Michael Jordan's house on market for $16 million after failed auction

Jordan first put his 33,000-square-foot home near Chicago on sale in March 2012 for $29 million.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The house is on seven-plus acres in Highland Park, Ill., about 25 miles north of Chicago.

The former NBA star first put it on the market in March 2012 for $29 million. The price was cut to $21 million nearly a year ago and then failed to sell at auction last month, when nobody made even the $13 million minimum bid.

The house was built in 1995 and has nine bedrooms, 15 baths, a cigar room, and a garage big enough to hold 14 cars. There's a huge home gym.

Katherine Malkin, the listing agent, said the most awesome home feature is the regulation sized basketball court.

Related: See inside Jordan's house

"There's nobody -- man, woman or child -- who walks on the court who is not stunned by it," she said. "The lighting, the floor, everything is so beautiful."

With the court and finished lower level of the house included, the compound totals about 56,000 square feet.

Outdoors is a chipping range and putting green, tennis courts, a lily pond and a huge flagstone patio. The front entrance gate sports a giant number 23 -- not for the address but, of course, for Jordan's former number.

Related: American Dream homes: What you'll pay in 10 cities

Malkin has had the listing for about a year and said there has been lots of interest in it, but few prospects qualify as serious buyers. Would-be purchasers must have enough liquidity to pay cash for the house in full before they can put in offers.

Last year, Jordan bought a house in his native North Carolina, one close to the home court of the Charlotte Bobcats, the NBA team of which he is now the majority owner.

Related: The $2 million home theater

The Illinois property is about three times larger than the new house and stands out in the neighborhood for its size and price.

"He was a very successful and sought-after personality and he built a compound to fit his lifestyle," said Malkin.

She said he has redone parts of the property over the years and it's in "perfect" condition. "Nobody kept a house better than he did," she said.

First Published: January 3, 2014: 12:37 PM ET

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Bernanke: Recovery 'remains incomplete'

PHILADELPHIA (CNNMoney)

"The recovery clearly remains incomplete," he said, in what sounded like a swan song speech at the American Economic Association's annual meeting in Philadelphia, Friday.

Bernanke's term officially ends on January 31, at which point Fed Vice-Chair Janet Yellen is expected to take the helm. (The Senate is scheduled to vote on her confirmation Monday evening).

Among the unfinished business that concerns Bernanke: the unemployment rate at 7% "still is elevated," he said. Meanwhile, participation in the labor market has continued to decline, partly because workers remain discouraged about their job prospects.

As of December, only 63% of Americans over age 16 participated in the job market -- meaning they either had a job or looked for one. Before the recession, it was around 66%.

Related: Yellen: Fed has more to do

That said, Bernanke was willing to cautiously defend the success of his most controversial policy. The Fed has kept its key interest rate near zero since December 2008, but when that effort wasn't enough to jumpstart a recovery, the Fed started a three-part bond-buying spree, in an effort to lower longer-term interest rates as well.

That policy, known as quantitative easing, has more than quadrupled the size of the Fed's assets to over $4 trillion. Skeptics question both the impact (did it really help the job market much?) and the future risks (will pumping that much money into the economy eventually lead to rapid inflation?).

Speaking to those criticisms, Bernanke said, for the most part research backs up his view: The program "helped promote the recovery."

In December, the Fed decided to start gradually winding down that program. Whereas before, it had been buying $85 billion in bonds each month, the Fed will buy $75 billion this month. Over time, the central bank hopes to keep reducing the program, until it eventually gets down to zero.

Related: Fed finally tapers its stimulus

Bernanke said that decision reflected cumulative progress in the job market since the Fed started the $85-billion-a-month program in September 2012. Since then, the unemployment rate has fallen from 7.8% to 7%, and added about 2.7 million jobs.

Looking forward, Bernanke said he believes various headwinds to the economy are now starting to fade.

