Big news from Starbucks. It seems like franchising too rapidly has been a pitfall for lots of major chains (i.e. Cold Stone & Boston Market).

Quoted: Starbucks Corp. said Tuesday that it had drastically increased the number of stores it plans to close and could eliminate as many as 12,000 full- and part-time positions as a result.

Sad, but true. I think this is a political issue too!

Quoted: Forget about two-week vacations. Many working people will be lucky to have a day-cation. While cyclical factors like gas prices and the slumping job market have something to do with this, the real culprits are longstanding trends that have altered the structure of our economy. As a result, more Americans view something that used to be an entitlement—paid time off—as an unaffordable or unavailable luxury.

This article is right - the loss of classifieds is what's sunk newspapers, and the Craigslist model isn't easy to copy. But I'm uneasy with the idea of a corporate "savior" like Wal-Mart when we're supposed to have a free press.

Quoted: Wal-Mart doesn't know it yet, but it may be the savior that local newspapers have been praying for. The big-box retailer launched a new service last month and dubbed it Wal-Mart Classifieds.

Fascinating!

Quoted: There are two dominant modes when it comes to the study of cross-cultural procrastination. The first takes the form of the international managerial missive—an ancient narrative that delineates the work and business practices of people from one culture, so that a person from another culture can do business with them. The second mode seeks to quantify, in scholarly terms (i.e., with percentages), just who in the world procrastinates and for how long.

I see where the writer is going, but it's not an easy call. This doesn't really work for CDs/books that never have the promise of selling big in the first place...

Quoted: What should record labels, software giants, & other media companies do about digital piracy? There are two options: Get tough and defend intellectual-property rights with every legal & technological trick in the book, or tolerate some illegal copying in the hope of generating buzz & making money in some other way.

Thought-provoking piece from economic writer Dan Gross about the rise of American incompetence in business.

Quoted: The dollar plunged to new lows against foreign currencies this week. There are plenty of reasons for its plunge, but at the most basic level, the dollar's weakness reflects the world's collective, two-thumbs-down verdict about the ability of the United States—businesses, individuals, the government, the Federal Reserve—to manage the global financial system and the world's largest economy.

Eliot Spitzer should've paid attention when they were teaching Greek mythology in school - he might want to look up the terms tragic flaw, Achilles heel, and irony.

Quoted: Spitzer, who rose to prominence as a scourge of Wall Street, uprooting corrupt practices, coming down hard on bad actors, and establishing a new moral order, was laid low by reports that he had been involved in a prostitution ring.

Well, that'll create quite the federal deficit if the plaintiff wins...

Quoted: Hurricane Katrina's victims have put a price tag on their suffering and it is staggering — including one plaintiff seeking the unlikely sum of $3 quadrillion.