for growth, considering that almost 80 percent of medical records are on paper.

The youngest sister of Thailand’s ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra is poised to become the country’s sixth leader in under five years. Introducing herself to our partner the BBC as "just a simple lady, and a lady that will be willing and sincere to help the country," Yingluck Shinawatra is Thailand's president-elect following Sunday's elections, which gave a resounding win to the Puea Thai political party. 

As the 2012 presidential election looms closer on the horizon, a debate over possible voting rights and voter fraud is heating up. Fifteen Democratic Senators, lead by Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, issued a joint statement to Attorney General Eric Holder questioning the legality of the voting identification laws in place in 29 states. The senators argue that these laws — which require voters to present photo identification when they head to the poll — unfairly disenfranchise African-American, Latino and poor voters. But is that really the case?

On Wednesday June 22^nd, President Barack Obama promised the nation that he was ready to bring home 10,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan. In a year's time, the president hopes to extend that number to 33,000 troops. At home and abroad, not everybody believes that the mission has made enough progress to end its military engagements in the region. Veteran BBC reporter Hugh Sykes has been spending his time in Afghanistan, Pakistan investigating Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, providing safe havens to the Haqqani Taliban, a group most likely responsible for the Hotel siege in Kabul last Tuesday night.

China celebrates its 90^th year of Communist rule today; but in the background, the nation is playing deeply capitalist games with international debts. China owns a large portion of US debt, but a Reuters investigation shows that they may have more than the Treasury could previously report. By buying up US debt through internationally disparate financial intermediaries, Chinese entities hid exactly how much US debt they had acquired—estimates say it is above $1.13 trillion. 

In the upcoming edition of The New York Times Sunday Magazine advice columnist Dan Savage has some words of wisdom for married couples, gay or straight. Savage, the sex-advice columnist best known for his "It Gets Better" project to help gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens deal with the cruelties of fellow high school students, says that married couples should not put so much stock in fidelity and monogamy, and should focus instead on honesty.

Months ahead of the 2012 primary elections, wars of words are heating up between political rivals, some of whom aren’t even running for office. Right now, Michele Bachmann landed herself in some legal hot water when she chose to use Tom Petty's song "American Girl," without the artist's permission. This isn’t the first time artists have taken offense with the political appropriation of their work. 

Tomorrow, the Obama administration will shuffle its top civilian military position when Leon Panetta, 73, replaces Robert Gates as the secretary of defense. For a nation stretched thin by three ongoing military engagements, the new Secretary of Defense is going to have little time for on-the-job training. Instead, he can hope to learn from the example left behind by his out-going colleague.