Newsmakers

Oprah Winfrey’s tastemaking power is legendary. A spot on her book club list is the Holy Grail for authors, who are all but guaranteed a bestseller. Under her tutelage, the likes of Dr. Phil, Tyra Banks and Rachael Ray have shot to stardom. A few comments on her show can make or break a product. [...]

When President Barack Obama nominated Preetinder S. Bharara last week to become the new U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan, there was some cheap-shot snickering about a purported irony. Bharara, as Senator Charles Schumer’s chief counsel, had spearheaded the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation into former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s [...]

One of the few remaining mysteries from the fall of Bear Stearns is where’s Alan Schwartz? Schwartz, as you may remember, was the affable M&A banker who had the misfortune of becoming Bear Stearns CEO in January 2008, two months before the 85-year-old firm collapsed. Read the full story on CNNMoney

Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett defended the government’s handling of the economic crisis, but warned that the purchasing power of the dollar may fall as policymakers stretch to finance expensive rescue plans. Read the full story on CNNMoney

After spending nearly five decades building the Four Seasons Hotels out of a motor lodge he started in 1961, Four Seasons founder and CEO Isadore Sharp is telling his story. It’s captured in his new book, “Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy,” which hit bookstores this week. Read the full story on CNNMoney

Even when Billy Mays is relaxing, the bearded TV pitchman can’t keep from selling. “Hi, Billy Mays here for Kaboom!” he bellows, holding up an imaginary bottle of bathroom cleaner as a group of middle-aged women giggle on a sofa. Read the full story on CNNMoney

As head of the EPA under Bill Clinton, Carol Browner earned a reputation as someone unafraid of standing up to big business. The politically savvy Browner, 54, is now tasked with streamlining and coordinating President Obama’s environmental agenda in the newly created position of assistant to the President for energy and climate change. A protege [...]

Small-scale investors in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme — meaning claimants with a half-million dollars or less at stake — will eventually get all their money back, according to the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Read the full story on CNNMoney

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ securities division on Wednesday charged investment firm Fairfield Greenwich with fraudulently representing its dealings with convicted Ponzi mastermind Bernard Madoff. Read the full story on CNNMoney

It’s 7 a.m. when I park in front of Jim Collins’ house in Boulder, Colo. He’s already out front, slim and wiry, his 50 years given away by nearly-white hair. Collins looks up from sorting piles of hooks, harnesses, ropes and cantilevered clasps. “Want to see where we’re going?” he says. Collins is energized, caffeinated, [...]