"The combination of financial healing, greater balance in the housing market, less fiscal restraint, and, of course, continued monetary policy accommodation bodes well for U.S. economic growth in coming quarters," he said.

But he was quick to add some caution: "Of course, if the experience of the past few years teaches us anything, it is that we should be cautious in our forecasts."

Bernanke is set to preside over one final Fed meeting, January 28-29, before Yellen's leadership transition is expected to take place.

First Published: January 3, 2014: 2:33 PM ET

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BlackBerry sues Ryan Seacrest startup Typo

BlackBerry's lawsuit alleges that the keyboard from Typo, Ryan Seacrest's startup, infringes on its patents.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

BlackBerry (BBRY) has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Typo, a startup backed by "American Idol" host Seacrest that sells a $99 tactile keyboard which snaps on to Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhones. Seacrest and marketing executive Laurence Hallier co-founded Typo.

The Typo Keyboard has been available for pre-order since the company debuted in December. The device is slated to come out later this month -- but not if BlackBerry can help it.

In a press release about the lawsuit, Steve Zipperstein, BlackBerry's general counsel, called Typo "a blatant infringement against BlackBerry's iconic keyboard."

Related story: New BlackBerry CEO optimistic despite loss

Zipperstein didn't stop there.

"We are flattered by the desire to graft our keyboard onto other smartphones, but we will not tolerate such activity without fair compensation for using our intellectual property and our technological innovations," he added.

We're only three days into 2014, and the Seacrest/Typo lawsuit is already the second bit of news about BlackBerry and celebrities this year. BlackBerry announced on Thursday that it will part ways with Alicia Keys, who served as the company's "creative director" for just twelve months.

First Published: January 3, 2014: 3:08 PM ET

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Wal-Mart recalls donkey meat in China

Wal-Mart is giving customers in China refunds on 'Five Spice Donkey Meat' after discovering it was tainted with other animal products.

LONDON (CNNMoney)

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) said it was recalling the meat in Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong. The company apologized to customers and said it would provide refunds.

The retailer said in a statement that one of its suppliers -- Dezhou Fujude Food Company Limited -- had produced and provided Wal-Mart China and other distributors with donkey meat containing fox DNA.

Wal-Mart said it immediately removed the product from shelves and is cooperating with food safety authorities' investigation.

In a statement posted on Weibo -- China's popular Twitter (TWTR)-style micro blogging site -- the company said it had "zero-tolerance" for contamination problems. It said it was stepping up its food safety efforts by introducing routine DNA testing of easily adulterated meat products such as beef, mutton, donkey and venison.

Suppliers would be subject to inspections by a third party, and Wal-Mart will report companies suspected of fraud to the local police, it added.

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world but has faced growing pains in China, where it is slated to close many under-performing stores in early 2014. In its latest quarterly earnings report, the company said the Chinese closures would hit overall profitability.

Related: Why big box stores can't crack China

Food safety and contamination problems have plagued other companies in China.

Earlier this year, a series of scares damaged confidence in local powdered infant formula, causing a surge in demand for baby milk from Western countries.

Global brands have built up a reputation among many Chinese consumers for safer products, but they've had their own share of problems.

Yum! Brands (YUM, Fortune 500), which owns the KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands, has faced an uphill battle in China as it grappled with the fallout from a food safety scandal that began in late 2012 and fears over a new strain of bird flu.

--CNNMoney's Charles Riley contributed to this report.

First Published: January 2, 2014: 10:43 AM ET

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Sell your home without a real estate agent

Sell your home on your own and you won't have to pay the seller's commission.

NEW YORK (Money Magazine)

With housing on the rise, more sellers are flying solo, says Eddie Tyner, general manager of ForSaleByOwner.com. The appeal of FSBO: skipping the seller's agent commission, usually 3%, when houses seem to sell themselves.

It's not that easy, of course. You probably should put your home on the multiple-listing service, which displays more than 90% of homes for sale; do that via sites like ForSaleByOwner.com or Owners.com.

