finance

The average CEO of an S&P 500 company brings home almost $13 million -- but some earn much more. The AP's list of the 10 highest-paid CEOs highlights where the biggest paychecks went -- and what America's companies got in return.

Business Insider tapped two of their favorite credit experts, Bethy Hardeman of CreditKarma.com and John Ulzheimer of SmartCredit.com, to weigh in on the pros and cons of carrying plastic.

Shares of music streaming leader Pandora Media soared 12% on Thursday after it released its quarterly results. Yes, it posted a loss. And, yes it also posted a slight dip from last quarter. However, it's all about expectations, and Pandora beat those handily.

Last week, Warren Buffett moved to save Media General, paying $142 million to buy 63 of its struggling newspapers. The move helps backstop the newspaper industry, giving it breathing room to figure out a way to survive in the Internet age.

In a move to give itself more of a voice in an online conversation in which it largely gets lambasted, investment banking giant Goldman Sachs joined Twitter Thursday.

How much would you pay for a cup of Starbucks coffee? Starbucks hopes it's a lot, because it has been hiking prices on its brewed beverages. Meanwhile, everybody else in the coffee biz seems to be doing the exact opposite.

Profits at big U.S. companies broke records last year, and so did pay for CEOs. The head of a typical public company made $9.6 million in 2011, according to an analysis by the AP using data from Equilar, an executive pay research firm.

In many cases, bad customer service isn't caused by negligent or incompetent employees. The fault lies with their bosses, and the policies they put in place that undermine the employee-customer relationship.

Just how much do people hate Goldman Sachs? Here's a hint: The investment banker announced Thursday that it intends to invest $40 billion in developing clean, renewable energy projects. Critics immediately accused Goldman of cynical media manipulation.

At Goldman Sachs annual shareholders' meeting on Thursday, CEO Lloyd Blankfein mixed it up a bit with a shareholder representative of the Almighty. And it wasn't the first time he's had a little trouble from the brides of Christ.