Fed Defends Asset-Buying Plan In Germany on Friday the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a speech defending the Fed's decision to purchase $600 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds in an effort to drive down long-term interest rates.  The action is intended to spur economic growth in the U.S. and help reduce unemployment in the United States.  According to the Wall Street Journal, critics in the U.S say this action could cause inflation. Critics abroad say the flood of dollars that the Fed is effectively printing to finance its bond purchases is pouring into overseas markets and could cause asset bubbles.  Some in the U.S. hope the action could weaken the dollar to spur U.S. exports. Source: WSJ

LinkedIn Adding New User Every Second LinkedIn now has 85 million users.  At the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said that the service was adding users at the fastest rate ever.  It took the site 477 days to hit one million members but just 9 days for the most recent one million members to join.  Nearly half of all new accounts are created by overseas users.  Brazil and China are the fastest growing regions.  LinkedIn is a prime hunting ground for firms recruiting new talent or employees looking for new jobs. Sources: Yahoo! Finance