You must avoid the mistake of turning people off with a steep price; your listing, per square foot, should be within 10% of that of similar homes nearby.

Related: Guidelines for selling your home

And you may not be up to the job. It requires a serious time commitment and unemotional negotiations.

Plus, you'll have to overcome a perennial worry: Could an experienced agent have fetched you a better price?

What selling a $300,000 home costs:

You can pocket extra cash by selling your home yourself... if you can get the same price a broker would.
With a broker: $20,000
On your own: $11,000
Notes: In both cases, seller pays buyer's agent commission; miscellaneous expenses are for photos and open house; without a broker.

First Published: January 2, 2014: 4:12 PM ET

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Alicia Keys out as BlackBerry's 'creative director'

Alicia Keys and former BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins one year ago, during happier times.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

BlackBerry bestowed Keys with the creative director title in January 2013, at a big launch of the company's new BlackBerry 10 operating system. But on Thursday, the company said it had "completed our year-long collaboration" with Keys.

BlackBerry (BBRY) declined to comment specifically as to why the relationship came to an end. Her stint officially wraps up on January 31.

Lately it's become popular for tech companies to sign on celebrities as "creative directors," which some see as glorified spokespeople. Lady Gaga holds the position at Polaroid, while will.i.am holds that title at Intel (INTC, Fortune 500).

In addition to the BlackBerry 10 launch, Keys also backed company initiatives including the "Keep Moving Project," in which the singer invited fans to send photos of themselves to be used in one of her music videos. BlackBerry also highlighted Keys' work with the BlackBerry Scholars Program, a scholarship for women studying science, technology, engineering and math.

Related story: New BlackBerry CEO optimistic despite loss

But Keys made few public appearances beyond those initiatives, and the struggling BlackBerry got into even more trouble as the year wore on.

BlackBerry 10 phones sold poorly, and the company was forced to take a nearly $1 billion writedown on unsold devices in September. That same month, the company announced it would cut 4,500 jobs -- or 40% of its workforce -- and that it would seek a buyer to take it private. But in November BlackBerry abandoned its plans to sell the company and ousted CEO Thorsten Heins.

With such serious issues at hand, BlackBerry seemed to have little need for a celebrity creative director.

Keys herself landed in hot water after sending a tweet from an iPhone (AAPL, Fortune 500) instead of a BlackBerry just days after her appointment to creative director; she later said her account was hacked.

First Published: January 2, 2014: 4:54 PM ET

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Dairy prices won't spike right away, officials say

Milk prices won't soar immediately after the farm bill that has kept prices in check lapses.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney)

The fear has been that a lack of a farm bill would cause the price of milk could double to $7 a gallon from the current national average of about $3.50.

But Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told CNN last week that a dairy spike won't happen right away.

Congressional aides say Vilsack has assured lawmakers that he won't quickly implement an old subsidy formula from the 1940s that allows milk and other commodity prices to rise sharply once the farm bill lapses.

Related: Minimum wage to rise in 13 states on Jan. 1

The House moved to avoid such an increase by passing a short-term fix extending the current farm measure. The Senate did not pass that fix but could face pressure to pass a temporary solution in January if prices really are on the verge of soaring.

Dairy economists say there's time. Even if the USDA does start to allow support at higher prices, it would take several weeks for that formula to settle into current dairy prices. That's in part because, thanks to strong demand; most of the dairy supply is already contracted to be sold to milk processors at current prices.

"In the unlikely event that we don't see an extension of the farm bill, it would still take several weeks for the impact of these higher support prices to work its way through our milk-pricing mechanism," said Mary Ledman, dairy economist with the Daily Dairy Report based in Libertyville, Ill.

Ledman estimated the earliest any price spike would start to happen would be in March and April, because the spring is when U.S. milk production rises.

