Beer is a $250 billion industry in the U.S., but in certain states it's a foamy pillar of the economy.

Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group The Beer Institute explained last month that beer pumped $246.6 billion into the U.S. economy last year through 2,800 breweries, 3,700 distributors and 576,000 bars and stores.

That put $49.1 billion in tax dollars into the nation's accounts and gave the U.S. 1.1 million jobs paying out $31.8 billion in wages and benefits each year, though that figure generously lumps in convenience store, restaurant and stadium workers with brewery and distributor employees.

That's what it takes to slake a national thirst for beer that sucked up 6.4 billion gallons of the stuff in 2011 -- about the same amount of milk consumed in the U.S. that year.

 

For most people, maple syrup evokes thoughts of freshly cooked pancakes and plates laden with waffles. But for a few others, the delicious sap conjures up plans for larceny. 

A crime wave is striking New England maple producers, with thefts of pricey equipment and even sap illegally siphoned from sugar maples.

Driving the rise in maple syrup crime is a jump in syrup prices, making it a new liquid gold. With prices near $40 a gallon, that's more than eight times what maple syrup fetched in 1960, according to data provided by the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association. That makes it pricier than crude oil (which costs about $2.25 per gallon).

On top of that, 2013 is turning out to be a great year for maple sugar producers, with more typical late winter conditions of cold nights and warm days boosting sap flow. 

 

OK, America, here's a quick hypothetical for you: Would you rather have a tennis court filled with gold or a pile of gold the size of a high-rise apartment building?

Depending on the source, one of those options is the actual visual representation of the amount of mined gold that exists on the planet. The other is a steaming pile of fiction fabricated by feeble-minded twits who need to be reminded to breathe.

It's kind of tough to determine who's correct, as folks who have massive stores of gold and aren't publicly accountable nation states usually don't like to advertise. However, as reported by The BBC, the Thompson Reuters (TRI) GFMS just released its annual gold survey and estimated that roughly 171,300 metric tons of mined gold are on the planet, which would measure roughly 314,000 cubic feet.

 

The train wreck that was Ron Johnson's tenure at J.C. Penney (JCP) is over.

Johnson has stepped down from the top spot nearly 18 months after charging in with big plans to overhaul the retailer and its long-established business model.

His predecessor, Myron Ullman, is returning to lead the company. Investors initially applauded the move, sending shares up more than 12% in after-hours trading Monday. Later in the evening, shares fell back to an 8% loss.

Johnson's resignation brings to an end one of the more extraordinary business upheavals in recent memory. He made a name for himself leading the retail efforts of Apple (AAPL) and also held a top management position at Target (TGT). He was envisioned as a savior of sorts, and promised to return Penney to profit and make it a fashionable and exciting place to shop. 

Millions of fans will tune into CBS (CBS) Monday night to see teams from Louisville and the University of Michigan compete to become the next NCAA men's basketball champion. The decades-long tradition, however, may change next year if the Final Four championship moves to cable television.

Time Warner's (TWX) Turner Broadcasting cable networks, which broadcast the early rounds of March Madness, is discussing a deal with CBS in which it would broadcast the more popular later rounds and the national championship next year, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Talks are underway two years earlier than expected and would be a huge win for Time Warner, especially because the fees Turner charges to cable and satellite providers are expected to rise by double digits over the next three years. 

As the world remembers Margaret Thatcher, most of the tributes -- and criticisms -- reference her political achievements at home and abroad. But Baroness Thatcher, a grocer's daughter, also had a profound influence on U.S. economic policies as well.

Thatcher's government was extremely polarizing in the U.K. She became prime minister as Britain was struggling to recover from the end of its empire, its loss of global economic influence and its weak economy. And during her 11 years in power, her conservative government radically restructured the British economy, opening up and deregulating financial markets, privatizing public utilities and wresting power away from powerful trade unions.

She was also a skeptic when it came to a single-market approach for the European economy.

 

Fold up the uncomfortable polyester dress clothes. Put away the squeaky stuffed animal you were going to hold behind the camera. Take out the earplugs.

The Sears (SHLD) and Wal-Mart (WMT) portrait studios are dead.

Frozen images of forced gaiety no longer adorn store walls, and wails of childhood anguish have stopped reverberating across the sales floor, now that The Associated Press has reported that CPI Corp. (CPI), which once handled the stores' nearly 2,000 portrait studios, is no more.

 

There are 5 million "zero-TV" households in the U.S., more than double from 2 million in 2007. It's a small but growing trend that has the media establishment plenty worried.

These people, who make up fewer than 5% of U.S. households, haven't stopped watching television shows. They just do it on their own terms over laptops, tablets and cellphones.

As Nielsen notes, about 75% of these homes still have TVs, but people use them mostly to play video games and watch DVDs.

This creates a huge problem for the industry, one that will likely be a key topic at this week's National Association of Broadcasters' annual trade show. Content creators and broadcast networks make money from these viewers through arrangements with streaming sites such as Netflix (NFLX) and Hulu and through advertising on their websites and apps, according to The Associated Press. Television stations, however, get shut out.