The farm bill would end direct payments to farmers in favor of crop insurance programs to keep prices stable in disasters.

Chief negotiators are also reportedly close to a deal on food stamps. House Republicans have wanted to tighten up eligibility rules, which would lead to some being dropped from the rolls.

Related: Our family will lose $44 in food stamps

However, differences remain in other areas of the farm bill. Agricultural lobbyists say they're hopeful lawmakers can work out a new measure by the end of January.

First Published: December 31, 2013: 12:50 PM ET

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Real 'Wolf of Wall Street' says he will give film royalties to victims

Jordan Belfort (left) is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Wolf of Wall Street."

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Jordan Belfort, the convicted stock scammer portrayed in a new movie by Leonardo DiCaprio, says he plans to give 100% of the proceeds from the film and the book on which it's based to victims of his fraud.

Belfort was sentenced to four years in prison in 2003 and ordered to pay over $110 million in restitution to his victims -- unsuspecting investors to whom Belfort and his associates in a "boiler room" scam sold worthless stocks. In all, investors lost roughly $250 million before the operation was shut down in 1996.

Belfort served 22 months of his sentence before being released. A judge ordered that he make payments to victims equal to 50% of his monthly income following his release.

As of October, Belfort had contributed only about $11.6 million to the victim fund, according to federal prosecutors. The government moved to hold him in default on his obligations to victims earlier this year, saying the payments he had been making were "insufficient," but that request was later withdrawn pending talks between the two sides.

Related: The real 'Wolf of Wall Street'

In a post on his Facebook page Sunday, Belfort said he planned to boost this total by passing on the entirety of his royalties from the book and movie.

"I am not making a single dime on any of this," Belfort wrote. "This should amount to countless millions of dollars and hopefully be more than enough to pay back anyone who is still out there."

Belfort currently earns a living doing sales training and motivational speeches about his rise and fall. He claims to earn as much as $50,000 a day, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

"My income comes from [my] new life, which is far better than my old one," Belfort wrote on his Facebook (FB, Fortune 500) page. "I will admit the Quaaludes were kind of fun, at least in the beginning," he added.

Belfort did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, nor did federal prosecutors.

"The Wolf of Wall Street" opened on Christmas and made $34.3 million during its first five days in theaters, after costing more than $100 million to make. The film has garnered Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, and Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.

First Published: December 31, 2013: 5:09 PM ET

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$15 minimum wage supporters vow to fight on

A new $15 minimum wage for 4,700 airport workers in SeaTac, Washington, is at risk after a judge's ruling.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

A Washington judge ruled last week that the ballot initiative passed by voters in SeaTac doesn't apply to most workers at the community's largest employer, the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

That means about 4,700 employees of airlines, contractors, shops and hotels won't see their minimum wage baseline increase on Wednesday as scheduled, according to Yes!ForSeaTac and Puget Sound Sage, both proponents of the measure.

The increase will still apply to about 1,600 workers outside of the airport, Yes!ForSeaTac estimated.

In November, city voters narrowly approved an increase in the minimum wage for hospitality and transportation workers to $15. It also includes provisions for sick pay and tipped employees.

Related: The split economy

Workers are currently paid at least the statewide minimum, which increases with inflation and will be $9.32 in 2014.

Judge Andrea Darvas did not strike down the law, but rather ruled on a technical issue. The Sea-Tac airport is under jurisdiction of the Port of Seattle, and the city of SeaTac has limited influence over it, she ruled.

On Tuesday, Yes!ForSeaTac filed an appeal in the state supreme court. It wasn't immediately clear when the high court would act on the appeal.

Related: Wage battleground emerges near the nation's capital

It's the next step in what could be a long battle between unions -- including the Teamsters and SEIU -- and companies at the airport.

Bill Sherman, a professor at the Seattle University School of Law who said he is not involved with either side, expects the state supreme court to take the case rather than send it back to a lower appeals court.

Alaska Airlines, one of the airport's largest carriers, and several catering companies initially brought the issue to court. Airline spokesman Paul McElroy said Tuesday the company "believes in fair pay and benefits for all workers and we respect every worker and the job they do."

"This lawsuit is not about $15 an hour -- its about an initiative that violated state and federal law," he said.

But supporters of the higher wage argued it was an issue of equality.

"Alaska Airlines alone made $157 million in the last three months in part by outsourcing hundreds of good paying jobs" to cheaper contractors, said Sergio Salinas, president of local SEIU.

The airport and city officials haven't taken a position on the law, according to their spokesmen. Airport management is "currently reviewing the judge's decision" and the city is preparing to implement the law.

Several other minimum wage increases are taking effect in the new year. Many are minor -- about 15 cents -- but some workers will see a more sizable bump in their paychecks.

First Published: December 31, 2013: 4:46 PM ET

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Divvying up Mom's stuff after she's gone

You know the relationship with your sibling is more important than who owns Mom's watch. But when you see her wearing it...

(Money Magazine)

While you can name beneficiaries for such objects in a will, many people simply direct that goods be divided equally among their children. That leaves the executor, often one of the kids, with the Solomonic task of meting out heirlooms. Add in grief, resentment, and siblings' knowledge of how to push one another's buttons, and you can imagine the emotional tinderbox that results.

"Families can fight tooth and nail over every item in the house," says Toronto lawyer Les Kotzer, co-author of Where There's an Inheritance.

Use this talk to avoid a family feud.

The Ground Rules

Give yourselves time to grieve. Rather than laying claims right after the funeral, when emotions are at a peak, schedule a time a few months later when everyone can gather in person, says Marlene Stum, lead author of the book and online resource Who Gets Grandma's Yellow Pie Plate?

Leave spouses at home. "The more people chiming in, the more emotions can escalate," says West Chester, Ohio, financial planner Marc Henn.

When You're Face to Face...

1. Opening gambit: "Let's agree that this won't tear us apart."

Why it works: You know your relationship with your brother is more important than ownership of Dad's watch -- but once you see the timepiece on his wrist and realize it'll go to his sons, not yours, you may temporarily forget. "So acknowledge upfront that you may say something hurtful," says Peter McClellan, author of Inheritance Tug-of-War Stories, "and agree to forgive each other."

Related: Keep your kids from blowing their inheritance

2. Name your musts: "Why don't we all say what items are on our wish lists?"

Why it works: "It's important to figure out what's most meaningful to whom," says Stum. Asking this question (you may even want to have a household inventory handy) helps you identify which items are subject to contention. Plus, it can help you sidestep battles: Your brother may stand down when he hears how much -- and why -- your sister wants the china.

3. Decide on a process: "Sounds like it might make sense for us to take turns picking items?"

Why it works: The key to emerging with family relations intact is choosing a selection process everyone thinks is fair, says Stum. For those items with little financial value but lots of claimants, you might draw straws to establish a picking order. Heirs get to select one item at a time, and once the last sibling has picked, let him have another turn, going back up the hierarchy in reverse, says Henn.

4. Strive for parity: "I'd really like Mom's wedding ring. How about if I pay you for it?"

Why it works: Items of real monetary value, like antiques and jewelry, need special treatment. Start with an appraisal, says Julie Hall, author of The Boomer Burden: Dealing With Your Parents' Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff. Whoever wants the item can pay the other heirs for their shares via a reduced inheritance or cash. If no one wants it, sell the item and split the proceeds.

Related: How to discuss money with an ex

5. Allow both of you to lose: "Since we can't agree on who gets the clock, maybe we should sell it."

Why it works: Things that are impossible to split should be sold, says Hall. This way, both siblings feel the same sacrifice. As Hall says, "Better to lose a family heirloom than to lose your relationship with a brother or sister."

First Published: December 27, 2013: 4:08 PM ET

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